AI-Driven Tools and Automated Pipelines for Enhancing School Improvement Efforts

Advances in AI and automation are reshaping educational workflows, making processes more efficient, accurate, and equitable. In collaboration with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the American Institutes for Research (AIR) has modernized traditional school needs assessments processes. These assessments, once requiring months of manual effort, now benefit from streamlined workflows that reduce timelines to mere weeks while improving the level of customization and actionable insights available to schools.

Central to this transformation is the AI Findings Pipeline, which leverages WhisperX and GPT to automate transcription, speaker identification, and the tagging of focus group audio. This tool enables the rapid generation of AI generated insights, converting hours of discussions into minutes of customized findings. Alongside this innovation is the Report Running Data Pipeline, a system that integrates Airtable automations with AWS technologies to produce tailored, data-rich reports on demand. These reports combine AI-generated findings with critical school metrics and survey data, offering a holistic view of school performance and critical needs.

Together, these tools provide researchers and school leaders with timely, evidence-based recommendations, supporting ISBE's Equity Journey Continuum and broader equity goals. By integrating structured data with qualitative expertise, this approach highlights the potential of AI to simplify complex processes, minimize logistical burdens, and drive impactful improvements in educational systems. This methodology underscores the growing importance of leveraging technology to meet the evolving challenges of education while maintaining a focus on equity and inclusivity.

Needs Assessment

School Improvement

AI-driven tools

Automation

Data Pipeline 

Software & Data Science Technologies

Symposium on Data Science and Statistics (SDSS) 2025