Educators have heard quite a lot about the use of generative AI in education, however most of that has focused on the impact on instruction and the teaching and learning process. However, generative AI is more ubiquitous in its impact than being limited to instructional programming and the classroom.
Here are some of the effective ways that building leaders can use these new and emerging AI tools to improve their leadership efforts.
1. Streamline Administrative Tasks
One of the simplest uses of generative AI is to reduce the amount of time necessary for leaders to respond to email, parent communications, and other routine tasks.
AI-powered tools can automate administrative tasks, freeing principals’ time to focus on instructional leadership and building relationships. This can include scheduling meetings, managing calendars, drafting routine communications, and processing basic forms.
For instance, an AI assistant automatically schedules parent-teacher conferences based on teacher and parent availability, sends confirmation emails, and manages any rescheduling requests, significantly reducing the administrative burden on the principal’s office. Tools such as Grammarly or Copilot can be used to review or assist leaders in writing letters, and can generally be integrated into productivity software tools.
2. Personalize Professional Development Recommendations
AI can analyze a principal’s performance data (e.g., teacher evaluation scores, school improvement plan progress, feedback from staff surveys) and identify areas for growth. Based on this analysis, it can recommend specific PD resources, such as relevant articles, online courses, workshops, or mentorship opportunities.
For example, an AI system identifies that a principal’s school has lower-than-average scores in inclusive teaching practices. It then recommends the principal enroll in a virtual workshop series focused on differentiated instruction and strategies for supporting diverse learners, along with suggesting articles on creating a more equitable school environment.
A number of AI tools, including MagicSchool and Taskade, have specific PD planner tools.
As the workload for many building administrators has expanded, expectations seem to have constant scope creep. Leaders can use AI tools such as Scribbr to obtain the Cliff’s Note summaries to provide a summary or even a bulleted list of key points tied to their professional reading. Those summaries can then be a decision tool to decide which articles, books, and blogs are worth spending additional time delving into.
4. Enhance Communication
AI can facilitate more efficient and personalized communication with staff, students, and parents. This could involve using AI-powered chatbots to answer frequently asked questions, generating personalized newsletters, or translating communications into different languages, though it is always important to have a human review any AI-generated translations.
For example, an AI-powered chatbot on the school website could answer common questions from parents about school policies, enrollment procedures, and upcoming events, providing immediate support and potentially reducing the number of phone calls and emails to the principal.
5. Improve Teacher Evaluation Processes
AI tools can assist principals in conducting more objective and comprehensive teacher evaluations by analyzing classroom observation data, student performance data, and teacher self-reflections. This can help ensure consistency and fairness in the evaluation process.
An evaluator can use an AI system to analyze video recordings of classroom observations, for instance, identifying specific teaching behaviors and providing data-driven feedback aligned with the school’s evaluation rubric. This can supplement the principal’s direct observations and provide a more holistic view of the teacher’s practice.
Amazon Rekognition and TeachFX are both tools for observational analysis.
6. Data-Driven Decision-Making
AI tools can process and analyze large datasets related to student performance, attendance, discipline, and demographics to identify trends and patterns that might not be immediately apparent. This allows principals to make more informed decisions about resource allocation, instructional strategies, and intervention programs.
For example, AI analysis of student achievement data reveals a significant disparity in math scores between students from low-income backgrounds and their peers. The principal can use this information to allocate additional tutoring resources and implement targeted math interventions in the affected grades.
7. Early Identification of At-Risk Students
Just as principals can use AI tools for broad decision-making in the example above, building leaders and instructional coaches can use AI algorithms can analyze various student data points, such as attendance records, grades, behavior patterns, and engagement metrics, to identify individual students who may be at risk of academic failure or social-emotional challenges. This allows principals to implement early intervention strategies and work with other staff to identify students in need and offer to connect the student and family with appropriate resources to provide support.
8. Curriculum Enhancement and Alignment
Principals can use AI tools to analyze curriculum documents, learning standards, and curriculum maps, and assessment data to identify areas in which the curriculum can be enhanced or better aligned with learning objectives and student needs.
A building leadership team can use AI tools to analyze the school’s science curriculum, for instance, and identify gaps in the coverage of state science standards based on student performance on standardized tests. The principal can then work with the science department to revise the curriculum to ensure all standards are adequately addressed.
9. Model Lifelong Learning
Lastly, but potentially most importantly, building leaders should be overt and transparent about how they are using AI tools to provide their school team with a model of an educator trying to figure out how to integrate these new tools into their administrative and instruction programs.
As an example, when a principal shares a slide deck that was generated with an AI tool, they should identify the tool and potentially how they used it so other staff can see the possibilities of AI tools and know when and how their school supports the use of AI tools.