Our philosophy on AI tools for education

At Newsela, we believe the best education solutions power great teaching, they don't replace it. When it comes to AI tools for education, there are opportunities for positive classroom impact, potential areas of caution, and steep new learning curves. No matter how clever or powerful these new solutions are, however, there will always be a need for the uniquely human ability of teachers to empathize, connect, inspire, and smile with students.

What is Newsela's philosophy on AI in education?

As you navigate this new frontier, we want to be transparent about our position on artificial intelligence in education and how Newsela uses it in our products.

• We strongly believe that teachers know what’s best for their students and should always continue to be the architects, planners, and decision-makers in the classroom. We use AI tools to extend a teacher's reach, not to replace the personal touch that is so vital in education.

• The teacher-student interaction is where learning is at its best. AI should be used to save teachers’ time and make certain tasks easier, creating space and time for teachers to have more powerful one-on-one moments in the classroom.  

• We know that it’s critical that education products are built with teacher input. We leverage robust research, teacher feedback, and in-classroom experiences to drive the most valuable solutions at every step in the development process and never lose the human element of what teaching and learning is all about.

• We believe the more specific the application of AI, the better. Our machine learning models are purpose-built, with specific educational goals in mind.

• Privacy is always a priority at Newsela. To the extent any end-user content is used for any AI-related tasks, we only do so in keeping with Newsela’s Privacy Policy. 

Today, we use AI to power features across Newsela products 

For Newsela ELA, Newsela Social Studies, and Newsela Science, we leverage AI in:

• Article planning supports—including key terms and before-reading activity ideas for each text

• Generating tier 3 vocabulary definitions 

• Generating writing prompts

For Formative, AI supports:

• Generating questions, answer hints, and write prompts

• Flashcard and practice set generation

For EverWrite (beta), we use AI to power:

• Real-time writing feedback, aligned to a chosen rubric

• Assignment writing prompt generation

At Newsela, our goal is to open up teachers’ ability to do what they do best: bring learning to life for their students in a deeply personal, human way.