{"id":3965,"date":"2026-04-13T11:18:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/3965\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T11:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T11:18:39","slug":"california-middle-schools-are-ground-zero-for-testing-ai-in-classrooms-amid-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/3965\/","title":{"rendered":"California middle schools are ground zero for testing AI in classrooms amid expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

IN GREGORY DHARMAN\u2019S eighth grade math class at South Lake Middle School in Irvine, the exit ticket his students turn in every month doesn\u2019t go to the teacher \u2014 they go to\u00a0Snorkl<\/a>, an artificial intelligence software program capable of grading quizzes, exams and homework.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How does Snorkl work? Students type in responses to questions or answer verbally, and receive instant feedback. If students don\u2019t get an acceptable score, they can retake the quiz until they do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What is happening at South Lake Middle is happening across California as middle schools become ground zero for introducing AI into curriculum and classrooms.\u00a0Experts<\/a>\u00a0say that students in elementary school may be too young to interact with AI, and students going into high school should already know how to use it. A\u00a0RAND<\/a>\u00a0survey revealed that 41% of middle schoolers in the U.S. said that they use AI for their schoolwork.<\/p>\n

At South Lake, Dharman teaches seventh and eighth grade mathematics, robotics and introduction to computer applications. He has been teaching for five years and has received AI training from the Irvine Unified School District for the past three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, Dharman served as an educational technology mentor. Every quarter that year, he and dozens of teachers crowded into a large classroom at the district to test different AI tools, learning how to set up an assignment and generate multiple solutions.<\/p>\n

Teachers were also taught how to use AI detectors, such as\u00a0Turnitin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Scribbr,\u00a0<\/a>to prevent students from cheating. Teachers were trained to encourage students to use AI as a learning aid, not as a substitute for their own effort or understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to teaching the kids how to use AI, it\u2019s like \u2018How can I maximize this thing and use it to my advantage?\u2019\u201d Dharman said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gregory Dharman guides his eighth grade students through an equation during math class at South Lake Middle School in Irvine. Students will later submit their work to Snorkl for their exit tickets. (Courtesy Gregory Dharman via EdSource)<\/p>\n

Dharman doesn\u2019t use AI often because he primarily assigns handwritten work. But about once a month, his class trades pencils and papers for Chromebooks. The rapid clacking of keys fills the room as students lean over their screens, experimenting with Snorkl. One student types, \u201cHey, you\u2019re my tutor. Help me solve this equation.\u201d A second later, a detailed step-by-step breakdown appears, walking him through the problem.<\/p>\n

For the exit tickets, Snorkl bases the grading criteria on the content Dharman uploads, though he occasionally adjusts the parameters to fit his own preferences. Dharman said that he uses Snorkl because it pushes students to explain their thinking process and provides good personalized feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the future, AI is going to be able to personalize a lot more in terms of education or curriculum toward a specific student, or a specific topic that a student needs,\u201d Dharman said.<\/p>\n

But sometimes, Snorkl is wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once, Dharman explained, a student lost a point for changing the wording of their explanation. They stared at the screen in confusion \u2014 their answer was correct. Raising a hand, they explained the situation to Dharman. After checking their work, Dharman fixed the issue. To ensure students receive a fair score, Dharman reviews the exit tickets himself and corrects any errors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more AI evolves and the longer it\u2019s around, the more teachers are willing to be able to introduce it into their classrooms,\u201d Dharman said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s an inevitable thing that these kids are going to come across.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mixed reactions about AI<\/p>\n

At another California middle school, a veteran teacher is taking a slightly different approach. Matthew Helmenstine, a teacher at Marina Middle School in San Francisco, doesn\u2019t use AI at the beginning of the semester. Helmenstine teaches eighth grade social studies and journalism and has taught for 25 years in Italy, Japan and the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Marina, the school-provided Chromebooks have software that blocks access to AI. However, there aren\u2019t enough Chromebooks for everyone, so students often complete digital assignments on their phones.<\/p>\n

By the end of the school year, Helmenstine lifts the restrictions on AI and lets students experiment with it on their phones. He was intrigued by the mixed reactions they had when they were introduced to AI. In February, Helmenstine showed his class a history video about the Mexican-American War \u2014 only to realize it was created with AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lost their minds immediately,\u201d Helmenstine said. \u201cThey\u2019re like \u2018That\u2019s AI, that\u2019s baloney! That\u2019s garbage! Look at that, that\u2019s horrible!\u2019 They were so angry that it was AI, and I had no idea that they were against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

About two weeks later, Marina had a schoolwide assembly for the Chinese New Year. Sixth, seventh and eighth graders gathered in the auditorium to watch a video made by the multimedia teacher. Onscreen, they saw an AI-animated video of four multimedia students riding horseback and trotting off into the horizon. To Helmenstine\u2019s surprise, the students loved it.<\/p>\n

But when Helmenstine talks about using ChatGPT in class, his students shy away from the subject, treating it like taboo. He noticed they react differently when exposed to AI-generated art versus AI language models like ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

Helmenstine said he thinks students\u2019 conflicting reactions might stem from a lack of familiarity with it. Helmenstine hasn\u2019t received any AI training from the San Francisco Unified School District, but that might change.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Marina\u2019s principal announced that AI is coming soon, so teachers have to consider how AI will be used in their classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo a lot of us that have been doing this [teaching] for a while, it\u2019s kind of scary because we don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to get away from us,\u201d Helmenstine said. \u201cOr if the kids are not going to be able to put things into categories, like essays, or be able to express themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

To prepare for the growing integration of AI at Marina, Helmenstine wants the district to train teachers to use it to engage students\u2019 minds without diminishing their critical thinking skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest fear is, will students be able to develop vocabulary and express themselves if they\u2019re relying on AI to write essays or poems, or whatever it might be?\u201d Helmenstine said. \u201cAnd is that going to reduce their intelligence?\u201d<\/p>\n

Caught cheating<\/p>\n

\"\"Xilong \u201cBenson\u201d Li teaches seventh and eighth grade social studies at Marina Middle School in San Francisco. (Courtesy Xilong \u201cBenson\u201d Li via EdSource)<\/p>\n

Another teacher at Marina has caught students submitting AI-generated work as their own.<\/p>\n

Xilong \u201cBenson\u201d Li teaches seventh and eighth grade social studies and has been teaching for two years. Recently, he noticed an increase in the number of students turning in AI-generated assignments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so different from their previous writings, or from their parents\u2019 writings,\u201d Li said. \u201cIt is just so far above, or so nonhuman, that it\u2019s easy for me to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marina doesn\u2019t have official policies on AI, so Li disciplines students based on his own expectations. He imposes the same punishment on all of his students.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, policy is quite lax,\u201d Li said. \u201cI give 15% even if they don\u2019t turn anything in. But if it\u2019s AI-generated and I can tell, then I just give them a zero for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li knows that students are already exposed to AI outside of school. Occasionally, he shows them its potential. One afternoon, one of his students asked him the century-old question, \u201cWhy did the chicken cross the road?\u201d To entertain them, Li opened ChatGPT and told it to write an essay answering the question. His students were fascinated by how quickly ChatGPT could generate a response.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is a helpful tool for students,\u201d Li said. \u201cBut it\u2019s too much of a crutch if they just use it verbatim word-for-word, or copy it and pass it off as their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Districts using systematic approaches<\/p>\n

While individual teachers are setting their own guidelines around AI, some districts are trying to develop more systematic approaches. Jennie Dougherty, the director of strategic initiatives at KIPP Public Schools Northern California, has been working in education for 19 years and at KIPP for 12 of those years.<\/p>\n

At KIPP, she monitors the testing of new AI tools and their impact on select groups of teachers and students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use the micro-pilot to ask questions like: Are students more confused than before? Is the teacher spending more time managing the tech than teaching? Are the kids who were already struggling falling further behind?\u201d Dougherty said. \u201cIf the answer to any of those was yes, we stop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Dougherty introduced the AI tool,\u00a0Coursemojo<\/a>, to middle schoolers, she thought they would be impressed. Coursemojo is designed to give students immediate feedback on their writing. Instead, after the first test, one of the students said, \u201cI\u2019m gonna crash out!\u201d Dougherty didn\u2019t understand what the phrase meant at first, but later learned that Coursemojo was causing students distress.<\/p>\n

Dougherty didn\u2019t understand their reaction. Then she realized that \u201chumans process feedback at the speed of emotion.\u201d The students received multiple rounds of feedback at once. To them, it felt like a bombardment of criticism. It made them question their own work, and whether they were good enough.<\/p>\n

The teacher who observed the students as they interacted with Coursemojo noticed how they struggled to respond to the rapid-fire feedback. To foster more positive reactions, the teacher reminded students that feedback isn\u2019t failure, but a sign of learning.<\/p>\n

Dougherty said that middle schoolers are still developing their academic identities. She added that before districts introduce AI into the classroom, they need to prepare teachers on how to handle students\u2019 reactions to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is not to introduce AI early. Our goal is to introduce agency early,\u201d Dougherty said. \u201cBecause a measure of our success is not whether students can use AI. It is whether they emerge from our schools knowing who they are, and trusting themselves to navigate whatever comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amelia Angeles\u00a0is a fourth-year literary journalism major and history minor at UC Irvine. She is a member of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps.<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in EdSource.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IN GREGORY DHARMAN\u2019S eighth grade math class at South Lake Middle School in Irvine, the exit ticket his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3793,24,3794,1458,1998,25,3362,76,3795,3796,969,3797,134,832],"class_list":{"0":"post-3965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-academia","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-ai-detectors","11":"tag-ai-technology","12":"tag-ai-tools","13":"tag-artificial-intelligence","14":"tag-edsource","15":"tag-education","16":"tag-educators","17":"tag-middle-schools","18":"tag-san-francisco","19":"tag-scribbr","20":"tag-technology","21":"tag-turnitin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}