Derek Cantrell spent one day in a computer science class in college before he realized it wasn’t for him and transferred to another class. Decades later, as the principal of Allegheny High School in Convington, Va., he found himself in a workshop learning how artificial intelligence could help him create custom tools for his school.
The workshop unlocked something creative in Cantrell. He learned how to build apps and websites by giving AI the right prompts that now streamline tasks like tracking teacher observations, planning professional development, and monitoring students’ progress with graduation requirements.
Since OpenAI first made ChatGPT, its large language model bot, available for public use in November 2022, principals have taken a keen interest in the technology. Initial uses involved drafting emails to angry parents or putting finishing touches on a weekly newsletter. But as the technology evolved and more customer-friendly AI tools hit the market, school leaders have put AI to more strategic use.
Cantrell recently brainstormed with Google’s AI suite on how to reduce absenteeism in his school. He came up with a system to track unexcused absences, tardies, and disciplinary referrals for students. Cantrell uses this system to warn students when they’re about to go over the limit for absences or tardies.
But the new system isn’t just a warning mechanism, Cantrell added. It also provides students the opportunity to “earn back” their good standing by serving a certain number of lunch detentions or completing other tasks.
Students who remain above the threshold for absences or tardies, or those working toward improving their track record, are rewarded with points they can redeem for coffee and other treats at the school’s cafeteria.
The new system puts a more positive spin on efforts to reduce absenteeism, Cantrell said.
“The sky’s the limit if you’re willing to sit back, create, process, and try to make things that can help your staff, your students, and your school,” he said.
But Cantrell also heeds caution: Principals tinkering with AI should be careful about how they’re using it.
“You don’t want to put student data into things that go out into the public domain,” he said. “It’s about how you create things that can keep students’ data localized and safe.”
Principals say AI can help both teachers and students
Principals have devised ways to make tasks easier for teachers, too. Sterling Seeman, the principal of Springer Middle School in Wilmington, Del., created a set of AI prompts that helped his teachers draft their yearly goals, inspired by a pilot program run by the Delaware education department to help teachers write student achievement goals.
“You spend so much time with the teachers, which is limited, on just working on how the goal is written, not how we’re going to achieve the goal,” said Seeman.
The prompts are designed to generate goals that include clear objectives and ways to measure success. Teachers use it as a starting point to draft their goals, an otherwise time-consuming and technical process.
Principals are also using AI to get to know their students better. Rachel Jensen, the principal of Idaho Home Learning Academy, an online public K-12 school, has been using automated tools that create tracking sheets for each student. The AI program pulls student information—history of individual student needs or accommodations, for instance—into an easily readable tracker for teachers overseeing more than 90 students across a grade.
“In a brick-and-mortar school, there is potential for communication every day because the kids are sitting in the same room as the teacher,” said Jensen. “In an asynchronous online setting, you can’t [track the communication] unless you’re writing it down that I made a phone call or that I had the student join my office hour.”
Teachers are less burdened with the clerical work of updating basic student information and can concentrate instead on building relationships with students, Jensen added.
Why principals use AI with caution
AI can streamline tasks, brainstorm ideas, and analyze huge data sets to highlight trends. But principals are wary of having it become a crutch.
Seeman said he doesn’t rely on AI to write emails or newsletters because they lose their personal touch when Claude or ChatGPT drafts them. He also encourages his teachers to use AI judiciously when crafting lesson plans or assessments because the output may have errors or be of low quality.
Striking this balance with students is harder. Principals want students to learn how to navigate AI for future job opportunities but don’t want overreliance on the tool to dull their critical-thinking skills.
Cantrell, the principal from Virginia, has tried to establish this boundary with his students—he’s created guidelines for how high school students can use AI for English class. Getting AI to summarize a text like Romeo and Juliet, creating an outline for a paper, or editing an essay are all fair-use cases, but students always need to check the output for hallucinations or errors.
For Cantrell, AI’s biggest contribution so far has been freeing up time.
“AI is a good brainstorming partner in creatively solving problems. My philosophy is, people over paperwork,” he said. “This gives me more time to be present in the hallways and in the classrooms with kids.”
Olina Banerji is a reporter for Education Week who covers school leadership.