AI-powered innovations in mathematics teaching & learning request for information

Why are we doing this Request for Information (RFI)?

The goal of this Request for Information (RFI) is to surface innovative ideas and approaches in the K-12 education field that are exploring or leveraging cutting-edge advancements in AI to dramatically improve mathematics teaching and learning. The aim is to help leaders in K-12 education - district and school leaders, educators, researchers, organization leaders, funders, and others - to have a more complete picture of the work happening in this space. In addition, the K-12 Education team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hopes to draw from these learnings to guide investment strategies and support impactful work.

Potential funding opportunities that may be informed by the responses to this RFI will depend on the fit of submissions. We are particularly interested in hearing from those who directly serve K-12 students and teachers, those who develop products, and/or researchers with approaches to develop, research, or adopt student- and/or teacher-facing AI-powered technologies to improve K-12 math teaching and learning in the U.S. - including those with a specific focus deeply rooted in the needs of Black and Latino students and/or students impacted by poverty and their teachers. We welcome submissions that range from early-stage project concepts to more mature approaches.

Finally, in education, there is a tendency for innovations to be built in silos. Through this RFI (and with specific consent from each respondent) we hope to potentially facilitate connections with other funders and other respondents interested in exploring similar projects.

For questions that are not addressed in this document, please reach out to [email protected] and check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below, which we will keep up to date as questions come in.

Ideal submissions for this RFI will:

• Respond to a specific challenge or need experienced by all students, and in particular, students who are Black and Latino and/or impacted by poverty and their teachers.

• Focus on approaches that are directly tied to U.S. K-12 math classrooms, rather than outside-of-school learning.

• Demonstrate a clear, direct connection to improving math teaching and/or learning.

• Fall into any of the following categories of maturity:
• Concept has not yet been prototyped or tested, or is a research project.
• Concept has been prototyped and initial field tests have been conducted.
• Approach is in use in multiple educational settings with teachers and/or students, is being tested for impact, and there is a focus on new feature development and/or scale.

While submissions are not bound to any of these examples, we want to provide ideas that may be a strong fit for this request:

• Student-facing, instructional tools and products that are personalized and feature responsive adaptation of content for the individual needs, identities and preferences of learners and their communities.

• Student-facing, instructional tools that promote student inquiry and development of critical thinking by simulating real-world scenarios and providing just-in-time suggestions or recommendations to help learners generate questions and ideas.

• Student-facing, instructional tools that promote creative problem solving, inquiry into student thinking as a way to leverage advanced mathematical thinking, individualized prompting for students, and questioning to assist students in working through increasingly challenging problems and reasoning.

• Teacher-facing professional learning tools that leverage advances in AI to provide teachers and their coaches with more useful, fine-grained, and frequent instructional insights and guidance to improve their instruction.

• Teacher or coach-facing innovative uses of technology to make the resource-intensive components of professional learning (e.g., coaching, classroom observation, student work analysis, lesson study, opportunities to practice teaching) more cost-effective and scalable.

• Teacher-facing assistants that leverage advances in AI to help teachers to offload administratively or cognitively burdensome tasks (ex: tasks related to lesson planning, lesson delivery, grading, and student and family communication) to save them time for higher-leverage activities.

• Teacher-facing instructional tools that help teachers to productively adapt instructional materials to improve student learning experience, sense of belonging, and relevance while maintaining rigor.

• Tools that leverage AI to make it easier to measure changes in teacher practice, teacher mindsets/beliefs, and/or student experiences.

• District-wide opportunities for teacher professional learning with existing AI tools and/or partnerships with edtech/AI providers.

• Feasibility studies to determine how multiple AI tool options align with and/or enhance existing math curriculum.

How to respond to this RFI

A single organization, district, or multiple organizations working together on the same project are invited to submit responses by completing this online form. We are particularly interested in hearing from those who directly serve K-12 students and teachers, those who develop products, and researchers.

Submissions will be collected via Qualtrics. Respondents can close the form window to complete at a later date if using the same device without losing the drafted language. We recommend downloading the application questions PDF and preparing responses outside of the form. Once ready, respondents can more easily complete the Qualtrics form in one sitting.

Interested respondents are invited to join any of the following options for office hours to learn more about this opportunity: