After moderating a panel on improving the high school experience, which focused on human-centered approaches, one district administrator approached us with gratitude: “Thank you for NOT saying AI is the solution,” writes Dr. Kara Stern, director of education for SchoolStatus, in an eSchool News essay. SchoolStatus helps K-12 districts improve attendance, strengthen family communication, support teacher growth, and simplify daily operations.
While we’re automating attendance tracking and building predictive models, we’re missing the fundamental truth that showing up to school is a human decision driven by authentic relationships.
Only 13 percent of students surveyed are fully engaged in their learning, while 45 percent are what researchers call “doing school,” going through the motions behaviorally but finding little joy or meaning in their education, according to Challenge Success, affiliated with Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, which analyzed data from more than 270,000 high school students across 13 years.
Districts are using data to enable more meaningful adult connections, not just adding more technology. One California district saw 32 percent of at-risk students improve attendance after implementing targeted, relationship-based outreach. The key isn’t automated messages but using data to help educators identify disengaged students early and reach out with genuine support.
AI works best when it amplifies personal bonds, not seeks to replace them.
Instead of starting with AI, start with relationship mapping. Harvard’s Making Caring Common project emphasizes that “there may be nothing more important in a child’s life than a positive and trusting relationship with a caring adult.” Relationship mapping helps districts systematically identify which students lack that crucial adult bond at school.
Staff identify students who don’t have positive relationships with any school adults, then volunteers commit to building stronger connections with those students throughout the year. This combines the best of both worlds: Technology provides insights about who needs support, and authentic relationships provide the motivation to show up.
As we head into another school year, we face a choice. We can continue chasing the shiny tech startups, building more sophisticated systems to track and predict student disengagement. Or we can remember that attendance is ultimately about whether a young person feels connected to something meaningful at school.
The most effective districts aren’t choosing between high-tech and high-touch–-they’re using technology to enable more meaningful personal connections. They’re using AI to identify students who need support, then deploying caring adults to provide it
That ISTE administrator was right to be grateful for a non-AI solution. Artificial intelligence can optimize many things, but it can’t replace the fundamental human need to belong, to feel seen, and to believe that showing up matters.
eSchool News
