Latest / Best of: Features / SF schools chief faces teacher, parent backlash over Salesforce-backed tech push

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SF schools chief faces teacher, parent backlash over Salesforce-backed tech push · Best of: Features

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  SF School's Chief Faces Teacher, Parent Backlash over Salesforce back tech Push.
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  Written by Ramon Skiba. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice, generated by Everlet. Salesforce's annual Dreamforce Conference in San Francisco
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  always attracts prominent tech CEOs like Anthropics, Dario Amade, and Nvidia's Jensen
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  Huang, plus a handful of celebrities like Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon,
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  but this year it also included a different sort of a speaker
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  who came to talk about artificial intelligence in public school On Wednesday,
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  Maria Sue, superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, spoke about
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  deploying AI products not in software development, but in the classroom. She
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  argued that San Francisco school teachers need AI
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  tools, to be successful. We need to make sure we understand the
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  tools that we put in front of our students. Make sure we
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  train our educators to use the tools right, she said. Salesforce, of
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  course, makes AI tools, and Sue's appearance at Dreamforce comes after Salesforce's
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  September 14th news that the company announced 18 million in new grants
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  supporting SFUSD and other school districts. SFUSD also signed a contract with
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  OpenAI earlier this year, deploying its ChatGPT Edu product to 12,000 teachers
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  and staff. It's also currently developing a comprehensive tech and AI policy,
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  on which the school board is scheduled to vote on march ninth,
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  twenty twenty seven. But as public opinion sours on the AI and
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  tech industry and a stop the AI rate march disrupted Dreamforce on
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  Thursday, Sue's AI advocacy is a step into contentious territory, and some
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  teachers and parents are wary of AI's advance into the classroom. Sue's
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  no stranger to controversy, facing criticism from San Francisco teachers during their
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  four day strike earlier this year, and from Republicans over her support
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  for transgender student protections, and now she's drawing criticism for her AI
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  push. More than one thousand parents and teachers signed a petition that
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  calls for limiting AI tools and restricting screen time. Salesforce philanthropy, Sue
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  was effusive in her praise for SFUSD's ongoing, nearly fourteen year partnership
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  with Salesforce. It's not a one and done situation, she said. If
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  you commit to us, we'll commit to you. Given that Salesforce is
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  a software company that sells AI products, like Agent Force, it has
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  a vested interest in promoting AI products in new markets, which could
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  include education. Since twenty twenty three, Salesforce has made AI a priority
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  with its donations to SFUSD, encouraging training teachers to include AI in
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  their lesson plans, for example. And its philanthropy isn't new. Salesforce's latest
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  round of grants follows a previous donation of thirteen million dollars last
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  October to San Francisco and Oakland public schools, and its total largesse
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  adds up to more than one hundred fifty six million dollars since
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  twenty thirteen. Seemingly aware of the backlash against AI in the Bay
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  Area, Sue never used the word AI in her remarks, in contrast
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  to her fellow speak Cheryl Lee Ralph, an Emmy winning actor who
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  portrays a kindergarten teacher In
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  the mockumentary TV show Abbott Elementary, and the moderator, Salesforce Senior Vice
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  President of Impact Sunia Norman. Instead, Sue spoke in general terms of
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  tools. Throughout the event, though emphasizing the importance of the human relationship
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  in the classroom, she seemed certain that such tools would be used
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  by teachers and students. She did not speak of listening to teachers
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  or parents about whether they might want them at all. In a
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  follow-up interview with SFgate, Norman said Salesforce has no expectations as to
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  how or whether tech products will be used in the schools. It's
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  not a conflict of interest, she told S. F. Gate. It's not
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  about getting technology in the hands of middle school students. In a
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  statement, the school district did not answer SF Gates questions about potential
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  impacts of AI products on student critical thinking and mental health. Instead,
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  it included a reply from Sue that said, SFUSD recognizes the urgency
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  of establishing clear, thoughtful guidance around student screen use and artificial intelligence
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  as these technologies continue to evolve. The statement also pointed to the
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  district's webpage on generative and agent AI in SFUSD, which outlines general
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  recommendations for classroom use of AI products like ChatGPT, such as for
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  lesson plans and student art, while noting concerns about AI inaccuracies and
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  student privacy. Questions from parents, and teachers. Similar to a debate over
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  AI use that's currently surrounding the California State University system, reception to
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  the rollout of tech and AI products in schools from San Francisco
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  parents and teachers has been mixed. On policies from AI in classrooms
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  to cell phone use by students, parents want more transparency, said Emily
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  De Ayora, communications director at nonprofit San Francisco Parents Coalition. We're not
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  opposed to tech tools, she said.
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  We just want the district thoughtfully listening to parents, hearing their concerns,
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  and including those in the process of building out policies. Adla Chisty,
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  another member of the group and a former teacher, went further, telling
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  SF Gate that the school district has not provided a data on
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  the costs of the AI technologies or whether the AI products have
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  any benefit for student success rates. She also laments the lack of
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  regulations from city officials so far. We shouldn't be using SFUSD as
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  labs to figure out this stuff, she said. Cassandra Curiel, the president
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  of the United Educators of San Francisco Union, who previously faced off
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  against Sioux during the teacher's strike, which was partly over limitations on
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  the district's use of AI, expressed a similar sentiment. After making students
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  and teachers lab mice, there has not been any data to show
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  those tools advance the learning of students, she said. Both Chiste and
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  Courial, an English teacher, cite Amira as an example. The district introduced
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  the AI Reading Tutoring Tool last year, without consulting the Union, Curial
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  said.
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  In a statement, SFUSD spokesperson Katrina Kincaid did not respond to SF
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  Gates question about communicating with the Union, instead saying that the California
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  Department of Education approved AMIRA in december twenty twenty four. In our
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  schools we utilize Amira to practice reading fluency as an optional supplemental
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  tool to the curriculum, she said. Curiel argues that using Amira increases
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  teachers workload rather than reducing it and limits much needed student teacher
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  interactions as students strive to catch up with their peers reading skills,
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  at a time when a majority of Americans read below a sixth
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  grade level, according to a Gallup analysis. In addition, Amira does not
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  perform well with students who speak with accents or speech impediments, she
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  said. In addition to reading, the AI tools could also change how
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  math is taught. At the Dreamforce event, Sue compared new tech tools
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  to calculators, arguing that calculators did not harm students ability to learn
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  math, despite some fears when they were first introduced. Yet the latest
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  research on AI and math isn't promising. A new study by researchers
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  at UC Irvine and the educational publisher, McGraw Hill that's in peer
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  review, finds that high school students spend thirty percent less time on
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  math homework problems that they can copy and paste in AI chatbots,
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  and their performance drops twenty five percent on tests. Chisty particularly worries
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  about potential effects on mental health if students frequently interact with chatbots.
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  Why should parents have to be the ones raising this issue? She
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  asked. There should be a halt on this until we figure out
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  what the impacts are. Both parents and teachers emphasize that they're not
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  opposed to tech tools per se in San Francisco schools. We're not
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  anti technology, Curiel said. We're against the companies and owners that want
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  to exploit us.