How School Leaders Might Approach AI

This piece is for district and school leaders who are on the front lines working with educators and staff. It does not concern IT policy or infrastructure planning. Teachers not having enough time for impactful instruction has been an outsized contributor to the many challenges found in K–12 education. Time is the scarcest and most precious resource in any classroom, and the reality is that it’s increasingly consumed by administrative tasks, lesson planning, compliance demands, and instructional prep. This leaves far too little space for what’s needed and what teachers do best: connecting with students and helping them thrive.

At Yourway Learning, we believe that solving this time crisis is the single most important lever for unlocking real, scalable, and equitable improvement in student outcomes, which is also intrinsically tied to mitigating teacher burnout in a meaningful way. And this is where generative AI has the potential to be transformative.

Why Generative AI Matters for K–12

Education, like medicine, is both a content-intensive and skilled labor-intensive profession. Teachers create, adapt, and personalize learning materials, manage communications, analyze student data, and meet the diverse needs of every student—all while trying to avoid burnout and staying inspired. Generative AI is ideally suited for situations like this.

As instructional leaders who have lived through the broken promises of previous EdTech solutions we have good reason to be a bit skeptical. Are today’s AI tools perfect? No. Is there more work to do to make them even more effective, safe, and equitable? Absolutely. But what we've already seen in a relatively short period of time (less than 18 months) is a remarkable advance in “what’s possible” – and the progress has been accelerating. According to several sources, 10-15 million K–12 teachers worldwide have used AI tools, whether through innovative education platforms like Yourway Learning, Magic School, Brisk Teaching, and School AI, or through general-purpose LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity.

The takeaway is clear: educators are not waiting. They are experimenting, learning, and using these tools on a regular basis to help manage their workloads, save time, and do more of what matters.

A Wake-Up Call for School Leaders

So what happens if school leaders don’t act or don’t acknowledge the widespread use and fail to support and encourage more teachers to incorporate AI into their practice?

The risk isn't a missed opportunity. It’s falling behind your teachers.

It’s a growing disconnect from the tools that teachers are already using to solve real problems. Without thoughtful guidance, schools may face a patchwork of inconsistent AI use, unclear data practices, and missed chances to align technology with instructional priorities – and drive impact at scale

School leaders have an urgent opportunity to embrace AI not as a silver bullet, but as a powerful lever to support teachers, saving them time, elevating instructional quality, engaging students – and ultimately improving student outcomes with district-wide coherence.

Framing the Challenge: Time and Impact

To lead effectively in this space, school and district leaders can start by framing their core challenges:

Where are teachers losing time, and how can we give it back to them? Why is teacher burnout and turnover so high? Why do costs continue to increase without any tangible improvements in student outcomes?

Some questions to ask:

• How much time do our teachers spend each week on non-instructional work?
• What aspects of planning, differentiation, communication, or feedback take the most time?
• Where and how often are students receiving generic instruction instead of targeted support?

These questions help shift the focus from general tech enthusiasm to specific, solvable challenges. And once those needs are clearly defined, it becomes easier to explore how AI tools can address them.

5 Ways School Leaders Can Use AI Right Now

Not every AI solution is created equal. But there are a few key categories where AI is already showing tangible time-saving and quality-boosting results:

1. Lesson and Unit Planning: AI can generate, adapt, or differentiate lesson plans in minutes, allowing teachers to focus on tailoring them to their students rather than starting from scratch.

2. Formative Assessment and Feedback: AI tools can help create low-stakes quizzes, checks for understanding, and even provide personalized feedback to students.

3. Communications with Families: Multilingual, personalized messages to families can be generated quickly and clearly, building stronger home-school connections.

4. IEP and Compliance Documentation: For special educators, AI can help reduce the burden of documentation while maintaining compliance and streamlining the personalization process.

5. Just-In-Time Professional Learning and Coaching: AI can take on the role of trusted thought partner, offering just-in-time support for teachers exploring new strategies or content areas.

When used thoughtfully, each of these examples frees up more time for teachers to focus on building relationships, engaging students through direct interaction and targeted learning strategies, and delivering high-quality instruction.

What Great Leaders Do Next

As a school leader, your role is not to be an AI expert, but to be a champion for your teachers and students. That means:

• Setting a vision for how technology can support your core mission of teaching and learning and the importance of preparing students for our ever-evolving digital world

• Creating a culture that embraces and celebrates experimentation, learning, and continuous improvement - with some urgency
• Allocating resources (time, money, training) to support thoughtful adoption
• Advocating for policies that balance innovation with equity, privacy, and ethics

The best leaders I’ve worked with are those who have a clear vision and also “walk in the shoes” of their teachers— listening, learning, and leading with empathy. They recognize that the goal is not to chase every new technology, but to solve real issues and challenges that get in the way of providing a quality education to every student.

5 Ways to Lead AI Adoption with Intention

Effective AI implementation in schools starts with leadership, culture, and clarity of purpose. Here are a few ideas for how school leaders might approach AI in a thoughtful and impactful way:

1. Engage and Encourage Your Teachers Early
2. Make sure that Principals Understand Your Vision, are Aligned and Engaged
3. Focus on Quality Outputs, Flexibility and Ability to Scale With Coherence
4. Leverage Visibility to Create Some Urgency
5. Don’t Let Perfection (or over-planning/preparation) Get in the Way of Progress

A Personal Note: Why This Matters

As the CEO of Yourway Learning, I lead a dedicated and passionate team of former educators and innovative technologists who are deeply committed to making a difference in K12 education. But I also bring a personal perspective: my wife was a high school math teacher, and my daughter was both an elementary classroom teacher and school administrator. I saw firsthand the long nights, the constant juggling, and the emotional toll that comes with doing everything possible for students in a system that often asks too much.

AI isn’t a magic fix. But it is a real, actionable way to give teachers some of that time back, to shift their role back toward what they do best, and to support them in delivering deeper, more personalized, and more joyful learning experiences for students.

Looking Ahead

The first wave of generative AI adoption in K–12 education is already underway. We’re in the "Level One" phase of knowledge worker productivity—the same kind of leap seen in companies as they adopted office automation, search engines, and mobile devices. For school leaders, the key now is to lean in, lead with purpose, and help shape AI adoption in ways that align with their values, vision, and the needs of their teachers and students.

The opportunity is here. The tools are real. And the impact is within reach—if we approach it with care, clarity, and a deep commitment to the people who make learning possible every day.

Let’s give teachers their time back and help them elevate their work to engage students. Let’s lead together into a future where technology finally works for educators, not against them.