Overview:

Data show that Black students are more likely to use artificial intelligence to help them with their school work. But the school districts that mainly serve these students are less likely to have teachers trained in AI. The result is that students without teachers trained in AI are more likely to misuse the emerging technology, experts say.

Artificial Intelligence is quickly becoming a tutor and study partner for the nation’s Black K-12 students — these days, essays are brainstormed, and math problems are solved by chatbots. But school districts that serve these students tend to have teachers who are less likely to receive training in how to use AI for educational purposes. 

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that Black teens are among the most likely students to use AI to help with schoolwork. But as AI has become a routine study tool for these students, schools are still trying to figure out how — or even whether — to bring that technology into the classroom. 

The result is a growing disconnect between how Black students are learning and how schools are prepared to teach them. 

Allen J. Antoine Jr., director for Computer Science Education at the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center, studies how educators can integrate AI into classrooms. 

RELATED: AI in Schools: Will ChatGPT Help or Hurt Black Students?

He says, “If teachers aren’t adequately prepared and understand what AI is or AI literacy in general and how to teach it, then students are going to be using it in ways that they find appropriate, and that they’re not going to be adequately prepared to actually get out there and use it in a way that’s beneficial.”

If anything, students may rely on chatbots to complete assignments entirely, rather than use them as a brainstorming partner or editing tool, according to Antoine Jr. That could lead to disciplinary problems when schools interpret AI-generated work as cheating.

What Is the AI-training Gap?

Federal data shows that nearly 60% of schools serving mostly students of color have at least some of their teaching staff trained on AI, compared to 75% in predominantly white schools.

There are ongoing efforts to change this. The American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions, partnered with Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic to launch a National Academy for AI Instruction in July 2025. The goal of the academy was to train teachers in AI. Later, in February, Google partnered with the International Society for Technology in Education and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, a teachers’ organization, to offer AI training to millions of teachers as part of a three-year initiative. 

RELATED: Why Black Teens Are Less Supportive of School Cellphone Bans

“Knowing how to use AI to support learning can’t be limited to a handful of early adopters,” Richard Culatta, CEO of ISTE+ASCD, said in a statement. “If we want students to use AI to be responsible, creative, problem solvers, every educator needs the knowledge and confidence to guide them. This partnership is about ensuring all teachers have basic AI readiness that becomes a foundational skill in every classroom.”

Yet, the movement has been slower to reach schools that serve mostly students of color. 

The Digital Divide Grows With AI

Bree Dusseault, a researcher at Arizona State University, says AI training can be a lower priority for many districts that primarily serve students of color, especially for schools trying to meet state standards. 

These districts may not have enough resources to train their teachers on AI, says Dusseault, whose work focuses on equitable AI practices for K-12 public schools.  Time spent on AI training, he says, could be used to train less-experienced educators on how to work with students — a far more crucial skill. 

RELATED: Black Teens Lead in AI Use for Schoolwork, Pew Survey Shows

At the same time, teacher training on AI has tended to reflect the overall Black-white digital divide in education. 

In her research, Dusseult found that in well-funded suburban districts, where teachers are more likely to have received  AI training, are more likely to have parents who work in tech industries. These parents can advocate for school boards to adopt AI training policies for teachers. 

In underfunded schools, “there may be individuals in the system who very much want to learn AI who need to learn it, and they on their own accord might,” Dusseult says. “But the systemic infrastructure or incentives and dynamics aren’t always there to prioritize this for children who are in school systems that serve the majority of students of color.” 

Curbing the AI-training Gap Takes Work

Some researchers have said that district-level AI guidance is a step toward narrowing the gap between teachers who do and those who don’t have AI training. Creating clear guidelines for how and when AI should be used in the classroom, they say, can remove the ambiguity surrounding the emerging technology. In turn, it makes it easier for school districts that mainly serve students of color to train their teachers on AI.

RELATED: A Doritos Bag, a Gun Drawn, and a Black Teen Terrorized by ‘AI’

“If you have a guidance document, it should be universally accessible to all, and it can help teachers who may not have equitable access to other sources of information to at least know where the district-wide guidance document is,” Dusseult says. 

The push to create a standardized approach toward training teachers on AI has hit the federal level. In a Congressional hearing last week, Democrats and Republicans said they would consider funding professional development programs for schools seeking to use AI in lessons, K-12 Dive reported. 

But, without any federal or district guidance, the AI landscape for schools will continue to look like the “wild, wild west,” Antoine Jr. says.