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AI and Emerging Tech

It’s Not About the Tool: Why Powerful Learning Starts with Supported Educators

Jean-Claude Brizard

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A female student in a black hoodie interacting with an female adult in business attire, they are engaged while the student holds a tablet

Key Ideas

  • Student test scores began dropping long before AI entered classrooms. The path forward isn’t banning new tools, but intentionally designing them to deepen student engagement, connection, and critical thinking.
  • Tech fluency isn’t the same as subject mastery. While millions of students are adept screen users, turning that comfort into mastery of math, reading, and science requires intentional instructional design and solid conceptual foundations.
  • Educators need systemic support, not just tools. Over 80% of teachers used AI last year. When systems invest in training and backing educators, technology is far more likely to shift from a classroom distraction into an effective tool for learning.

The latest global test results from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) came with a warning that every leader in education needs to hear.

Looking at 760,000 15-year-old students across 91 countries, the data shows reading and math scores dropping to their lowest points on record. In reading, scores fell 28 points over the last decade—representing roughly a year and a half of lost learning. Math dropped 22 points. One out of every five 15-year-olds now struggles with basic reading, math, and science.

In the United States, scores are stuck where they’ve been for years: 13th in reading and science, and 27th in math. While test score gaps between high- and low-income students narrowed slightly, they did so for the wrong reason—wealthier students simply scored worse, while disadvantaged students made no gains at all. That isn’t progress; it’s just everyone sliding backward together.

It is easy to look at these numbers and conclude that we should ban screens and AI from schools. But that misses what the data is actually telling us. Reading scores have been dropping since 2015, well before generative AI existed. Technology didn’t cause this decline, but how we support schools in navigating technology will determine whether scores keep falling or start to recover.

The Real Variable Is Guidance and Support

The PISA report contains one comparison that tells the whole story.

Students who used AI to write their essays without guidance did worse than students who didn’t use AI at all. When technology is dropped into classrooms without instruction on how to use it thoughtfully, learning suffers.

But the report also found the exact opposite: When students were taught how to check AI outputs for accuracy and use the technology to study, they scored higher than those who received no guidance.

The tool itself isn’t good or bad. What matters is whether we are giving educators the time, tools, and backing they need to guide students through using these technologies safely and effectively.

AI in Education Explained | Jean-Claude Brizard on Shifting Perspectives and Future Skills Video
Caption: Jean-Claude Brizard shares insights on harnessing the transformative potential of AI in education while ensuring an equitable, human-centered focus that augments teacher expertise and supports student agency.

Knowing How to Use a Screen Isn’t the Same as Learning

PISA also highlighted a growing misconception about digital skills. In tests measuring problem-solving on computers, nearly two-thirds of students proved capable. Yet only half of those same students could pass basic tests in reading, math, and science.

In other words, millions of students know how to navigate software and follow digital steps, but they lack the underlying knowledge to make sense of what they are doing. Knowing how to click through a program is not the same as understanding a concept.

On top of that, classroom environment matters. More than a quarter of students reported that classmates were constantly distracted by devices during science lessons. The data showed that students in distracted classrooms scored lower, paid less attention, and felt less connected to their school. Human connection, active engagement, and focus aren’t secondary outcomes—they are fundamental academic variables. This is precisely why connection and authentic engagement anchor Digital Promise’s Powerful Learning Framework.

How Systems Must Step Up

To ensure technology translates into real academic growth for students, education leaders and policymakers must focus on three systemic priorities:

    • Demand tools built for real learning: Educational technology should be designed to help students think through hard problems, build conceptual understanding, and foster reasoning—not just hand them quick answers or optimize for screen time.
    • Help districts vet what works through shared standards: School districts currently run nearly 3,000 different educational apps with no unified way to judge which ones actually support learning. Digital Promise joined coalition partners to lead the EdTech Quality Collaborative, establishing five shared quality indicators—Safe, Evidence-Based, Inclusive, Usable, and Interoperable—so leaders have a trusted framework to vet tools before bringing them into classrooms.
    • Invest in teacher preparation and ongoing training: About 85% of teachers used AI in some form last year, but fewer than half were provided with training on how to integrate it effectively. Expecting educators to navigate new technologies without systemic backing is unfair to both teachers and students. The difference between a tool that works and one that fails comes down to whether the system supports the humans in the classroom.

When educators are properly supported, the results can be remarkable. A 2025 World Bank study in Nigeria found that students using an AI tutoring tool alongside a supported teacher gained the equivalent of nearly two extra years of learning in just six weeks.

Moving Forward

The choices school boards, state leaders, and policymakers make over the next year about classroom technology will set the pattern for the next decade. PISA shows us what happens when new tools enter schools without a clear strategy. It also gives us a clear roadmap for how to get it right: support our educators, insist on foundational skills, and ensure technology serves powerful learning.

Authors

Jean-Claude Brizard

President and CEO

Read bio

Jean-Claude Brizard is president and CEO of Digital Promise, a global, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on shaping the future of learning and advancing equitable education systems by bridging solutions across research, practice, and technology. Under his leadership, Digital Promise has remained a trusted partner to school districts across the United States and education leaders around the world, providing research-based guidance on everything from instructional innovation to technology implementation. The organization also works closely with industry partners in the U.S. and internationally, helping them design and refine products grounded in learning science that genuinely improve outcomes for students and educators.

He is former deputy director and senior advisor in U.S. Programs at the Gates Foundation. He led the U.S. Program’s PK-16 Community Investment Team in their effort to more deeply understand a student’s journey from preschool through completion of a post-secondary credential. Mr. Brizard also led the Washington State education strategy focused on closing the racial and economic opportunity gaps in Washington State’s educational system as well as support the growth and sustainability of the public charter schools’ sector in the state.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York honored him in the 2023 class of “Great Immigrants, Great Americans,” a prestigious honor celebrating naturalized citizens who have enriched and strengthened our society. He received the distinguished Aspen Institute 2024 John P. McNulty Prize for his work with Anseye Pou Ayiti. The award recognizes courageous leaders tackling critical issues, from environmental injustice and disaster recovery to addressing a national crisis of leadership and education.

Mr. Brizard was a partner at FourPoint Education Group (formerly Cross & Joftus, LLC) where he was focused on two practice areas—a unique collaborative structure that supported the work of many state departments of education and public school districts as they sought to turnaround chronically failing school systems as well as a practice area focused on education to career.

In 2013, Mr. Brizard served as advisor to the leadership of the College Board developing the organization’s career readiness initiative. This engagement culminated in a strategic plan for integrating career readiness into the College Board’s mission and a special supplement that was published as part of the 45th edition of the PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. He is the former chief executive of Chicago Public Schools. Prior to his appointment in Chicago, he was superintendent of schools for the Rochester City School District in New York.

Under Mr. Brizard’s leadership, both the Chicago Public Schools and the Rochester City School districts saw substantial improvements in student performance. He introduced a comprehensive change agenda across the Chicago Public Schools, including closing a significant budget gap of more than $1.3B over two fiscal years while preserving core reforms and investing in classrooms. He developed a new framework for teaching and the system saw record increases in student achievement, graduation rates and on college readiness benchmarks. Additionally, He created a blueprint for reform that will continue to serve as a roadmap for years to come.

Mr. Brizard’s experience also includes a 21-year career as an educator and administrator with the NYC Department of Education. He served as a regional superintendent, supervising more than 100 schools in the borough of Brooklyn and he also served as the system’s executive director for secondary schools.

Few leaders in American education can match the breadth and depth of Mr. Brizard’s experience across the education sector. His career spans public school systems, philanthropy, consulting, and governance—giving him rare insight into how education operates at every level, from classroom instruction to boardroom strategy. He has led large urban school districts serving hundreds of thousands of students, shaped national education policy through his work at the Gates Foundation, and guided the strategic direction of leading education companies and nonprofits.

Mr. Brizard serves as a national trustee of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History. He served on the board of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the nation’s largest K-12 educational content providers, where he played a key role in the company’s successful sale to Veritas Capital. He currently serves as a board advisor to BrainPOP/ KIRKBI A/S. He has held board leadership positions with TNTP and EL Education, two of the most influential organizations in educator talent development and curriculum design. He served as founding board chair of Anseye Pou Ayiti/Teach for Haiti, and as board chair of Transcend Education. This combination of for-profit and nonprofit board experience reflects his comprehensive understanding of how innovation, capital, and mission intersect to drive change in education.

Mr. Brizard is a Fellow of the Broad Center, a Fellow of the Pahara-Aspen Institute Education Fellowship, and a member of the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network.

A commercial pilot, Mr. Brizard credits his parents—both of whom were educators—with inspiring him to pursue a career in education. He holds a master’s degree with honors in School Administration & Supervision, a master’s degree in Science Education, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the City University of New York/Queens College.

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