Colonial SD plans controlled pilot of Magic School AI tool in middle and high schools

Colonial School District staff told the Curriculum Committee on April 7 that the district will begin a closely supervised pilot of the Magic School artificial-intelligence platform with selected middle- and high-school classrooms in May and June.

The pilot is intended to test teacher and student uses of AI within existing curriculum, collect pre- and post-pilot surveys and inform professional learning for a wider rollout next school year. District leaders said the pilot will use free trial access to Magic School’s paid features and be limited to think-tank teachers and teacher volunteers at each building.

District presenters described the pilot as a next step after work that began with an AI steering committee formed in October 2024, a district AI policy and an updated acceptable-use policy approved in November 2024, and a February 13 professional-development day that introduced AI concepts to staff. Presenters told the committee that the steering committee and teacher think-tanks helped design professional learning and resource pages and that many teachers reported positive feedback from February training.

At the middle school, the pilot will start in ELA and history classrooms taught by staff who are members of the district’s think tank; those classes include the full cohort of students at that grade level so special-education and English-learner students will be represented, the district said. At the high school the district expects two to four teachers to participate. Teachers and administrators who planned the pilot emphasized that lessons will be designed to pair disciplinary instruction with lessons about ethical and appropriate AI use. Parents will be notified before students use the tools and offered an opt-out alternative.

District staff described Magic School’s features they considered important: FERPA and COPPA compliance, data-safety commitments, a range of tools for different subjects and built-in teacher/administrator supports. Staff said Magic School allows teachers to tailor outputs (for example, producing student-facing material at a lower reading level or prompting the tool to require students to respond with an open-ended question), and that the platform includes teacher-facing prompts that help ensure lesson plans reflect universal-design and differentiation practices.

Staff also flagged concerns and next steps the district plans to study during the pilot: which tools will meet district policy and terms-of-service requirements; whether to purchase district licenses for particular products or to rely on a single integrated platform to avoid buying many different subscriptions; the need for sandbox time and paid-version access during evaluation; and protocols for preventing misuse, plagiarism and factual errors.

Teachers who took part in February professional development asked for additional sandbox time, models of student use in classrooms and guidance about which paid features are worth procuring, staff said. District presenters told the committee that Magic School has offered a free trial of paid features for the pilot period and that the district intends to assess teacher and student experiences before proposing any larger purchase.

District leaders said the pilot will include pre- and post-pilot student surveys to measure AI literacy and student comfort, and that those data will inform professional learning in August and a possible broader student rollout. The committee discussed communications to families, including translating materials into families’ preferred languages and offering demonstrations at back-to-school or parent nights.

Speakers and staff emphasized the district will proceed deliberately rather than immediately expanding student access, and that elementary classrooms will continue a more cautious approach focused on teacher use and scaffolding digital citizenship until appropriate age-level expectations are in place.

Provenance: The committee was first introduced to the AI update during opening remarks about the AI roadmap and professional development (transcript excerpt: "Good evening everyone, and yes, welcome to April's Curriculum Committee of the Board meeting... we are revisiting where we are and where we have been so far"), and presenters described pilot timing and Magic School features later in the presentation (transcript excerpt: "we are hoping to pilot at both CMS, May and June with those, free licenses from Magic Schools").