How K–12 Districts Are Boosting Student Literacy With Technology

In South Carolina, Anderson School District 5’s literary arsenal includes palm-sized Ozobots programmed to follow a reading assignment map route and Google Gemini’s Storybook function. 

“Some kids love to read, to try to sound out words,” says Anna Baldwin, the former executive director of eLearning and integration for the district. “Some students just don’t like that. We have to find different ways to connect, based on their literacy needs but also things they enjoy or that resonate with them.”

Schools are Employing AI To Expand Learning Opportunities

AI’s algorithmic abilities make it an attractive inclusion in reading technology, according to Yenda Prado, learning sciences research analyst and national leadership lead at global nonprofit Digital Promise’s U-GAIN Reading initiative, which examines generative AI use in elementary student literacy.

READ MORE: A Microsoft report highlights trends in AI adoption in K–12.

Some technology providers have focused on developing tools that customize reading content in real time, Prado says, matching students’ interests and reading levels to boost engagement and motivation.

“Master teachers have that ability to modify lessons to support the widest range of learners in the classroom,” she says. “The interest in AI stems from its ability to detect patterns; that can be used to support the evaluation of student reading errors, as well as strengths. The specific reading intervention can be tailored more precisely.”

Adaptable functionality, such as options to adjust narrator speed in text-to-speech tools, can facilitate inclusive learning, Baldwin says.

“In a classroom, you might have somebody that has an auditory or vision impairment,” she says. “The ability for students to have things read to them, then track it on the computer — there are so many tools available that are helpful. Making that material accessible to all of your students is so much easier now than it was 10 or even five years ago.”

Research, according to Prado, indicates that AI technology has the potential to support English language learners.

“For example, you might have a student with reading difficulties who is attempting to write an essay,” she says. “Using a speech-to-text tool removes the cognitive load of needing to type the essay out and go back manually, word by word, to make sure their spelling is correct, destructing the flow of their thoughts.”

Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Fla., uses Microsoft Teams’ Reading Progress capability to measure students’ fluency and track what they’ve read, according to Tracie Bergman, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

“You are looking at how ELL students are doing with newly introduced terminology,” Bergman says. “For some of the pronunciations, when the nuances are pretty close, are students able to differentiate between them?”

The tool uses an algorithm to listen to a recording of a student reading a passage and evaluates elements that a teacher would during a fluency check, such as a word mispronunciation or omission, says Christopher Holt, technology training supervisor.

“The teacher can see an analysis of words their class may be struggling with,” Holt says. “If they see a trend, they can use that data to impact what they’re doing in their instruction.”

Students enjoy having an opportunity to read out loud, Bergman says.

“They like it because they can play it back and try again,” she says. “Once they’re trained, it's an easy way for them to practice their reading.”

DISCOVER: Microsoft helps K–12 districts accelerate learning opportunities.

AI May Help Elevate Student Comprehension and Performance

While attributing any gains specifically to the use of Reading Progress is difficult because using it isn’t a districtwide requirement, Bergman says, teachers have observed that students are becoming more strategic readers.

“They can see how kids actually use the core, foundational skills they’re teaching,” she says. “We know they can decode something in isolation; this is what it looks like when kids are reading it with a lot of other words.”

AI tools can meet students where they are and help push them to the next level, says Tuscaloosa County School District Assistant Principal John David Booth, who was previously a social studies teacher at the district’s Echols Middle School.

Starting at the level that a diagnostic test indicates is best, students at the Alabama school complete daily AI-enabled sentence formatting exercises that reinforce punctuation, capitalization and other grammatical concepts. If they get stuck, the platform changes the format.

“Doing that for just a few months made a great impact on my students,” Booth says. “I started seeing even the ones who were struggling to read and write and with grammar be more successful in those areas.”

Students receive input, seventh grade English teacher Amy Chambley says, faster than she could physically provide.

“I’m able to give them pretty quick feedback, but it isn’t the next day; I teach 150 kids,” Chambley says. “By the end of the year, we’re not having to say, ‘Capitalize the first letter. Where’s your comma?’ because the tool goes over those things all year long.”

In addition to student skill-building, Booth also uses an AI offering to assist with lesson planning.

“I love to say, ‘My students are struggling with this specific thing; what are some ways research has proved I can support my students in this area?’” he says. “If they're struggling with a concept from the Civil War, AI can help me come up with a way I can close that gap for my students.”