Dive Brief:
- While a majority of superintendents understand the importance of artificial intelligence and its potential impact on K-12 education, only a small fraction of district leaders see AI as a “very urgent” need this year, according to a survey released this month by EAB, an education consulting firm.
- For superintendents, recruiting and hiring qualified teachers is the most pressing issue to tackle in their districts this school year, according to the EAB survey. In fact, 52% of superintendents said teacher staffing is “very urgent,” and 40% said it was “mild or moderately urgent.”
- While superintendents continue to face myriad challenges — ranging from chronic absenteeism to student discipline — 63% said they plan to stay in their roles beyond the next two years. That's a 9% jump from the prior year's survey, EAB said.
Dive Insight:
About 36% of superintendents agree or strongly agree that they feel well-prepared for leading their district’s strategy to address AI and its implications for schools, according to EAB’s survey of 148 district leaders from 39 states.
Despite AI’s growing influence in the classroom, superintendents are struggling to keep an eye on the technology as they face other mounting challenges. Mental health concerns, for instance, are persisting: EAB found 76% of district leaders reported an uptick in the number of students needing mental healthcare within the past 12 months.
“EAB’s report confirms that teacher shortages, behavioral disruptions, worsening student mental health, and other familiar challenges are so pervasive that exploring how new technologies such as AI can help doesn’t even make the ‘to-do’ list,” said Ben Court, EAB’s senior director of K-12 research, in a statement.
Even so, the EAB report stresses in its recommendations that superintendents don’t “sleep on AI.” While there is still no comprehensive AI guidance for schools nationwide, EAB suggests superintendents develop a districtwide AI task force. The two primary goals of that group should be to define how AI can improve efficiency across the district and explore how AI could help move the district’s strategic goals forward.
Though a small and growing number of states are releasing guidance for schools on AI use, those resources vary state by state. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, state legislators are advancing a bill that would require school districts to develop their own AI use policies without any additional resources from the state, nor is there currently any available guidance from Tennessee education department officials.
EAB added that AI “tools already offer game-changing opportunities to free up your most needed assets: people and time.”
The report also shows that staffing remains a persistent issue, especially as employee absenteeism appears to be on the rise. Additionally, nearly 52% of superintendents report an increase in instructional staff vacancies, and 66% report a rise in non-instructional staff vacancies between fall 2022 and fall 2023.
Various approaches are being explored at the district level to take on staffing challenges in K-12 schools.
For example, some larger districts are dedicating a position dedicated solely to staffing school nutrition employees, and others are providing sign-on and referral bonuses to fill similar vacancies. More generally, districts are increasingly exploring grow-your-own programs to recruit teachers, though researchers advise establishing a more comprehensive definition and tactic for going about such approaches.
The EAB survey results were presented earlier this month at the National Conference on Education held by AASA, School Superintendent Association.
