Research Study Repository
A comprehensive collection of academic research on generative AI in preK12 education organized into three categories:
- Descriptive - Research that describes how generative AI is being used in classrooms, schools, or districts or how products are designed and built.
- Impact (includes RCT + Quasi-Experimental) - Studies that test how well something works including but not limited to randomly dividing people into groups and comparing the results.
- Review - Studies that combine and summarize all the research on a specific genAI topic to find patterns and answers.
We aim to include all research in the above categories on generative AI in preK12 education in the US. As research diverges from genAI for preK12 in the US - such as machine learning, education systems beyond preK12, or studies conducted outside the US - inclusion in the repository is based on relevance to our target audiences:
- Superintendents, state, and federal K12 leaders
- Education support organizations (unions, parent groups, etc.)
- Leadership and product teams at technology companies
- Academic researchers
- Global education leaders
The Research Repository includes pre-published works but does not include journalism on AI for education.
Research synthesis is AI-generated, human reviewed. Updated 05/2025.
Showing 1 - 30 of 580 results
Benchmarking The Pedagogical Knowledge Of Large Language Models
Maxime Lelièvre, Amy Waldock, Meng Liu, Natalia Valdes Aspillaga, Alasdair Mackintosh, María José Ogando Portelo, Jared Lee, Robin A. A. Ince, Oliver G. B. Garrod. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Analyzing, Teaching – Professional Learning
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Elementary (PK5), Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Differentiation, Reimagined Schooling
Study design: Descriptive – Product DevelopmentConfucius3-Math: A Lightweight High-Performance Reasoning Llm For Chinese K-12 Mathematics Learning
Lixin Wu, Na Cai, Qiao Cheng, Jiachen Wang, Yitao Duan. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Instructional Materials, Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? Elementary (PK5), Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12)
Why use AI? Efficiency, Outcomes – Numeracy, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and Use, Descriptive – Product DevelopmentCoachgpt: A Scaffolding-Based Academic Writing Assistant
Fumian Chen, Sotheara Veng, Joshua Wilson, Xiaoming Li, Hui Fang. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Literacy
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and Use, Descriptive – Product DevelopmentDeciphering Emotions In Children Storybooks: A Comparative Analysis Of Multimodal Llms In Educational Applications
Bushra Asseri, Estabraq Abdelaziz, Maha Al Mogren, Tayef Alhefdhi, Areej Al-Wabil. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Instructional Materials, Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Elementary (PK5)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Literacy, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Product DevelopmentLanguage Bottleneck Models: A Framework For Interpretable Knowledge Tracing And Beyond
Antonin Berthon, Mihaela van der Schaar. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Assessment and Feedback, Learning – Student Support, Analyzing
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Elementary (PK5), Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12), Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Literacy, Outcomes – Numeracy, Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Product Development, Impact – Quasi–experimentalA Large-Scale Real-World Evaluation Of An Llm-Based Virtual Teaching Assistant
Sunjun Kweon, Sooyohn Nam, Hyunseung Lim, Hwajung Hong, Edward Choi. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseExploring The Usage Of Generative Ai For Group Project-Based Offline Art Courses In Elementary Schools
Zhiqing Wang, Haoxiang Fan, Shiwei Wu, Qiaoyi Chen, Yongqi Liang, Zhenhui Peng. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support, Communicating / Social Tools
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? Elementary (PK5)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Durable Skills
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseDetecting LLM-Generated Short Answers And Effects On Learner Performance
Shambhavi Bhushan, Danielle R. Thomas, Conrad Borchers, Isha Raghuvanshi, Ralph Abboud, Erin Gatz, Shivang Gupta, Kenneth R. Koedinger. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Assessment and Feedback, Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? Post-Secondary, Adult
Why use AI? Efficiency, Outcomes – Durable Skills
Study design: Impact – Quasi–experimentalFrom Generation To Adaptation: Comparing AI-Assisted Strategies In High School Programming Education
Tong Hu, Songzan Wang. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? High School (9-12)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Other Academic
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseUnpacking Generative Ai In Education: Computational Modeling Of Teacher And Student Perspectives In Social Media Discourse
Paulina DeVito, Akhil Vallala, Sean Mcmahon, Yaroslav Hinda, Benjamin Thaw, Hanqi Zhuang, Hari Kalvad. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Instructional Materials, Learning – Student Support, Analyzing
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? High School (9-12), Post-Secondary, Adult
Why use AI? Efficiency, Outcomes – Literacy, Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and Use"How can we learn and use AI at the same time?": Participatory
Design of GenAI with High School StudentsIsabella Pu, Prerna Ravi, Linh Dieu Dinh, Chelsea Joe, Caitlin Ogoe, Zixuan Li, Cynthia Breazeal, Anastasia K. Ostrowski. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student
Which age? High School (9-12)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Durable Skills, Reimagined Schooling
Study design: Descriptive – Product DevelopmentPersonalizing Student-Agent Interactions Using Log-Contextualized Retrieval-Augmented Generation (Rag)
Clayton Cohn, Surya Rayala, Caitlin Snyder, Joyce Horn Fonteles, Shruti Jain, Naveeduddin Mohammed, Umesh Timalsina, Sarah K. Burriss, Ashwin T S, Namrata Srivastava, Menton Deweese, Angela Eeds, Gautam Biswas. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Assessment and Feedback, Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? High School (9-12)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Differentiation, Outcomes – Durable Skills
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseMagic: Multi-Agent Argumentation And Grammar Integrated Critiquer
Joaquin Jordan, Xavier Yin, Melissa Fabros, Gireeja Ranade, Narges Norouzi. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Assessment and Feedback
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? High School (9-12), Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Efficiency, Outcomes – Literacy, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Product Development, Impact – Quasi–experimentalStudents' Reliance On Ai In Higher Education: Identifying Contributing Factors
Griffin Pitts, Neha Rani, Weedguet Mildort, and Eva-Marie Cook. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Durable Skills
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseSense And Sensibility: What Makes A Social Robot Convincing To High-School Students?
Pablo Gonzalez-Oliveras, Olov Engwall, Ali Reza Majlesi. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? High School (9-12)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Durable Skills
Study design: Impact – Quasi–experimentalFeeling Machines: Ethics, Culture, And The Rise Of Emotional Ai
Vivek Chavan, Arsen Cenaj, Shuyuan Shen, Ariane Bar, Srishti Binwani, Tommaso Del Becaro, Marius Funk, Lynn Greschner, Roberto Hung, Stina Klein, Romina Kleiner, Stefanie Krause, Sylwia Olbrych, Vishvapalsinhji Parmar, Jaleh Sarafraz, Daria Soroko, Daksitha Withanage Don, Chang Zhou, Hoang Thuy Duong Vu, Parastoo Semnani, Daniel Weinhardt, Elisabeth Andre, Jörg Krüger, Xavier Fresquet. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user?
Which age?
Why use AI? Outcomes – Social Emotional
Study design: Descriptive – Product DevelopmentEnter: Graduated Realism: A Pedagogical Framework For Ai-Powered Avatars In Virtual Reality Teacher Training
Judson Leroy Dean Haynes IV. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Professional Learning
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Efficiency, Outcomes – Differentiation, Outcomes – Social Emotional, Outcomes – Durable Skills, Reimagined Schooling
Study design: Systematic ReviewRethinking Citation Of Ai Sources In Student-Ai Collaboration Within Hci Design Education
Prakash Shukla, Suchismita Naik, Ike Obi, Jessica Backus, Nancy Rasche, Paul Parsons. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Instructional Materials, Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Durable Skills
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseDesigning Effective Llm-Assisted Interfaces For Curriculum Development
Abdolali Faraji, Mohammadreza Tavakoli, Mohammad Moein, Mohammadreza Molavi, Gábor Kismihók. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Instructional Materials
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Efficiency
Study design: Descriptive – Product Development, Impact – Quasi–experimental"Check My Work?" Measuring Sycophancy In A Simulated Educational Context
Chuck Arvin. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student
Which age? High School (9-12), Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseRETUYT-INCO At Bea 2025 Shared Task: How Far Can Lightweight Models Go In Ai-Powered Tutor Evaluation?
Santiago Góngora, Ignacio Sastre, Santiago Robaina, Ignacio Remersaro, Luis Chiruzzo, Aiala Rosá. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Assessment and Feedback
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Other Academic
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseCombining Log Data And Collaborative Dialogue Features To Predict Project Quality In Middle School Ai Education
Conrad Borchers, Xiaoyi Tian, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Maya Israel. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Assessment and Feedback, Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? Middle School (6-8)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and Use, Impact – Quasi–experimentalUnderstanding Human-Ai Trust In Education
Griffin Pitts, Sanaz Motamedi. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Durable Skills
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and UseLlm-Driven Personalized Answer Generation And Evaluation
Mohammadreza Molavi, Mohammadreza Tavakoli, Mohammad Moein, Abdolali Faraji, Gábor Kismihók. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student, Educator
Which age? Post-Secondary, Adult
Why use AI? Efficiency, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Product DevelopmentOn The Development Of An Al Performance And Behavioural Measures For Teaching And Classroom Management
Andreea I.Niculescu, Jochen Ehnen, Chen Yi, Du Jiawei, Joey Tianyi Zhou, Vigneshwaran Subbaraju, Teh Kah Kuan, Tran Huy Dat, Gi Soong Chee, John Komar, Kenneth Kwok. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Assessment and Feedback, Teaching – Professional Learning, Analyzing
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Efficiency, Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and Use, Descriptive – Product DevelopmentSrlagent: Enhancing Self-Regulated Learning Skills Through Gamification And Llm Assistance
Wentao Ge, Yuqing Sun, Ziyan Wang, Haoyue Zheng, Weiyang He, PiaoHong Wang, Qianyu Zhu, Benyou Wang. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student
Which age? Post-Secondary
Why use AI? Outcomes – Differentiation, Outcomes – Durable Skills
Study design: Descriptive – Product Development, Impact – Quasi–experimentalCogent: A Curriculum-Oriented Framework For Generating Grade-Appropriate Educational Content
Zhengyuan Liu, Stella Xin Yin, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Nancy F. Chen. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Instructional Materials
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Elementary (PK5)
Why use AI? Efficiency, Outcomes – Literacy, Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and Use, Descriptive – Product DevelopmentAi Tutors Vs. Tenacious Myths: Evidence From Personalised Dialogue Interventions In Education
Brooklyn J. Corbett, Jason M. Tangen. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Student
Which age? Post-Secondary, Adult
Why use AI? Outcomes – Literacy, Outcomes – Other Academic, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Impact – Randomized Controlled TrialSimclass: A Classroom Speech Dataset Generated Via Game Engine Simulation For Automatic Speech Recognition Research
Ahmed Adel Attia, Jing Liu, Carol Espy-Wilson. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Teaching – Instructional Materials
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Elementary (PK5), Middle School (6-8)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Literacy, Outcomes – Other Academic
Study design: Descriptive – Product DevelopmentEducators' Perceptions Of Large Language Models As Tutors: Comparing Human And Ai Tutors In A Blind Text-Only Setting
Sankalan Pal Chowdhury, Terry Jingchen Zhang, Donya Rooein, Dirk Hovy, Tanja Käser, Mrinmaya Sachan. (06/2025). arXiv.
What is the application? Learning – Student Support
Who is the user? Educator
Which age? Elementary (PK5), Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12)
Why use AI? Outcomes – Numeracy, Outcomes – Differentiation
Study design: Descriptive – Implementation and Use
