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Utah has emerged as a national leader in figuring out AI in K-12 education
U.S. schools are grappling with how to handle artificial intelligence. Across the country, individual school districts have often taken the lead, with a patchwork of approaches throughout a single state. That’s according to Chris Agnew, director of the Generative AI for Education Hub at Stanford University.
But to Agnew, Utah has been an exception. And in a good way.
“One of the most coherent statewide level strategies and approaches is Utah,” he said.
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You've Paid for Tutoring. Here's How to Make Sure It Works
Upon deeper review, however, these findings leave room for optimism. First, researchers found that lower-cost virtual tutoring models — approximately $1,200/student — were just as impactful as in-person models at $2,000/student, suggesting that tutoring can be less expensive without sacrificing impact.
Second, these findings highlight what's possible when students receivetutoring that comes closer to the definition of "high-impact." For example, the effect of tutoring was largest — about 3.5 months of learning — in a New Mexico district where students received more than 2,000 minutes of tutoring per year. Across all districts in the study, this amount most closely aligned with the recommendations for implementing a high-impact model.
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Introducing study mode: A new way to learn in ChatGPT that offers step by step guidance instead of quick answers
| OpenAI
This is a first step in a longer journey to improve learning in ChatGPT. Today, study mode is powered by custom system instructions. We chose this approach because it lets us quickly learn from real student feedback and improve the experience—even if it results in some inconsistent behavior and mistakes across conversations. We plan on training this behavior directly into our main models once we’ve learned what works best through iteration and student feedback.
We’re also exploring functionality to make study mode more engaging and helpful for students including:
- Clearer visualizations for complex or text-heavy concepts
- Goal setting and progress tracking across conversations
- Deeper personalization tailored to each student’s skill level and goals
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Stanford initiative releases new paper that explores how AI can support learners with disabilities
| Stanford Accelerator for Learning
A new white paper from the Stanford Accelerator for Learning highlights how artificial intelligence (AI) can be a powerful tool to support students with learning differences — but only if it is developed with their needs and voices at the center.
The report, “AI + Learning Differences: Designing a Future with No Boundaries,” is the result of a two-day Working Symposium and Hackathon hosted by the Accelerator that brought together more than 100 students, educators, researchers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, education industry leaders, and philanthropists. Participants, including many individuals with learning differences, spent the first day of the event engaging in collaborative dialogue on AI and learning differences and the second day designing and testing innovative new tools.
The conversations and hacking sessions at the symposium were grounded in the disability rights principle, “nothing about us without us,” emphasizing the importance of including people with lived experience in the design of emerging technologies. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into education and everyday life, participants reflected on the assumptions being built into AI systems and who is being prioritized—or overlooked—in their development.
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Attend and achieve: Can high-impact tutoring boost student attendance?
Five years after the onset of the pandemic, schools continue to combat pandemic-era learning loss and chronic absenteeism. One evidence-based method to expedite learning recovery is high-impact tutoring. While much has been said about the positive impact of tutoring on student achievement levels, little has been conveyed about its impact on student absenteeism. A June 2025 study helps to fill this void.
A Stanford research team used student-level attendance data collected in Washington, D.C. during the 2022–23 school year. That year saw the implementation of the High-Impact Tutoring (HIT) Initiative, which funded tutoring providers across D.C. Public Schools (DCPS). The initiative aimed to expand access to high-impact English and math tutoring for K–12 at-risk students in DC schools, prioritizing those with the greatest academic needs (i.e., students who scored in the bottom two levels of math and ELA standardized assessments in the previous year). The team compared student absences on days with and without scheduled tutoring, controlling for student demographics and variations in the time and day the tutoring took place. Student and date fixed effects are included in the models to control for unobserved student characteristics and day-specific factors that may influence attendance on a scheduled tutoring day. Overall, the findings provide strong evidence that scheduled high-impact tutoring sessions help improve student attendance.
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Unlocking Apprenticeship Opportunities for Tutors
| Partnership for Student Success
Provide Feedback Through July 23rd! Draft National Guideline Standards for Tutor Apprenticeship Programs
As tutoring programs grow, evolve, and seek to diversify their funding sources, there is a promising opportunity to align with state workforce systems and apprenticeship pathways, expanding the support and recognition available for this work.
To help realize this potential, the Partnership for Student Success, the New Jersey Tutoring Corps, the National Student Support Accelerator and the Pathways Alliance drafted a set of National Guideline Standards (NGS) for registered tutor apprenticeship programs. The draft standards are now available for public comment through July 23rd.
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How Stanford is advancing responsible AI
New program empowers educational decision-makers to dream big
The SCALE Initiative is using research-driven insights to address key educational challenges, with generative AI and tutoring among the priorities. “What I’m really excited about, and I think is essential for us doing our work well, is balancing being that trusted source for education leaders on what we know works, while also holding an aspirational vision for what this technology can unlock.”
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High school redesign, dropping enrollment’s silver lining plus more budget miscellany
| EdSource
More districts are also indicating interest in high-impact tutoring, with additional research showing its effectiveness. Along with providing districts with a free, step-by-step guide and counseling for setting up a program, Stanford University-based National Student Support Accelerator is cosponsoring an effort for 40 California districts to design their own tutoring programs over the next year (go here for information on signing up).
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How a Tutor’s Gender Affects Girls’ Interest in STEM
Tutoring has become a popular intervention for schools grappling with stagnant academic achievement.
A large body of evidence demonstrates that high-impact, high-dosage tutoring can effectively move the needle on student academic outcomes.
Now, a new study from Stanford University is adding to that body of research, finding that pairing girls with female math tutors increases the students’ STEM interest and improves their academic performance in math.
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