As schools and universities take varying stances on AI, some teachers believe the tech can democratize tutoring. Here’s how — and where the drawbacks lie.
Within months of ChatGPT’s launch at the end of 2022, the nation’s largest public school system had banned the chatbot. It would have negative impacts on student learning, the NYC education department said, also citing concerns about the security and accuracy of ChatGPT’s content.
Across the Hudson River, Franklin School took exactly the opposite approach. The private school in Jersey City, New Jersey, made AI a central part of its curriculum. Opened in 2022, the school began integrating AI tools not to replace teachers, but to enhance their work and deepen student engagement.
«We looked at the integration on how to enrich the learning for students, but also, at the same time, we wanted to see where we could create efficiencies at our school for our teachers», said Will Campbell, head of Franklin School. «We have incredible teachers in our building. How can we give them more time to be even better for our students?»
Franklin’s early AI experiments included custom chatbots trained on approved course material, designed to function as tutor-like learning aids. Faculty, including Campbell himself, found they could offload routine administrative tasks to AI, freeing up time for instruction and student support. The school also redesigned assessments, allowing students to use AI to tackle more complex problems that emphasize critical thinking.
A similar philosophy emerged at the university level. Ethan Mollick, Ph.D., a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, added explicit AI-use guidelines to his syllabus as early as January 2023, permitting students to use the technology in all of his classes.
Three years later, Mollick has become one of the leading voices advocating for AI in education. He has worked with AI companies, including OpenAI, to develop education guides and authored the New York Times bestselling book Co-Intelligence, which examines the role of AI in learning and work.
Why? He finds there is extreme value to unlock in AI.
«We have some early evidence that it’s an incredibly powerful teaching tool», said Mollick. «There’s a lot of potential to solve a bunch of the huge problems in education.»
On one side are those who say that AI tools will never be able to replace the teaching offered by humans. On the other side are those who insist that access to AI-powered tutoring is better than no access to tutoring at all. The one thing that can be agreed on across the board is that students can benefit from tutoring, and fair access remains a major challenge — one that AI may be able to smooth over.
«The best human tutors will remain ahead of AI for a long time yet to come, but do most people have access to tutors outside of class?» said Mollick. To evaluate educational tools, Mollick uses what he calls the «BAH» test, which measures whether a tool is better than the best available human a student can realistically access.
«The answer is clearly yes already, and with a little work, it could probably become even better», he adds. The tutoring gap
Decades of research have shown that students learn more effectively with individualized tutoring, yet personalized, at-home instruction remains out of reach for many families due to staffing shortages and high costs. AI-powered tools now promise a tutor-like learning experience that students can access at home.
Research on the effectiveness of human tutors dates back decades. In 1984, educational psychologist Benjamin S. Bloom found that students who received one-on-one tutoring combined with mastery learning performed up to two standard deviations higher on achievement measures than students taught through conventional classroom instruction. He called it «The 2 Sigma Problem.»
The findings remain striking today, explained Jennifer Steele, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Education at American University. In education research, she explained, even two-tenths of a standard deviation is considered a meaningful effect. But she added that there are very practical challenges preventing students from accessing this educational supplement.
«It’s very hard to afford a one-to-one tutor for every kid because teachers command professional salaries, and giving one to every kid, when you could give one to every 30 kids, is expensive», she said.
A peer-reviewed study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2024 found a correlation between socioeconomic status and access to tutoring. As a result, relatively few students have tutors. The University of Southern California’s Understanding America Study surveyed more than 1,600 households and found that only about 15% of students were receiving any tutoring at all.
