Research Agenda

Stanford’s SCALE Initiative gives education leaders the evidence they need to make decisions about AI in K-12 education. We build that evidence through four complementary forms of research:

Impact

What effects is AI having on students, educators, and schools? From learning outcomes to mental health and equity, we study where these tools help, where they fall short, and where they may cause harm. Our goal is to provide evidence that helps leaders weigh potential benefits against risks.

Landscape

Who is using AI in schools, and how are they implementing it? Our research maps how AI tools are being adopted, documenting promising uses as well as gaps in access and implementation. This work offers a clearer view of a field that is still changing quickly.

Enabling Conditions

What conditions, if any, help AI work well in schools? We investigate the policies and district-level conditions that may support or hinder effective adoption. Our findings aim to offer practical guidance for leaders deciding whether and how to adopt generative AI responsibly.

Evolution

AI may unlock possibilities in schools that were previously unimaginable. How can we leverage what we already know from education research to harness these new tools? By exploring what’s now achievable, we aim to expand the boundaries of learning, engagement, and equity.

Looking ahead, our research agenda aims to set a direction for the field. It rests on four guiding principles: improvement means building a broad range of students’ capacities; data, measurement, and evaluation are essential infrastructure; progress involves scaling what works and inventing what’s next; and what works should reach students least well served first. We then apply these principles to three research bets, which are claims to be tested rather than assumptions to be defended. The research bets ask whether AI can help create learning experiences that strengthen the full range of student capacities, enable fundamentally different educator roles, and support new models of schooling that expand educational opportunity.

Read the full agenda for the complete picture, or start with the summary for a quick overview.

Full Agenda The Summary