In my recent blog about how we’re “Doubling Down” on the Gates Foundation’s commitment to U.S. education, I wrote about why this moment, with a 2045 end date for the foundation and rapid technological innovation, demands a sharper focus in our work to improve student outcomes.
This is especially true in math, where we’re working to ensure more students complete Algebra I by 9th grade, a critical milestone, as research shows students who do are twice as likely to graduate from high school and achieve long-term success. That urgency comes into focus when you see what’s possible in real classrooms.
During my recent visit to P.S. 083 Donald Hertz, a middle school in New York City’s District 11, I saw exactly the kind of example I had in mind when I wrote that piece, showing what it looks like when tech-enabled tools are designed to support teachers and expand what’s possible for every student.
The results are already visible. In just over a year and a half, math proficiency at the school increased from 55 percent to 62 percent, exceeding expectations across grades six through eight. This progress reflects a combination of factors, including the contributions of our Kiddom Atlas partnership.
Importantly, there is increasing confidence that this kind of integrated, tech-supported teaching can work in school environments like Donald Hertz, where a diverse student population, including 24 percent multilingual learners, more than 20 percent of students with individualized learning plans, and a majority of students from economically diverse backgrounds, brings a wide range of strengths and learning needs into the classroom.
Math outcomes in the U.S. remain far too low, with schools producing roughly one in five 12th graders testing proficiently (NAEP, 2024). There are many reasons for this, including findings from a RAND survey in which teachers report limited access to sustained, job-embedded professional learning needed to effectively teach grade-level math, let alone support students who are behind grade level.
Just over half of math teachers spend two hours or less per month on math-focused professional learning, according to RAND.
The challenge we’re facing as a country isn’t isolated; it’s systemic. This reality calls for a different approach, one that harnesses new tools that meet the needs of teachers, so they can better support students.
From Fragmentation to Coherence
In classrooms across the country, teachers are asked to interpret students’ needs, adjust instruction, and respond in real time.
What’s different at Donald Hertz is a deliberate effort to align curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and technology. This work, which is one of more than 20 middle schools in the district participating in a pilot funded by the Gates Foundation, brings together four of the foundation’s K-12 partners:
- Illustrative Mathematics provides a rigorous, standards-aligned curriculum
- Kiddom translates that curriculum into daily instructional guidance through its platform
- Teaching Lab delivers job-embedded coaching and professional learning
- Achievement Network (ANet) connects assessments to timely insights on student learning.
When Technology Supports Teachers
At the center of this work is an instructional tool called Kiddom Atlas, an AI-enabled layer embedded within the curriculum that helps teachers quickly see patterns in student thinking.
In the past, a teacher might have had to wait until the end of a lesson, or even the next day, to understand where students were struggling. Now, as students work through problems, Kiddom Atlas surfaces patterns in real time, highlighting which concepts are sticking and where students are getting stuck.
This information is integrated into teachers’ daily workflow through real-time dashboards, often paired with suggested next steps tied directly to student responses.
That data allows teachers to adjust instruction in the moment, such as pulling together a small group for targeted support or shifting how they explain a concept to the whole class. Technology hasn’t replaced that experience; it supports it by giving teachers clearer visibility into student thinking and more time to focus on their students.
“The tools we have now have really elevated what’s possible, especially for planning and co-teaching,” said math teacher Michael Crivillaro.
As Kiddom Co-founder and CEO Ahsan Rizvi explained, teaching is a series of real-time decisions. The opportunity is to design technology that helps teachers better understand what’s happening in those moments and respond more effectively.
Students at Donald Hertz are actively engaged, solving problems, explaining their thinking, and learning from one another. They don’t spend their day isolated behind screens; they’re learning together.
Professional Learning that Drives Practice
Job-embedded professional learning is central to this work as well.
With Teaching Lab’s support, teachers receive in-class coaching and ongoing collaboration directly tied to student work and instruction. School leaders and coaches regularly observe classrooms, working with educators to identify patterns and design professional learning that responds to their actual needs, not cookie-cutter guidance on best practices.
As Teaching Lab CEO Sarah Johnson has emphasized, the goal isn’t to automate teaching, it’s to strengthen and refine what educators already do.
Getting Tech-Enabled Tools Right Means Centering Teachers
The goal of tech-enabled, AI-powered tools in the classroom is not to replace teachers, but to support them, helping them make more informed instructional decisions based on clear data and timely information.
When used well, these tools can help teachers deepen their connection with students by creating more time for focused, meaningful interaction.
At the foundation, we believe the best tools are guided by what teachers say they need and designed with student safety, privacy, and well-being as critical elements. There is also a need to continue building evidence on which tools can best support students at critical moments in their learning.
Recent national survey data from Echelon Insights on behalf of the National Parents Union show that about 52 percent of parents believe the benefits and downsides of AI in classrooms are roughly equal.
That perspective reinforces the need to get this right, which is at the heart of all our AI-focused investments aimed at supporting teachers in the classroom. While these tools can help surface patterns and insights, learning itself remains deeply human, built on trust, relationships, and the connection between teachers and students.
As Michelle Odemwingie, CEO of ANet, put it: “We’re not going to chatbot our way to student proficiency.” She’s right. The goal is not to automate learning, it’s to make great teaching even more powerful.
What’s Driving Results and Why It Matters
The gains at Donald Hertz reflect what’s possible when curriculum, tools, and professional learning are aligned around teachers’ needs and help create more consistent opportunities for student success.
Teachers describe greater visibility into student thinking, more responsive instruction, and stronger collaboration.
I asked a sixth-grade student, Gabby Garcia, how she felt about math. She told me she loved it and that she felt engaged in what she was learning, not like a tool was doing the thinking for her.
That happened because her teacher had the support, the tools, and the information to meet her where she was and help her move forward.
Gabby’s experience echoes what I’ve heard from students in other communities, including during my recent visit to Elliot Street Elementary School in Newark, NJ, where similar approaches are helping students feel more connected to their learning.
What Leaders Must Do Next
The work at Donald Hertz shows what’s possible when systems are designed to support teachers. Scaling that impact will require more than standalone tools. It will require alignment across curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and policy to ensure that teachers have the support and resources they need to help every student succeed.
We don’t need more isolated innovation. We need systems and tools that work for educators and for students.
That is how we improve outcomes at scale, ensure more students can access the opportunities ahead, and open doors to the futures they envision.