Austin School Board using A.I. to Track Student Success

(ABC 6 News) – Austin Public School is using a new tool to increase graduation rates.

It’s called Infinite Campus. An artificial intelligence early warning system, that uses data points on students to identify early predictors for success or shortcomings. It tracks information staff enters, such as student attendance, grades, and classroom behavior, then converts that into a type of credit score.

While there is growing concern about using artificial intelligence, Austin Public Schools Director of Information Systems, Cory Haugen states there is no reason for parents to be concerned. Mainly because this A.I. is vastly different than the ones being developed for kids, like Chat GPT.

“There’s not really that same level of concern in terms of cheating and getting into that conspiracy theory type of stuff you get with chatbots,” Haugen said. “Even though there’s some A.I. in there, all the student data is protected and we take security as a very high precaution in our district.”

Another objective for APS with this early warning system is for staff to identify issues with students’ performance in the classroom before it gets too late. But it’s not limited to the classroom. Infinite Campus can also potentially identify issues students may be having outside of the classroom.

“It’s looking at thousands of data points across the educational landscape,” Haugen said. “Even stability factors like their enrollment history.”

Even though APS is in its infancy with the early warning system, the results so far have been promising.

Austin High School Senior, Rachel Tolland is set to graduate next week. She tells us that it’s thanks to efforts from APS that have helped her stay on track to achieve her dream of going to Ole Miss in the Fall.

“They made it such an easy process a fun process,” Tolland said. “It’s exciting and scary, but they’re with all of us along the way.”

Austin High School graduation is set for next Friday, June 2nd.