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Literacy is the heartbeat of all learning. Reading and writing are key to ensuring that our children are prepared for the real world. Literacy skills dictate our children’s ability to make choices and advocate for themselves, which is why literacy levels correlate with all manner of socio-economic and health outcomes. Even as the ways we communicate have changed dramatically from the fountain pen to the typewriter, or from mobile phones to the Internet, the critical need for literacy skills is timeless.

Yet the state of literacy skills in our country is jarring. According to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), only 33% of fourth-graders nationwide scored at or above a proficient reading level in 2022. And there are glaring disparities among underserved groups: only 17% of Black students and 21% of Hispanic students could read proficiently by fourth grade.

As we reckon with this reality, our nation’s students and teachers are also up against a new challenge: the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools. While many are concerned with what this technology means for our children’s learning, we believe that AI actually represents an opportunity. When used responsibly, these tools afford us a chance to reimagine literacy instruction in a way that will better equip our students for lifelong success.

First, AI has the capacity to help us better understand student performance, with insight into exactly where students are succeeding and what they are struggling with. Our existing approach to assessment, which involves picking isolated points in time to measure a narrow set of skills, has a complex history of inequity. In contrast, the right tools can help us study student performance more organically. They can enable us to identify students’ strengths and areas of growth by analyzing students’ classwork, unit assessments and more in real time, providing a much more comprehensive understanding.

AI can also help us create personalized learning experiences that accommodate every reading level and learning style while bridging the gap between school and home. New York City Public Schools is one of the most diverse school districts in the country, representing a wide range of student needs. About 1 in 5 students in NYC have a disability, and 16% are English language learners. Teachers do their best to cater to individual students, but AI can dramatically improve that personalization.For instance, chatbots powered by large language models can simulate real-life interactions and creative dialogue, which creates a more dynamic learning environment for multilingual learners. This can be a game-changer for students who may require culturally specific examples to relate to texts and improve their English abilities. In addition, students with dyslexia can benefit from software that uses AI to create personalized approaches to evaluate language processing in the brain, offering data and recommendations for teachers to tailor instruction.

Additionally, AI can help schools facilitate active learning after the school day, providing teachers and families with individualized learning plans for every child, and then offering supplemental activities aligned to those plans. Of course, parents may be concerned that students will use these tools as a shortcut, undermining their learning — after all, instead of writing a paper for class, students could just use a chatbot to write it for them. However, with the right tools carefully implemented in the classroom, the benefits of AI far outweigh potential drawbacks. We believe AI will empower both teachers and students to reimagine and break out of traditional learning paradigms. Just like when math teachers learned to incorporate scientific calculators into their math curricula, English teachers can use generative artificial intelligence to liberate students from rote tasks, giving them more time to explore their innate curiosity, creativity and critical thinking skills. AI can amplify our students’ potential for learning. It cannot replace their unique voices and the stories they tell. These tools can help our students (and our teachers) work smarter, not harder, and achieve incredible results.

We believe every child is unique, with different strengths and learning styles that deserve to be explored. We are excited to see how AI can continue to transform both classroom instruction and at-home learning, re-engaging our students, boosting their enthusiasm for reading and writing, encouraging creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, bolstering literacy levels and setting them up for a lifetime of joyful learning.Banks has been New York City's school chancellor since Jan. 1, 2002 and today is his final day. Allyn is an educator, literacy advocate and CEO of Dewey, which supports parents and caregivers in helping children learn.