California schools to give students AI to help in math

The California State Board of Education announced they’ve officially approved adaptive learning company HMH’s “Into Math California” for grades K-8. The new plan includes certain artificial intelligence models intended to help students learn.

Plan approval

HMH said the Into Math California program is a research-based math program designed to support teachers and students.

“The State Board of Education’s approval of Into Math California affirms HMH’s commitment to delivering high-quality curriculum materials that create real growth for students and champion educators in their critical work,” Jim O’Neill, President, Core and Supplemental Solutions at HMH, said. “With this bespoke program, we are ensuring every student has access to meaningful, hands-on learning experiences that foster confidence in mathematics.”

While focused on math, the plan does include language support for non-English speaking students. Roughly 33% of California’s K-12 students were not fluent in English when starting school.

“Math, in some sense, is a universal language, right?” Peter Relan, chairman of Math GPT.AI, told Straight Arrow News. “It’s not like Shakespeare, or complex English, it’s symbols, right? And so to some extent, you could argue that math can be taught regardless of the native language.”

Usage of AI

These days, when you hear AI, you mostly think of generative AI like ChatGPT or Google Gemini. HMH’s technology is different.

The program is described as traditional AI through a program called Waggle, which is described as a personal adaptive learning solution.

“Personalized in that case, means, how do I understand?” Relan said. “What is it that you struggle with and then, how do I then adapt my teaching to you, so that you get it right, as opposed to the whole class in a general way?”

Basically, that technology allows for more targeted learning for each student.

“Looking at Waggle’s skill based artificial intelligence engine provides targeted practice to drive mastery,” Ken Koedinger, computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and member of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, told SAN. “And what they mean by that is more traditional AI that’s being used to see where are students succeeding and where are they failing.”

It’s no secret kids love tech and AI is no different. Recent data showing 86% of students now use AI in their studies.

“Our own research has suggested that it can be helpful for their learning,” Mark Warschauer, distinguished professor of education at UC-Irvine, told SAN. “Learning vocabulary, learning the content of what they’re studying. It’s just another way to get kids to learn best through conversation and dialogue, and especially English learners.”

So how exactly does this work?

“That is a little more about engaging in real world scenarios, which is more memorable, more socially engaging for the student, right?” Relan said. “So, you take this idea of something fundamental like ratios, it’s going to be in calculus, it’s going to be in pre-calculus, it’s everywhere in geometry. And you make sure the student understands that well, not by presenting an equation, but presenting a scenario, which suddenly takes this universal language of math and turns it into a universal language of the way the world is working.”

This also allows students to get more practice instead of just listening to the teacher’s lecture.

“Just listening to the teacher is not a good way to learn,” Koedinger said. “The best way to learn is try it yourself and get feedback learning by doing.”

Any concerns?

“I think there’s concerns about screen time, but you know there were concerns about paper time way back when, when we moved from auditory interactions to learning to paper and so, just because it’s different, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad,” Koedinger said.

The real concerns come over cheating. Teachers have said AI cheating is “off the charts.”

“I would call it a pandemic of cheating, as people are getting up into using these tools,” Relan said.

Relan said his Math GPT.AI tool has found ways around that, and other models could do the same.

“We did that for higher education,” Relan said. “It will never actually tell you any of the final answers or even the steps. It’ll always be Socratic, asking you to think.”

The other issue experts raised was keeping kids safe. AI models like ChatGPT have resulted in lawsuits over the tech’s interactions gone awry.

“If it’s connected to GPT five or six, and now it starts doing funky things, people are going to want to see trust and safety across the country,” Relan said.

While this is more traditional AI, if generative AI, like a ChatGPT, becomes more used to teach students, it’s important it gets the math correct. Recent studies have shown generative AI can struggle with math.

“Math has never been easy for generative AI,” Relan said.

Why the new tools?

California ranks in the bottom half of the country in student math scores. Data from the University of California, San Diego shows there’s a growing number of students going to college with insufficient math preparedness.

“So, you work backwards from that, and you say, ‘well, then by the time you come into ninth grade, we better have K-8 math education,’” Relan said.

The state believes this new program will help those younger students improve those skills as they move further in their education.

“Students using technology to get feedback while they’re doing their math is way better than doing it on paper without any feedback,” Koedinger said. “So yes, in that sense, it’ll help a lot.”

And as previously mentioned, AI and technology is becoming more a part of the classroom and isn’t going away anytime soon.

“I think that students in grade K-12 need the kind of interaction support that comes from working with teachers, but a teacher isn’t available to talk to every student, 24/7, individually,” Warschauer said. “So, one of the supplemental uses of AI is to have verbal interaction with students about what they’re learning. And I think that that will continue to grow in schools.”

Will other states follow California’s lead when it comes to AI, math and students?

“I expect other states to be watching carefully,” Relan said. “And this is a whole new world we’re about to enter.”

The post California schools to give students AI to help in math appeared first on Straight Arrow News.

Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief