U.S. schools are grappling with how to handle artificial intelligence. Across the country, individual school districts have often taken the lead, with a patchwork of approaches throughout a single state. That’s according to Chris Agnew, director of the Generative AI for Education Hub at Stanford University.
But to Agnew, Utah has been an exception. And in a good way.
“One of the most coherent statewide level strategies and approaches is Utah,” he said.
The Beehive State was the first to create a position overseeing AI in K-12 education statewide. Over a year ago, the Utah State Board of Education hired Matthew Winters as its full-time artificial intelligence specialist.
That kind of statewide coordination means Utah can collect stronger data about how AI is used in schools, Agnew said, and get a clearer picture of what is and isn’t working.
In an interview with KUER, Winters outlined what the state is doing. He said the technology is not going away, so educators need to figure out what using it appropriately looks like. He’s working with policymakers, as well as individual school districts that want guidance on their AI framework.
“We want to get ahead of everything that's going to come down the pipeline, because there's a lot of things coming with AI that is driven by industry, and we've got to not be reactionary, but prepared,” Winters said.
Winters said Utah was well-positioned to take a proactive approach to AI thanks to existing infrastructure like the Utah Education Network, which provides high-speed, filtered internet to schools across the state. He also pointed to state funding for innovative classroom technology and a strong, collaborative network of school tech directors who meet regularly to share ideas. Winters is also collaborating with researchers across the state to stay on top of changes to the technology.
A unique aspect to Utah’s approach, Winters said, is how the Utah Education Network has vetted and approved free AI educational tools, as well as paid tools that schools can then buy at a discounted price. The vetting process includes privacy and security reviews, reducing the burden on individual schools.
“There's so many things to think about in education, and I think that's one of the biggest difficult pressure points, is attention is limited,” Winters said.
The state also trains teachers about AI, its role in education, how it can be used, and things to be aware of, like safety. Winters hopes to get about 20% of educators through that training by the end of the summer. The focus, he said, isn’t on individual programs, but on broader concepts that can be applied to various tools.
An optional training ends with teachers submitting lesson plans that incorporate AI. Teachers are paid to participate in the additional training through a state grant.
From talking with Utah educators, Winters said many see that AI is important for them to understand and have used it to speed up their work, like writing emails.
“But they're having a hard time seeing how to use it creatively in their classroom and using it to meet the needs of their content area and their students.”
As a new school year approaches, Winters is thinking about how AI fits into different subjects and grade levels. Rather than developing a separate AI standard, he’s looking at how it can be embedded in existing content standards, like what appropriate use might look like in a ninth-grade English class.
Winters said he’s already seen Utah teachers use AI to support students with disabilities or those learning English, customizing instruction in new ways. He said teachers can also use these kinds of tools to help them better understand data about their students.
As AI evolves, Winters has been thinking more about agentive AI, where a system can be set up to autonomously make decisions. It’s an area he worries about. One of the big rallying cries at the state board, he said, is making sure that a human is always in the central decision-making position when it comes to AI in K-12, not just in the loop.
While the state is providing lots of guidance on how AI should look in education, it's up to schools and districts to ultimately decide how they’ll handle it.
Agnew, the Stanford researcher, said there are a lot of different ways that schools across the country are approaching the issue, “but a school taking no action on this is not an option.”
It’s highly likely that students are already using these tools. At a minimum, Agnew said schools need to prioritize AI literacy and consider how it might reshape the way educators assess learning.
Disclosure: The Utah Education Network and KUER are both housed at the Eccles Broadcasting Center at the University of Utah. While the organizations have some shared history, they are separately managed, and KUER operates as an editorially independent news organization.
