December 15, 2025 • 12 mins
Ready or not, AI has arrived. Rather than avoid it, how can we embrace it, and use it to our advantage? For the next few minutes, we talk about AI in the classroom, and how can it can help teachers amplify — not replace — human coaching. Carolyne Quintana is the new CEO of Teaching Matters and former Deputy Chancellor of Teaching and Learning at the NYC Department of Education. Teaching Matters works with schools to enrich professional learning for educators that is evidence-based, culturally responsive, and proven to increase teacher effectiveness.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thanks for listening to Get Connected AI. It's at home,
it's at work, and definitely in education. How can we
embrace AI tools and use them to our advantage. For
the next few minutes, we'll talk about AI in education
and specifically how it can help amplify, not replace, human coaching.
Carolyn Quintana is the new CEO of Teaching Matters and
(00:35):
former Deputy Chancellor of Teaching and Learning at the New
York City Department of Education. Carolyn Kintana, thank you for
being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hello Nina, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The website is Teachingmatters dot org. This is an organization
that works with schools. Can you talk about your core
purpose and mission? What are the teachers and schools you
work with as well?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Absolutely, I'm actually just finished my third month as CEO
of Teaching Matters. It's been an incredible experience so far.
Teaching Matters is an organization deeply committed to the growth
and development of people, from our own coaches and staff
to the teachers and the leaders that we support, building
up their classrooms, helping leaders build ecosystems of support around them,
(01:20):
and everything that we do is in service of one
core mission to ensure that every child, regardless of zip code,
has access to a high quality academic experience that leads
to deeper learning and that genuinely prepares them for the
world beyond school.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Since you mentioned your new arrival, congratulations on becoming the
new CEO of Teaching Matters. The organization is marking its
thirtieth anniversary. What was exciting to you about joining the organization.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It's work that feels especially urgent right now, and thank
you for that. It's been really exciting to join the organization.
I know that even before the pandemic, we were seeing
deep inequities and gaps and student outcomes, and so the
work that we do has really already had an impact
on student outcomes, on teacher development and their sense of
self efficacy. I was a coach myself long ago. I
(02:08):
know what it takes to build up strong classrooms in
that way, and so I really value the work that
Teaching Matters is doing, and that they're doing it in
a city that has won a large number of students
and then two such great impact in terms of how
we help inform what happens in the field.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
What is the data show actually about the difference that
instructional coaching for educators makes and what advantage does it
give both teachers and students.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
We've had tremendous impacts so far. So in the districts
where we've worked or in the schools where we've worked,
we've seen tremendous gains already. We've seen more consistent classroom
practices and that's actually what closes those achievement gaps, and
those results are encouraging. Last year, Teaching Matters partner districts
posted larger ELA gains than the city average. So we
(02:53):
saw gains of thirteen point three percentage points versus the
eleven point five percentage points overall, and that was higher
for English language learners and for our Black students. And
these results show that New York City can close the
GAP's fastest when teachers get that sustained and ongoing coaching
and curriculum aligned support.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
We're speaking with Carolyn Kintana. She's the new CEO of
Teaching Matters. You can find out more at Teachingmatters dot org.
Teaching Matters works with schools to enrich professional learning for
educators that is evidence based, culturally responsive, and proven to
increase teacher effectiveness. This is get Connected on one six
point seven Light FM. I'mina del Rio and onto the
(03:32):
topic at hand. AI. So you've been working in public
education for over twenty years as a teacher of principal coach,
most recently as Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at
New York City Public Schools. To start with, what would
you say about how AI is impacting or being received
in classrooms.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It's mixed. I think that the way that schools are
embracing AI has AI has had a mixed reception in
schools at this point. In districts where policies or guidance
and guardrails has really been made available for schools, there's
more of a willingness and a little bit more of
an ease in terms of giving AI a go, both
(04:14):
for adults figuring out how it helps them do planning
and simplify their administrative tasks and really be a little
more creative in what they're putting in place in the
classroom to better support students, create more personalized activities that
actually can better support our English language learners, our students
with disabilities, or students who just may need an additional boost.
(04:36):
We're also thinking about ways that students can engage with
the technology to support themselves to maybe move beyond the textbook.
But that's working best in those places where we have
those kinds of policies in place that allow the users
to understand what's permissible and what's not, but also when
(04:56):
the technology is necessary and when it just isn't, and
that kind of discernment, that kind of thinking around it
is something that is incredibly important in terms of making
sure that kids are still doing the heavy lift, the
adults are still doing the heavy lift and not pushing
off to technology. What's really going to build that kind
of learning?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Certainly for adults, there's this concept no matter what sector
you work in, that this could replace what I do.
How are you using AI to help teachers evaluate rather
than replace the teaching they do?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
This is a great question, Nana, Thank you. Many folks
are or teachers have expressed some concern about whether or
not the profession will change as a result of AI.
And while there is certainly room for AI to help
inform how we teach. It shouldn't replace a teacher. We
know that the science of learning and development tells us
(05:54):
that interpersonal relationships actually help build a better connection to learning,
help kids actually process and retain information, They lower cortisol levels,
help release some doorphins, and so those human interactions in
human relationships are incredibly important in the classroom. We know
that we can use AI to help amplify what's happening
(06:17):
in the classroom, but the minute that it actually replaces
the thinking that students are doing, the students are not
developing the skills, the content, or that capacity and the
stamina that goes with it to really continue to be
problem solvers, creators, builders, thinkers, and that's what we need
them to be able to do beyond school. And so
(06:39):
we really need to be thoughtful about how we're helping
teachers understand how to use the technology to better meet
the needs of students, to maybe make some of their
lessons more engaging, but certainly not to replace that work.
We also know that in the younger grades, it's really
important for students to to use their dakotables in their hands,
(06:59):
to actually do the work with pen and pencils, so
that they're really learning to not only learning the information
and going through the motions, but also retaining better and
so being really careful about when we're putting kids on
computers and when we're asking them to do the work themselves.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Some examples, you've described AI as helping coaches see patterns
in classroom interactions. What does that mean? What would that
look like in practice?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yep, that's great. So we have an opportunity right now
we're in the middle of a pilot. We had an
opportunity already to do some learning through funding from the
Gates Foundation, and now we're in the middle of a
pilot using AI in the classroom through Teach Effects funded
by the Overdeck Family Foundation, that is allowing us to
compare sets of schools that are using an AI enabled
(07:48):
tool in secondary math classrooms and sets of schools that
are not using the tool. And so what the AI
analyzes is teacher student talk, so things like how much
time students been asking or answering questions and then surface
those patterns for reflection. It's not to evaluate teachers, but
to allow our coaches to use that low inference data
(08:09):
or those insights to actually guide their support and that way,
we can strengthen their practice. What's also really beneficial of
it is that often schools don't have enough dosage of
coaching and so the number of days that really can
help support either because they can't afford it or they
haven't invested in coaching in that way. And so this
technology actually helps us bridge the gap between visits and
(08:34):
allows teachers to use those insights to guide their own development.
And so we're giving teachers more feedback. It's immediate, it's faster,
it's letting you know the levels of question that you asked,
the amount of student voice that was in the classroom.
It even can help analyze things like tone, all on
a closed platform, ensuring that there is safety that student
(08:56):
likenesses are not making it out into the public sphere,
which is really really important, right, making sure that we're
amplifying human coaching and doing it in a safe way.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
How can AI tools and teacher training help address post
COVID trends in education like declining academic performance and widening
achievement gaps.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
We saw that the pandemic actually had a great impact
on gaps that were already there, especially in reading in math.
We were already seeing concerns in terms of our assessment
data for reading proficiency and for math proficiency. And we
know that the single biggest factor in student success is
(09:35):
teacher quality and that time spent with the teacher. So
our work focuses on making high quality coaching more accessible
and whether we're using AI as a tool to help
amplify that or it's the work that we do through
our codified coaching practices, we're making sure that we are
supporting teachers to develop a sense of self efficacy and
(09:56):
to really improve the way that they can meet the
needs the students in front of them. Where As I
mentioned running this pilot with those ten New York City
schools to study how AI can help speed that up
and strengthen that feedback cycle and that way teachers can
make those adjustments more often and more quickly, which helps
students learn faster. And it's a way to extend the
(10:17):
reach of already great coaching and to ensure that every
student gets the benefits of strong, consistent instruction.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So, looking forward, if we imagine a New York City
classroom five years from now, what would you say great
teaching would look like.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I think it would. It's interesting to know I just
came back from attending an AI conference, and this was
a question that we talked about there. It's really imagine
what it would look like sound like five or ten
years from now, and I believe that great teaching will
feel even more human. AI will handle some of the
heavy lifting on data and feedback, and that should allow
teachers to spend more time connecting with students, designing engaging lessons,
(10:55):
and personalizing learning. Really giving kids an opportunity to build things,
to break things, to create, to understand how learning happens,
and to practice the skills that they'll need for the
world beyond school communication, collaborating, working on a team together,
putting together plans, pulling information from multiple sources to create something.
(11:17):
Our vision is that every teacher, whether they're brand new
or a veteran, has access to a virtual coaching partner
that can help them reflect, grow and continuously improve. And
that means that every student in every classroom would benefit
from a teacher who feels supported, confident, empowered, and who
has the energy to move around with them in those
creative ways. And that's the future that we're working toward
(11:38):
at Teaching Matters.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Our guest is Carolyn Kintana. She's the CEO of Teaching Matters.
You can find out more at teachingmatters dot org. Thank
you for being on to get connected.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
This has been get connected with Nina del Rio on
one IHO six point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed in part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thanks for listening to Get Connected AI. It's at home,
it's at work, and definitely in education. How can we
embrace AI tools and use them to our advantage. For
the next few minutes, we'll talk about AI in education
and specifically how it can help amplify, not replace, human coaching.
Carolyn Quintana is the new CEO of Teaching Matters and
(00:35):
former Deputy Chancellor of Teaching and Learning at the New
York City Department of Education. Carolyn Kintana, thank you for
being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hello Nina, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
The website is Teachingmatters dot org. This is an organization
that works with schools. Can you talk about your core
purpose and mission? What are the teachers and schools you
work with as well?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Absolutely, I'm actually just finished my third month as CEO
of Teaching Matters. It's been an incredible experience so far.
Teaching Matters is an organization deeply committed to the growth
and development of people, from our own coaches and staff
to the teachers and the leaders that we support, building
up their classrooms, helping leaders build ecosystems of support around them,
(01:20):
and everything that we do is in service of one
core mission to ensure that every child, regardless of zip code,
has access to a high quality academic experience that leads
to deeper learning and that genuinely prepares them for the
world beyond school.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Since you mentioned your new arrival, congratulations on becoming the
new CEO of Teaching Matters. The organization is marking its
thirtieth anniversary. What was exciting to you about joining the organization.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
It's work that feels especially urgent right now, and thank
you for that. It's been really exciting to join the organization.
I know that even before the pandemic, we were seeing
deep inequities and gaps and student outcomes, and so the
work that we do has really already had an impact
on student outcomes, on teacher development and their sense of
self efficacy. I was a coach myself long ago. I
(02:08):
know what it takes to build up strong classrooms in
that way, and so I really value the work that
Teaching Matters is doing, and that they're doing it in
a city that has won a large number of students
and then two such great impact in terms of how
we help inform what happens in the field.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
What is the data show actually about the difference that
instructional coaching for educators makes and what advantage does it
give both teachers and students.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
We've had tremendous impacts so far. So in the districts
where we've worked or in the schools where we've worked,
we've seen tremendous gains already. We've seen more consistent classroom
practices and that's actually what closes those achievement gaps, and
those results are encouraging. Last year, Teaching Matters partner districts
posted larger ELA gains than the city average. So we
(02:53):
saw gains of thirteen point three percentage points versus the
eleven point five percentage points overall, and that was higher
for English language learners and for our Black students. And
these results show that New York City can close the
GAP's fastest when teachers get that sustained and ongoing coaching
and curriculum aligned support.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
We're speaking with Carolyn Kintana. She's the new CEO of
Teaching Matters. You can find out more at Teachingmatters dot org.
Teaching Matters works with schools to enrich professional learning for
educators that is evidence based, culturally responsive, and proven to
increase teacher effectiveness. This is get Connected on one six
point seven Light FM. I'mina del Rio and onto the
(03:32):
topic at hand. AI. So you've been working in public
education for over twenty years as a teacher of principal coach,
most recently as Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at
New York City Public Schools. To start with, what would
you say about how AI is impacting or being received
in classrooms.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It's mixed. I think that the way that schools are
embracing AI has AI has had a mixed reception in
schools at this point. In districts where policies or guidance
and guardrails has really been made available for schools, there's
more of a willingness and a little bit more of
an ease in terms of giving AI a go, both
(04:14):
for adults figuring out how it helps them do planning
and simplify their administrative tasks and really be a little
more creative in what they're putting in place in the
classroom to better support students, create more personalized activities that
actually can better support our English language learners, our students
with disabilities, or students who just may need an additional boost.
(04:36):
We're also thinking about ways that students can engage with
the technology to support themselves to maybe move beyond the textbook.
But that's working best in those places where we have
those kinds of policies in place that allow the users
to understand what's permissible and what's not, but also when
(04:56):
the technology is necessary and when it just isn't, and
that kind of discernment, that kind of thinking around it
is something that is incredibly important in terms of making
sure that kids are still doing the heavy lift, the
adults are still doing the heavy lift and not pushing
off to technology. What's really going to build that kind
of learning?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Certainly for adults, there's this concept no matter what sector
you work in, that this could replace what I do.
How are you using AI to help teachers evaluate rather
than replace the teaching they do?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
This is a great question, Nana, Thank you. Many folks
are or teachers have expressed some concern about whether or
not the profession will change as a result of AI.
And while there is certainly room for AI to help
inform how we teach. It shouldn't replace a teacher. We
know that the science of learning and development tells us
(05:54):
that interpersonal relationships actually help build a better connection to learning,
help kids actually process and retain information, They lower cortisol levels,
help release some doorphins, and so those human interactions in
human relationships are incredibly important in the classroom. We know
that we can use AI to help amplify what's happening
(06:17):
in the classroom, but the minute that it actually replaces
the thinking that students are doing, the students are not
developing the skills, the content, or that capacity and the
stamina that goes with it to really continue to be
problem solvers, creators, builders, thinkers, and that's what we need
them to be able to do beyond school. And so
(06:39):
we really need to be thoughtful about how we're helping
teachers understand how to use the technology to better meet
the needs of students, to maybe make some of their
lessons more engaging, but certainly not to replace that work.
We also know that in the younger grades, it's really
important for students to to use their dakotables in their hands,
(06:59):
to actually do the work with pen and pencils, so
that they're really learning to not only learning the information
and going through the motions, but also retaining better and
so being really careful about when we're putting kids on
computers and when we're asking them to do the work themselves.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Some examples, you've described AI as helping coaches see patterns
in classroom interactions. What does that mean? What would that
look like in practice?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yep, that's great. So we have an opportunity right now
we're in the middle of a pilot. We had an
opportunity already to do some learning through funding from the
Gates Foundation, and now we're in the middle of a
pilot using AI in the classroom through Teach Effects funded
by the Overdeck Family Foundation, that is allowing us to
compare sets of schools that are using an AI enabled
(07:48):
tool in secondary math classrooms and sets of schools that
are not using the tool. And so what the AI
analyzes is teacher student talk, so things like how much
time students been asking or answering questions and then surface
those patterns for reflection. It's not to evaluate teachers, but
to allow our coaches to use that low inference data
(08:09):
or those insights to actually guide their support and that way,
we can strengthen their practice. What's also really beneficial of
it is that often schools don't have enough dosage of
coaching and so the number of days that really can
help support either because they can't afford it or they
haven't invested in coaching in that way. And so this
technology actually helps us bridge the gap between visits and
(08:34):
allows teachers to use those insights to guide their own development.
And so we're giving teachers more feedback. It's immediate, it's faster,
it's letting you know the levels of question that you asked,
the amount of student voice that was in the classroom.
It even can help analyze things like tone, all on
a closed platform, ensuring that there is safety that student
(08:56):
likenesses are not making it out into the public sphere,
which is really really important, right, making sure that we're
amplifying human coaching and doing it in a safe way.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
How can AI tools and teacher training help address post
COVID trends in education like declining academic performance and widening
achievement gaps.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
We saw that the pandemic actually had a great impact
on gaps that were already there, especially in reading in math.
We were already seeing concerns in terms of our assessment
data for reading proficiency and for math proficiency. And we
know that the single biggest factor in student success is
(09:35):
teacher quality and that time spent with the teacher. So
our work focuses on making high quality coaching more accessible
and whether we're using AI as a tool to help
amplify that or it's the work that we do through
our codified coaching practices, we're making sure that we are
supporting teachers to develop a sense of self efficacy and
(09:56):
to really improve the way that they can meet the
needs the students in front of them. Where As I
mentioned running this pilot with those ten New York City
schools to study how AI can help speed that up
and strengthen that feedback cycle and that way teachers can
make those adjustments more often and more quickly, which helps
students learn faster. And it's a way to extend the
(10:17):
reach of already great coaching and to ensure that every
student gets the benefits of strong, consistent instruction.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So, looking forward, if we imagine a New York City
classroom five years from now, what would you say great
teaching would look like.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I think it would. It's interesting to know I just
came back from attending an AI conference, and this was
a question that we talked about there. It's really imagine
what it would look like sound like five or ten
years from now, and I believe that great teaching will
feel even more human. AI will handle some of the
heavy lifting on data and feedback, and that should allow
teachers to spend more time connecting with students, designing engaging lessons,
(10:55):
and personalizing learning. Really giving kids an opportunity to build things,
to break things, to create, to understand how learning happens,
and to practice the skills that they'll need for the
world beyond school communication, collaborating, working on a team together,
putting together plans, pulling information from multiple sources to create something.
(11:17):
Our vision is that every teacher, whether they're brand new
or a veteran, has access to a virtual coaching partner
that can help them reflect, grow and continuously improve. And
that means that every student in every classroom would benefit
from a teacher who feels supported, confident, empowered, and who
has the energy to move around with them in those
creative ways. And that's the future that we're working toward
(11:38):
at Teaching Matters.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Our guest is Carolyn Kintana. She's the CEO of Teaching Matters.
You can find out more at teachingmatters dot org. Thank
you for being on to get connected.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
This has been get connected with Nina del Rio on
one IHO six point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed in part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
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