Reports by Gretchen Piatt

Artificial intelligence is becoming a regular part of how teenagers do their schoolwork, leaving teachers to figure out when AI is a helpful tool and when students are relying on it too much.

A February 2026 Pew Research Center study found that 54% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 have used AI chatbots for schoolwork. As the technology becomes increasingly accessible, educators say they are already seeing its effects in the classroom.

Zachary Hollis, an English teacher at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, Ohio, said some students are turning to AI before attempting assignments themselves.

“Some students will use AI as a first resort instead of finding the answer in a text or using their own knowledge to work through a problem,” Hollis said.

Students turning to technology for answers is not entirely new, Hollis said. Students have long used search engines such as Google when they are unsure of an answer, but AI can go further by generating a complete response.

“The difference is that AI will not only show students where the information is, but it will formulate an answer that students can directly copy and paste into a document,” Hollis said.

Photo courtesy of the School of Journalism and New Media.

That accessibility has forced teachers to rethink how they structure assignments. Hollis said some teachers have moved more work into the classroom and created shorter assignments that students complete without technology.

Chloe Crane, an English teacher at South Panola High School in Batesville, Mississippi, has noticed similar behavior. She said she does not frequently see students openly using platforms such as ChatGPT but sees them turning to Google’s AI features for research and writing.

“They use it to avoid thinking, it seems,” Crane said.

For educators, the challenge is determining when AI supports learning and when it begins to replace it.

Hollis said he and another English teacher introduced a traffic-light system to help students understand ethical AI use. “Green” assignments allow AI for tasks such as brainstorming and organizing ideas. “Yellow” assignments permit limited AI assistance, while “red” assignments require students to complete the work without AI.

“The biggest line needs to be drawn between AI being used as a tool to assist in organization and productivity versus it being used as a tool to do students’ work for them,” Hollis said.

Sarah Campbell, an instructor of composition and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi, said AI can also produce positive outcomes when students use it intentionally.

Campbell said AI can help students brainstorm, identify experts, analyze information and manage work across multiple courses. She has also seen students use the technology to break down difficult concepts so they can better explain what they have learned in their writing.

“There are a lot of use cases that have produced positive outcomes,” Campbell said.

Campbell encourages students to consider what specific problem they are trying to solve with AI, how they will measure whether it was effective and whether their use of the technology is ethical. Those questions, she said, can help students develop “discernment and wisdom” when deciding how to use AI.

The different approaches come as AI has become a common academic tool for teenagers. The Pew study found that 10% of teens use AI chatbots for all or most of their schoolwork, while another 21% use them for some of their work.

The technology has also raised concerns about academic integrity. The Pew study found that 59% of teens believe students at their schools use AI to cheat at least somewhat often. Among teens who personally use chatbots for schoolwork, 76% said AI-assisted cheating occurs at least sometimes at their schools.

One high school student said those concerns reflect how he sometimes uses the technology himself. The student asked not to be named because he did not want his teachers to know about the extent of his AI use.

“I use AI a lot, and sometimes I go to it before I even try to do the assignment myself,” the student said.

His experience reflects what Hollis has observed in his classroom, where some students turn to AI before working through problems independently.

For Crane, concerns about AI extend beyond students. She said educators also need to consider how much they rely on the technology.

“One of my concerns is ending up in this AI loop where teachers use it to create materials, students use it to complete those materials, and teachers then use AI to grade that completion,” Crane said. “No one is doing any actual thinking in that loop.”

Crane said she tries to avoid relying heavily on AI when creating lessons because the technology does not know her individual students or fully understand what they are capable of accomplishing.

Despite concerns about overreliance, Hollis said educators have a responsibility to teach students how to use AI appropriately rather than simply trying to eliminate it.

“As high school teachers, we have a responsibility to teach our students how to use AI in moral and ethical ways,” Hollis said.

He compared responsible AI use to digital citizenship. Rather than telling students not to use the internet, educators teach them how to use online resources responsibly.

“This is a major step in the evolution of the internet, so we must adapt with it as educators,” Hollis said.

Campbell agreed that educators should keep students at the center of decisions surrounding the technology.

“Educators should pay most attention to our main event: students,” Campbell said.

Listening to students can help teachers understand where they are struggling, when AI may support their learning and when they need to step away from the technology, Campbell said.

As AI becomes more common in classrooms, teachers are trying to figure out how it can help students without becoming something they rely on for everything. AI can be useful for brainstorming, organizing ideas and understanding difficult topics, but teachers worry students may start using it to avoid doing the work themselves.

For schools, the challenge is finding a balance that allows students to use AI as a tool while still making sure they are learning and thinking for themselves.

Sources

Zachary Hollis — English teacher, Bishop Watterson High School, Columbus, Ohio. Interview conducted by Gretchen Piatt.

Chloe Crane — English teacher, South Panola High School, Batesville, Mississippi. Interview conducted by Gretchen Piatt.

Sarah Campbell — Instructor of Composition and Rhetoric, University of Mississippi Department of Writing and Rhetoric; interim instructional designer and digital support specialist; School of Education Ph.D. candidate. Interview conducted by Gretchen Piatt.

Anonymous high school student — Student source who requested anonymity because he did not want his teachers to know about the extent of his AI use. Interview conducted by Gretchen Piatt.

Pew Research Center — “How Teens Use and View AI.” Pew Research Center, 24 Feb. 2026. pewresearch.org/internet/2026/02/24/how-teens-use-and-view-ai/.