At Tigard High School and beyond, Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacts not just student output, but staff workflows as well. As AI becomes increasingly prevalent in education, students and staff are actively defining its place in classrooms.

   Some teachers at Tigard High have found highly practical applications for projects which are time consuming. 

    “Giving Gemini the rubric and having it grade based on that rubric provides an unbiased grading process,” Thor Kuhn, IT teacher, said.

   Similarly, other teachers use AI to tailor their lesson plans to their student’s skills. 

   “I do use AI more this year than ever for generating activities that will better match the profile and skills of my students,” Diaz Lugwig Montenegro, Spanish teacher, said.

   Beyond administrative and classroom management tasks, educators are increasingly utilizing AI for direct instructional support for those who are English Language Learners (ELL). 

   “I also use AI to help create sentence starters for students learning English as their second or third language, or to help with English language learners,” Eljean Madio, English teacher, said. 

   Kristi Latimer, instructional coach, adds onto this by explaining how teachers “can create structures for students who are at a language level one, and a language level two, and a language level three.”

   AI provides a way for teachers to create resources that connect better with students’ needs.   

   Through the ethical use of AI, teachers can improve testing by getting students better involved with curriculum. 

   However, the rise of AI has caused teachers to be on their heels in order to ensure that students aren’t heavily relying on AI to do their work for them. Which in turn causes teachers to monitor screens more often. 

   “I [will] also lock their screen so that they cannot go to a different window or tab,” Diaz Montenegro said.

   This is caused by students using AI to complete or develop their work removing any of their thinking. 

   “You learn how to think critically by writing critically… because writing is really hard,

and it requires a lot of thinking and time and drafting, and that takes a while. If someone puts that prompt into AI and just generates an essay they haven’t done any of the thinking,” Kristi Latimer, instructional coach, said.  

   Without critical thinking, students struggle beyond testing, basic analysis, as well as forming information-based opinions. 

   Despite these instructional benefits, the rapid integration of AI also raises broader concerns regarding academic proficiency. Currently, overall student proficiency rates remain a challenge. The highest proficiency rate sits at just 40%, according to the U.S. News.

    Looking toward the future, these already substantial educational gaps could widen depending on how AI is distributed. 

   “AI is the next ‘Digital Divide’; the next generation of students leaving high school will be formed of the haves and have-nots of access to AI,” said Kuhn.