“All students can learn more, success breeds success, and educators control the conditions of success,” says Al Rabanera, a math teacher at La Vista High School in Fullerton, California. “I use AI as a tool to help my students get small wins, to build up their self-confidence and self-efficacy, for lesson development, and also as a way to help students cultivate their identity as learners in the classroom.”
During a panel at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, Rabanera joined Emily Kaye, an assistant principal at KIPP Bayview in California, to explore what it means to teach in an AI-driven world.
According to new research from the Walton Family Foundation and Gallup, six in 10 K-12 teachers are experimenting with AI tools like ChatGPT. In doing so, they’re discovering ways to save as much as six weeks a year—time that can be reinvested in student–teacher relationships, teacher collaboration, and self-care.
About 30% of teachers use AI at least weekly. Those who use AI tools more often save more time. Most teachers who use AI tools see an improvement in the quality of their work, helping them modify student materials, gain insights about student learning, and provide stronger student feedback.
“The way that we're using AI needs to respond to what our students need,” says Emily. “We need to measure what matters and make sure we're measuring that this is changing students' lives.”
This is especially true for early-career teachers. A majority (69%) of teachers with five years or less of teaching experience use AI tools such as adaptive learning systems to help with lesson preparation and to create learning materials and assessments.
“Unfortunately, it takes a long time to feel like you're good at teaching,” says Emily. “I've actually seen AI be really useful for teachers during that [early career] phase to get through the learning curve.”
When teachers have clear guidance and support, the impact of AI can be even more powerful. Educators with an AI policy are more likely to use AI to help them build capacity in their classrooms.
We have to think about AI in two different ways: Learning about AI. And then learning with AI.
In spring 2025, KIPP Bayview piloted an AI program that adapts each lesson’s difficulty level to the student. The results? Students in the pilot had double the proficiency gains compared with their peers in the region; and students with special needs had 11% higher proficiency gains.
AI has the potential to positively disrupt the classroom, improve teacher workloads and strengthen student–teacher relationships—provided teachers are given support to implement these tools effectively. By exploring ways to integrate AI into the classroom, educators can better prepare students for the future. And they can reclaim time to focus on what matters most: building meaningful connections with students through more personalized learning.
“We have to think about AI in two different ways: learning about AI. And then learning with AI,” says Rabanera.
