![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/KV_00316-1.jpg\")
Montwood High School student. (Courtesy\/ Socorro Independent School District)<\/p>\nHanks Middle School students in Kim Vandagriff\u2019s sixth-grade social studies class typed their handwritten notes onto their computers, scrolled to the bottom of the screen and prompted an artificial intelligence program to generate a slide for a presentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to create a video that they can go back and share with their friends,\u201d Vandagriff told El Paso Matters. \u201cWe don\u2019t want this to be a replacement for their thinking. We want this as a tool to share information.\u201d<\/p>\n
El Dorado High School senior Azul Larson said her teachers have varying approaches to using AI.<\/p>\n
Her dual-credit English teacher is completely against the technology and will fail anyone whose essays are deemed to be over 15% AI by software designed to spot computer generated writing. Meanwhile, her precalculus teacher sometimes uses AI in class when he doesn\u2019t know how to solve an equation, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve also had a few teachers who don\u2019t recommend directly copying from AI, but rather using it for inspiration or to sort of guide you in an assignment,\u201d Larson told El Paso Matters.<\/p>\n
Students and teachers across El Paso are utilizing AI in similar ways, using programs that range from generative chat bots \u2014 such as ChatGPT \u2014 that can respond to users to specialized software with tools designed with education in mind.<\/p>\n
Now many are finding ways to implement lessons to teach students how AI works, how it can be used and how to use it ethically and responsibly \u2014 a concept known as AI literacy.<\/p>\n
Many, including the Socorro and Ysleta independent school districts, are also developing guidelines for employees and students that outline how they are allowed to use AI.<\/p>\n
Montwood High School student. (Courtesy\/ Socorro Independent School District)<\/p>\n
Next school year, YISD plans to have students take a monthly digital citizenship course, which will show students how to responsibly use technology and how to safely navigate the online world, including AI use.<\/p>\n
Harmony Public Schools, the second-largest charter school system in the county, plans to start offering a class next school year on AI to all its eighth-grade students.<\/p>\n
El Paso Independent School District officials said in a statement that the district has integrated AI into its instruction and uses AI programs that give students feedback on their writing, but did not give details on how they work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While many of these changes are years in the making, they are gaining urgency as the use of AI in schools grows. The President Donald Trump administration has also pushed for AI in education, after signing an executive order <\/a>last year encouraging schools to teach AI literacy starting in kindergarten. The order also established the Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force to identify federal funding sources for schools that could be used for AI education.<\/p>\n AI use in schools is quickly increasing, though training and policies are falling behind as technology rapidly advances, according to a national survey conducted by RAND<\/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. The survey found 54% of students and 53% of core subject teachers indicated that they used AI for school in 2025 \u2014 an increase of 15 percentage points compared with the previous two years. The survey also found that over 80% of students have not had lessons on how to use AI for schoolwork, and only 45% of principals reported having policies or guidance in place on how to use it.<\/p>\n Texas is one of 16 states that don\u2019t have official guidelines<\/a> on the use of AI in public schools, and does not have curriculum standards on AI literacy.<\/p>\n With no direction from the state, El Paso schools are left to figure out how to teach and utilize the technology.<\/p>\n Most area school districts are still working out how to use AI in a way that will improve learning outcomes, said Clifton Tanabe, the dean of the University of Texas at El Paso College of Education.<\/p>\n \u201cSome districts are further along in \u2018here\u2019s the dos and don\u2019ts. Here are some tools that we believe work. Here are some things that we want you to be careful of.\u2019 And then other districts are just at the very beginning of trying to figure that out,\u201d Tanabe told El Paso Matters.<\/p>\n Tanabe said this is why UTEP is hosting the Region-Wide K-12 AI Learning Incubator, a series of workshops for district leaders to discuss AI literacy, ethics, data security and the different types of AI models.<\/p>\n The series kicked off March 25 and included a discussion with districts about their AI policies.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were asking each other questions and then sharing insights about where they were at, focused on policy development. We talked about what\u2019s going on, what you do with AI, and can you share that with each other?\u201d Tanabe said.<\/p>\n Next, UTEP plans to bring experts and visit national conferences to discuss how AI has been used in schools outside El Paso.<\/p>\n Tanabe said the incubator will culminate in a large summit in August where education leaders will talk about the next steps for AI in education in the region and celebrate the work that has been done so far.<\/p>\n AI in schools<\/p>\n Many schools started using AI programs years ago, though they went by a different name, said Miguel Moreno, SISD\u2019s instructional technology coordinator.<\/p>\n \u201cThey would call it software that is adapted to student needs, or is tailoring instruction to students\u2019 levels,\u201d Moreno said.<\/p>\n What\u2019s new are the large language models that analyze data to generate human-like responses, such as ChatGPT, Claud, Copilot and Gemini, said Veronica Alvarez,\u00a0 YISD\u2019s director of innovative learning.<\/p>\n \u201cThese AI agents build and leverage those (large language models) as the brain, and then they program them and build them for a specific task,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n SISD, YISD and Harmony all use Magicschool, a program with dozens of education-based tools, including some that can generate feedback on lectures, write emails to parents and translate text.<\/p>\n The program can be customized to fit a school\u2019s policies, and ensure it\u2019s being used for its desired intent, said Burak Yilmaz, Harmony\u2019s director of instruction.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want teachers, for example, to ask AI to create a new lesson plan from scratch,\u201d Yilmaz said.<\/p>\n Instead, Harmony teachers can use Magicschool to help prepare for a lesson by creating checklists and giving feedback, Yilmaz said.<\/p>\n Vandagriff said she has used Gemini, which is integrated into all Google programs, to translate documents for her student, who recently moved to the U.S. and does not speak English. She\u2019s also used it to adjust the reading difficulty of an article based on a student\u2019s skills.<\/p>\n Eastwood High School junior Sophia Gutierrez said she used AI to generate flash cards and got answers to questions faster than she normally would without the technology.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the classroom, some teachers do use AI for assignment making and encourage us to explore apps, like Quizlet, that create study plans or a bot that we can ask questions to,\u201d Gutierrez said.<\/p>\n YISD blocked students from using ChatGPT on school computers and redirects them to the Securely AI chatbot, which can be accessed by their school.<\/p>\n Gutierrez said it\u2019s unclear how students are allowed to use it and thinks the district should have an AI policy centered on improving learning.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like our administration to do a better job at addressing AI in schools because it was never explicitly mentioned that it wasn\u2019t allowed, making it easier for students to rely on it rather than help them learn,\u201d Gutierrez said.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it isn\u2019t black or white if it\u2019s a good thing or a bad thing,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n SISD is one of the only districts in the region that has policies on how students and employees are allowed to use AI.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LT-HANKS-MIDDLE-SCHOOL-02.jpg\")
Students at Hanks Middle School use AI to make a video based on their notes for their sixth-grade social studies class, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Luis Torres \/ El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LT-KIM-VANDAGRIFF-06.jpg\")
Kim Vandagriff, a sixth\u2011grade teacher at Hanks Middle School, supervises her students and answers their questions as they work online with Google\u2019s Gemini, an AI tool designed to speed up learning compared with traditional textbook\u2011based classroom instruction, Friday, April 10, 2026. (Luis Torres\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/HSE-El-Paso-Feb-24-09.jpg\")
Harmony Public Schools students in El Paso use computers. (Courtesy\/Harmony Public Schools)<\/p>\n