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The new research and development center will provide national leadership on the use of Gen AI in math and science, advancing responsible and inclusive practices that support teacher planning and student learning outcomes.

Seattle — The that will be distributed over 5 years to address opportunities and challenges in using generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) in classrooms through a new research and development center called . The interdisciplinary, cross-sector team that will lead this effort is helmed by Dr. Min Sun, professor of educational policy, organization and leadership in the UW ���ߺ���. Dr. Sun’s co-principal investigators are Mr. Jian (Kevin) He, Dr. R. Benjamin Shapiro, Dr. Chun Wang, Dr. Ann Edwards, Dr. Drew Nucci and Dr. Shawon Sarkar. AmplifyGAIN will conduct research and provide national leadership on the use of GenAI to improve mathematics and science teaching and learning in K-12 schools.

“Schools and districts are grappling with what to do with the burst of AI platforms like ChatGPT,” Dr. Sun shared. “We’ve already arrived at a tipping point in how this technology is changing the landscape of education. While general purpose tools like ChatGPT are powerful, they are not designed to meet the unique needs of teachers and students in schools. AmplifyGAIN will study the promises and barriers for teachers to effectively use Gen AI in teaching and learning, develop specialized AI technologies designed with and for teachers, and study the effects of using Gen AI tools in reducing teacher workload stress and improving their work efficiency to ultimately enhance student learning outcomes.”

Findings from AmplifyGAIN will advance training and fluency in the use of AI-powered tools among education stakeholders including students, teachers, administrators and policymakers. “Critically, the new center will develop responsible, fair and inclusive practices to support teachers’ use of AI for planning and inform how students can leverage these tools to enhance their learning,” said co-PI Dr. Ben Shapiro, associate professor in the UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.

Moreover, innovation in research and application will be accelerated through collaboration with industry partner Hensun Innovation LLC. “This new center will experiment a close university-industry partnership model to speed up the innovation cycles, in order to offer teachers and students truly research based technology products,“ shared co-PI and Hensun CEO Kevin He.

The center, awarded as a cooperative agreement grant, will work closely with IES to cultivate the nation’s capacity in Gen AI research and technology adoption through its training programs, conferences, competitions and open-sourced materials. AmplifyGAIN is one of four national centers supported by IES under the under the topic of “).” Each U-GAIN center will make a unique contribution to research on how the use of GenAI can make meaningful contributions to improve education processes and outcomes.

“As we witness the transformative influence of Gen AI in our lives and classrooms, it has become increasingly clear that targeted research is essential,” said co-PI Dr. Ann Edwards, director of mathematics at WestEd. “It’s critically important to understand how these tools can be best developed and used by educators to improve equity and drive student outcomes.”

She added, “By exploring how math and science teachers use Gen AI tools and working in partnership with educators to develop and refine AI technologies that enhance and support teachers’ work, AmplifyGAIN is seizing on the opportunities and challenges of this moment to provide national leadership on Gen AI’s role in teaching and learning.”

AmplifyGAIN will support ongoing research and development in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) led by Dr. Sun and her team. In 2023, Dr. Sun launched the , which unites interdisciplinary researchers and multisector partners to harness AI/ML technologies to amplify the quality and equity of student learning in K-12 education. AmplifyLearn.AI serves as a hub where multiple strands of inquiry have flourished, including the creation of AmplifyGAIN and the co-founding of Colleague AI with Hensun Innovation LLC. This national R&D center — AmplifyGAIN — will be built upon and nested within the AmplifyLearn.AI initiatives. The team will continue the development and school adoption of , a specialized AI assistant designed to empower K-12 teachers to offer high-quality and personalized learning for all students. To date, thousands of teachers and administrators have used the tool. AmplifyGAIN’s initial work will include continued testing and revision of Colleague AI based on user testing of model performance and feature design. With these refinements incorporated, the team will conduct an expanded pilot test of Colleague AI in Washington state school districts.

The AmplifyGAIN leadership team includes researchers and engineers from multiple institutions, whose combined, wide-ranging expertise will enable the center’s planned innovations:

• Dr. Min Sun, an educator and AI/ML researcher, will serve as the director of the center and lead all activities.
• Mr. Jian (Kevin) He, the CEO of , is a software engineer turned serial entrepreneur, who will lead the development and implementation of Colleague AI.
• Dr. R. Benjamin Shapiro is an associate professor in UW’s and has extensive prior experience in GenAI research in learning and will co-lead national leadership activities and partnership with IES.
• Dr. Ann Edwards and Dr. Drew Nucci from will lead the exploratory studies of teachers' use of Gen AI in math classroom instruction from national samples of teachers and school leaders.
• Dr. Chun Wang, professor of measurement and statistics at the UW ���ߺ���, will lead formative assessment psychometric analysis.
• Dr. Joshua Rosenberg will consult with the team on STEM education, particularly science and engineering.
• Dr. Shawon Sarkar, senior data scientist at the UW ���ߺ���, will serve as liaison between the research and technology development teams.

In addition to this grant from IES to support the creation of AmplifyGAIN, Dr. Sun’s team was previously awarded a $799,992 from IES. Additionally, her team was awarded approximately $3 million from the National Science Foundation in August to support research on the application of Gen AI in middle grade math education. In total, the AmplifyLearn.AI Center has received approximately $17 million in federal funding during the last two years to advance research into applications of AI in education settings. To broaden the impact of this public investment, AmplifyLearn.AI will continue to fundraise through private investments and donations to support its mission of harnessing the power of AI to amplify the quality and equity of student learning through research, technology development, training and public engagement efforts.

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305C240012 to the ���ߺ���. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

Contacts:  
Dr. Min Sun, professor and director of the AmplifyGAIN Center, misun@uw.edu  
Charleen Wilcox, director for marketing and communications, wilcoxc@uw.edu