Using Surveys to Guide AI Literacy and Instructional Practice

Overview

Denver Public Schools’ AI Survey PromptsArtificial intelligence (AI) can be a powerful tool for students and educators, but its effectiveness depends on how it is used and integrated into an existing system or school’s vision and goals. Gathering insights from educators and students through surveys can help ensure AI is implemented in ways that align with those goals and support meaningful learning experiences. School and system leaders can utilize pre- and post-surveys with both teachers and students to understand their perspectives on AI. This approach provides a window into current AI use as it exists within the district, as well as a better sense of the culture and climate regarding the technology, while building the foundation to measure growth toward district instructional and learning goals over time.

Example from the School Teams AI Collaborative

One example of utilizing surveys on AI for educators and students comes from Denver Public Schools (DPS), a district that participated in the School Teams AI Collaborative. Instructional leaders and coaches in the district developed and customized surveys for educators and students at the elementary and secondary levels. Leaders approached this process using the following steps:

• Setting Goals for Surveying: Leaders at DPS decided that surveys would assist their overarching goal—measuring how an increase in teachers’ AI literacy could improve culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy, situated in context within the district’s overarching instructional framework.

• Designing and Implementing Customized Stakeholder Surveys: Once goals had been set, the next steps involved identifying key focus areas, crafting effective questions, and selecting the right survey format and distribution methods considering the audience that would be receiving the survey. This required customized and differentiated surveys based on role (for staff) and grade level (for students) to ensure questions could be easily understood by students at their appropriate age level. At DPS, Teachers were prompted to reflect on areas in which their instruction could potentially benefit from AI integration, as mapped along the district’s framework, as well as their current level of comfort and familiarity with AI and its use, particularly in the scope of privacy, safe and ethical tool usage, and their ability to effectively integrate AI in practice to enhance student outcomes. Students were asked about their knowledge of AI, how they currently use the technology, and what their perceptions of AI were. Explore this list of sample survey questions and prompts for both educators and students from DPS.

• Analyzing and Interpreting Survey Data: Leaders took intentional time to organize responses, identify trends across the data, and extract meaningful insights to inform decision-making.

• Applying Insights to Drive Action: The valuable data gathered from these surveys helped to shape strategy, refine practices, and ensure stakeholder input translates into meaningful improvements. At DPS, leaders and coaches utilized insights to better design targeted professional learning opportunities for schools regarding teacher and student use of AI. They also used the survey data to refine their district AI handbook and included student and educator voices in the process, responding to their feedback for adjustments or additions to their policies around AI use.

• Sharing Data With Other Relevant Stakeholders: DPS leaders shared the insights they gathered from these surveys with curriculum specialists, instructional specialists, and instructional superintendents to guide their work and help them better understand how to promote literacy, familiarity, and effective use of AI among students and teachers.

Creating an intentional process from start to finish helped leaders at DPS deepen their understanding of AI across their system – and gain valuable insights into both the promises and the challenges that the technology could present to their students and educators.

Applying This Strategy in Your Context

To customize this strategy to your school or system, leaders can take the following steps:

1. Start With Your Instructional Vision: Begin with an understanding of your overarching instructional priorities – and start to envision how AI could help educators and students reach those goals.

2. Customize Your Survey: Integrate specific questions into your surveys that help respondents visualize how the technology would work in your schools, and be sure to address questions and challenges that your educators or students have already elevated. For example, if students have questions about using AI ethically, or if educators are concerned about students using AI to bypass significant work and thinking, provide a space for respondents to expand upon their concerns so that your plan moving forward can better address potential pitfalls and obstacles.

3. Analyze Results: Set aside dedicated time to review and analyze survey results, identifying trends across responses. Use these insights to map out a strategic approach for addressing challenges and fostering AI applications that educators and students find most promising.

By systematically collecting and analyzing survey data, school and system leaders can ensure that AI professional learning is responsive to real needs, and grounded in a system’s unique context and frameworks. This approach also builds a feedback loop between educators, instructional leaders, and other stakeholders in the school community, fostering an adaptive and informed strategy for AI integration in the classroom.

This AI-enabled strategy was developed by a member of the School Teams AI Collaborative — a partnership between Leading Educators and The Learning Accelerator (TLA). The Collaborative was developed to bring together innovative educators from schools across the country to share ideas and discover effective ways to use AI in the classroom.