How AI Can Help Educators—and High Schoolers—Tutor Students So They Learn to Read

Caitrin Wright, CEO of Silicon Schools Fund, and Aylon Samouha, CEO of Transcend Education, joined me and Diane to explore their evolving vision for high schools in the age of AI. Caitrin and Aylon both have interesting vantage points as leaders working directly on the ground with a range of schools reinventing learning—from startup schools to districts. Our discussion delved into the promise and challenges of “precision learning” models with an eye toward the importance of balancing technological advancement with student motivation, autonomy, and agency. Caitrin and Aylon also highlighted the risk of overly prescriptive systems and, helpfully in my view, reframed how AI can support—not replace—human relationships and adaptive school designs.

Summit Learning—Summit Public Schools’ online platform created to help deliver and manage its blend of “personalized learning,” project-based learning, and mentorship—attracted a lot of attention in the mid-2010s. And then it faded—fast.What lessons should the field learn from the last time an established and successful school network took a flashy new technology and aimed to use it to both redesign itself and then offer that technology to other schools to help them transform as well?

Summit Learning—Summit Public Schools’ online platform created to help deliver and manage its blend of “personalized learning,” project-based learning, and mentorship—attracted a lot of attention in the mid-2010s. And then it faded—fast.What lessons should the field learn from the last time an established and successful school network took a new flashy technology and aimed to use it to both redesign itself and then offer that technology to other schools to help them transform as well? https://archive.org/download/cd-summit-live-part-one-final/CD%20Summit%20Live%20part%20one%20FINAL.mp3 Episode transcript: TranscriptDownload

In this episode, we discussed how existing school models, despite efforts to innovate, remain constrained by the foundational structures, policies, funding mechanisms, and data systems rooted in the industrial era. Our conversation explored how a future core could focus more on individualized learning pathways, competency-based progress, unbundled educator roles, and funding tied directly to learners. Throughout, we also talk about the need to build this new core with models of schooling that truly prioritize each student’s unique trajectory, leverage advances in technology, and respond to growing public demand for meaningful change in education. We invite your feedback and improvements to this new idea. https://archive.org/download/cd-s-8-ep-2/CD%20S8%20Ep%202.mp3 Episode transcript: TranscriptDownload

In the season opener of Class Disrupted, Diane Tavenner and Michael Horn reflected on their journey cohosting the podcast and take stock of the evolving challenges and opportunities in education. They then set the stage for a deep dive into the urgent need for high school transformation.Buckle up for a season of reimagining what high school can become in a world of AI. https://archive.org/download/cd-s-8-ep-1/CD%20S8%20Ep%201.mp3 Episode transcript: Stamping the Moment in TimeDownload

In our season seven finale of Class Disrupted, Diane Tavenner and I reflected on the conversations about AI that we’ve had over the second half of this season—from those focused on new schooling models to new tools. This felt like a no holds barred conversation—candor and lots of back and forth as we talked about how much of the education sector is still operating under the traditional model, the challenges of creating learning experiences outside of that model, and the tensions between innovation and entrenched systems. We discussed issues like policy backlash against technology in schools, the value of outcome-based contracts, and whether microschools or low-cost private schools can actually drive large-scale change. https://archive.org/download/cd-finale-final/CD%20Finale%20FINAL.mp3 Episode transcript: Takeaways from a Season of AI in EducationDownload

In this live episode of Class Disrupted, recorded at the ASU + GSV Summit, Netflix founder Reed Hastings joined Michael and Diane again to discuss Reed’s decades-long journey through various chapters of education reform culminating in his vision for how AI will profoundly reshape learning and schooling. Reed reflected on the slow progress and setbacks of past education initiatives, explored the transformative potential of individualized AI-powered tutoring, shared his ambitious global efforts to expand educational access, and emphasized the urgency and promise of harnessing AI for accelerated, mastery-based learning and global impact. https://archive.org/download/gsv-reed-final/GSV%20Reed%20FINAL.mp3 Episode transcript: Reed Hastings transcriptDownload

MagicSchool has emerged as the breakout AI tool in education, with millions of teachers rapidly adopting it. But what’s behind that growth? How exactly does it use AI? And what does its adoption mean for teaching and learning? Its founder, Adeel Khan, joined us to go beyond the hype. https://archive.org/download/adeel-final/Adeel%20final.mp3 Episode transcript: TranscriptDownload

Dacia Toll, Co-CEO of Coursemojo and the co-founder of Achievement First, joined Michael and Diane on our latest episode of Class Disrupted to learn about how Coursemojo is using AI to support students and teachers in English Language Arts. Our conversation dove into how Coursemojo functions in real classrooms and the very human process Dacia and her team took to build the product itself. https://archive.org/download/cd-dacia-toll-final-1/CD%20Dacia%20Toll%20FINAL%20%281%29.mp3 Episode transcript: The AI Startup Aiming to Help All Students Find their ELA Mojo.docxDownload

We’re turning from schools powered by AI to different AI-powered tools now on Class Disrupted!Matt Pasternak, founder and CEO of Once, an AI-powered software solution for early reading instruction, joined us to share the journey of creating Once—including how he started from a low-tech beginning and evolved into a software-powered solution that equips school support staff to deliver effective one-on-one reading tutoring. Our conversation also talked about the importance of human connection in learning. https://archive.org/download/120677-how-ai-can-help-educators-v-5/120677_How%20AI%20can%20help%20educators_v5.mp3 Episode transcript: How AI Can Help Educators—and High Schoolers—Tutor Students So They Learn to ReadDownload