About 100,000 Louisiana students will have access to an artificial intelligence-powered reading assistant in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. Some of those students will be from Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis school districts.

On Thursday, the expanded partnership with Amira Learning — an AI tutor used to help students with reading fluency and comprehension for students reading at a kindergarten through sixth-grade level — and the Louisiana Department of Education was announced.

Amira is an AI-reading technology created more than 30 years ago at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Spearheaded by Computer Scientist Jack Mostow, the initiative “proved that an intelligent reading tutor could dramatically impact reading outcomes,” according to an Amira representative.

The technology was introduced to classrooms in 2018. Over the years, it has assisted over two million students in 15 countries and all 50 states.

The AI tutor has “sophisticated speech recognition” that is “well-versed in an extensive range of accents and dialects,” with over 10 billion spoken words recognized. According to a release, this makes the especially helpful for ELL and low-income students, and those with disabilities.

Similarly to a teacher, the AI tutor “engages in dialogue, probes students’ comprehension and tailors questions to enhance a student’s understanding and fluency” that is rooted in the science of reading.

In the 2022-23 school year, LDOE began using Amira to target English Language Learners (ELL). Ted Beasley, deputy chief of communication of LDOE, told the American Press that explored working with Amira Learning to bolster literacy education for ELL students.

“The impetus for this partnership came several years ago with a need to increase language and literacy support for English Learners across the state and quickly expanded at the request of school systems who wanted to provide the opportunity to support literacy intervention for additional students.”

In addition to emphasizing the science of reading to improve statewide literacy, LDOE has prioritized providing high-dosage tutoring to students. Amira Learning aligns with this mission.

“Louisiana has been a national leader in our innovative approach to providing all students with access to high-dosage tutoring,” said State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley in a release. “Our collaboration with Amira has been critical in offering this extra support during the school day.”

Beasley said Louisiana is a “national leader” in providing high-quality tutoring.

“Louisiana’s statewide tutoring focus includes opportunities for students to receive this additional academic support during the school day and outside of the school day. “The Amira pilot is part of Louisiana’s efforts to provide more students with tutoring opportunities during the school day.”

It helped about 25,000 students during the 2023-24 school year. This number will increase to 100,000 students across 25 school districts when the partnership is expanded, starting August 1.

Amira learning is about $22 a student, which includes on-site coaching and implementation support for system and school leaders, said Beasley. Additionally, the LDOE has approved Amira as a high-density tutoring option that can be purchased with ACT 771 funds during the 2024-25 school years.