America is in a literacy crisis. Is AI the solution or part of the problem?

Reading levels have fallen to historic lows during the pandemic. Today, parents, teachers and tech companies hope that AI can help solve America’s literacy crisis.

America’s literacy challenge has been growing for years, with reading scores declining even before the pandemic pushed them to their lowest levels in decades. Educators said potential factors include children’s increased screen time, shortened attention spans and a decrease in reading longer scripts.

Mississippi, Louisiana and other states have attempted to shake up reading programs and pass laws aimed at improving children’s literacy. But the rise of artificial intelligence offers a new opportunity to reinvent how students learn to read.

In the United States, parents, educators and community groups are trying AI-based tutors that listen while children read, correct errors in real time and tailor lessons to each student’s reading level – although questions remain about the risks of using AI and whether it can actually improve reading and literacy skills.

Denver Public Schools were established securities in recent years for adopting AI products, both as educational tools and as supports for teachers. The system of about 200 schools began working with Amira Learning, a company that specializes in AI reading tutors, in January.

Thousands of elementary students are currently reading with the platform, according to Jennifer Begley, the district’s social studies director.

When a child reads aloud, the AI ​​tool listens and “micro-intervenes” when they struggle with a word, Begley said. For example, the program may prompt the student to move their fingers across the mouse pad while saying the word.

The AI ​​program can also teach students in English and Spanish — a major selling point in Denver, where about a third of students speak Spanish at home, according to district data. In the United States, about 4 million students have access to Amira’s software, according to CEO Mark Angel.

Begley, who was initially skeptical about using AI in classrooms, said artificial intelligence has been a success for the district.

“Students are just reading with the AI, and they think it’s fun because they’re getting feedback… it allows for very individualized differentiation that a teacher can’t do, like at this scale,” Begley told CNN.

Artificial intelligence could show promise in literacy efforts, but researchers say technology alone cannot improve reading levels.

Ying Xu, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who has studied AI reading assistants, found that “when children read with an AI chatbot that asks them questions and then provides feedback, children actually experience a similar level of benefit” to reading with an adult.

But she said her research did not demonstrate that AI could replace parents and teachers. Rather, technology should be explained to children as a complement to what they learn at home and in the classroom.

“There is no substitute for a teacher or an adult reading with a child.. That lap time is critical whether they’re one year old or seven years old,” said Andra Jones, a former school principal and executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Permian Basin in Texas. She said her community has long struggled with low literacy levels, a problem she says is intergenerational.

This spring, its Boys & Girls Club partnered with Edsoma, an AI-powered education company. The software determines students’ reading levels and then allows them to choose books based on the assessment. The AI-powered tool also provides real-time feedback on pronunciation and fluency when children read aloud.

Jones, whose daughter is in kindergarten, said she sees how uneven children’s skills are when they enter school. “Some already know how to write their name in cursive,” while others don’t know what letter their name begins with, she explains. The AI ​​tool is a way to meet the needs of children whose families don’t have time to read with them regularly or whose first language is not English, Jones said.

Screen time, data privacy and other concerns

Even as AI tools change the way children learn to read, education experts warn that schools and tech companies need to align reading programs with new technologies.

Susan Neuman, professor of childhood education and literacy at NYU and former federal assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, works with New York City public school students on reading practices. She said she’s had success using ChatGPT to tailor a text to a student’s reading level, then slowly adding longer words and more complex sentences — a technique teachers call “scaffolding.”

With AI, she can do such a lesson in five minutes.

But AI-based courses need to align with what’s happening in the classroom, she said, otherwise “students will now have two curricula instead of one, and are negotiating two different types of skills and strategies instead of just one.”

Parents may also be concerned increase screen time or share their children’s data. New York Public Schools moved away of a contract with an AI-based reading program last year after the comptroller’s office raised the privacy issue concerns. Denver school district officials told CNN they have strict requirements for how student data is used.

And some AI leaders worry that offering the technology to young students could have unintended consequences.

“It seems more likely that in 10 years, all poor kids will have all AI — they will have AI teachers, AI mentors, AI gamified learning apps,” Alex Kotran, co-founder and CEO of AiEdu, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing AI knowledge among students and educators, told CNN. “And I think the rich kids are going to be in teacher-centered classrooms, reading the classics, writing with pen and paper…That worries me a lot.”

It will take time to determine how much to rely on AI-based literacy tools. Jordan Caldwell, an elementary school principal in Pennsylvania, said his staff is in the early stages of integrating AI into their operations, but stressed that books and libraries remain fundamental to students.

“We don’t want to overload them with technology throughout the day and then let them go home and use more technology,” Caldwell said. “It’s quite a balancing act.”