Sixty-seven percent of the students RAND surveyed already believe heavy AI use is dulling their own thinking, and the same research shows more of them reaching for it every semester anyway. A separate study published the same week found that a carefully built AI tutor could still nudge math scores up by a few points, just not on any problem harder than the one it had just practiced. Same week, same technology, two findings pulling in opposite directions on what AI is actually doing to how kids learn.
The other two items this week move away from AI and closer to home. One describes what Ontario's youngest learners are working with before kindergarten even starts. The other is about whether 255,000 Ontario teachers and education workers will have a contract by the time most students go back on September 8. Four different subjects, one thread running under all of them: the gap between what a system is built to hand a child and what that specific child actually needs rarely shows up anywhere a parent can see it without asking.
Can an AI Tutor Actually Help Kids Learn Math?
The Hechinger Report published this one on August 17, 2026. Researchers ran a randomized trial with more than 6,000 Tennessee middle schoolers learning fractions, splitting them into four groups: conventional computer-based instruction or the same software enhanced with an AI tutor, and within each group, half the students also had to answer three practice questions correctly in a row before moving on, a technique called mastery learning. The lesson ran 50 minutes during regular math class, with retention checked a week later on a 15-minute test (Hechinger Report, 2026).
Students who got the AI tutor paired with mastery learning scored about 3 percentage points higher than those who got conventional instruction alone, a modest but real edge. What seemed to matter was how the AI tutor behaved: instead of just showing the correct answer, it walked students through their specific mistake, and those students spent more time per question, a sign of deeper engagement rather than guessing faster (Hechinger Report, 2026).
The honest caveat is in the fine print. The gains only applied to problems similar to what students had just practiced. On harder, less familiar applications, the AI-tutored group did no better than anyone else. So this is evidence that a well-built AI tutor can sharpen practice on a narrow skill, not proof that it teaches transferable understanding.
Do Students Think AI Is Hurting Their Own Thinking?
RAND put this question directly to a nationally representative sample of 1,214 youth in December 2025, and the results ran in a wider commentary the organization published on August 17, 2026. The question was blunt: does using AI more for schoolwork harm a student's critical thinking skills? Sixty-seven percent agreed or strongly agreed, 27 percent of them strongly (RAND, 2026).
The breakdown by grade is where it gets interesting. Middle schoolers agreed at 68 percent, high schoolers at 64 percent, and college students at 69 percent, so skepticism runs high at every stage, not just among the youngest. But the sharpest split was by how much a student actually uses AI. Among students who use it for three or more classes, 53 percent still agreed it harms critical thinking. Among students who do not use it for schoolwork at all, that jumped to 78 percent (RAND, 2026). In plain terms, the people most worried about AI's effect on thinking are the ones opting out of it, and even the heaviest users are not convinced it is harmless.
This is a self-reported belief, not a measured change in how well anyone actually thinks, and RAND is careful to frame it that way. But a majority of teenagers holding this view while using the tool more anyway is exactly the kind of tension school boards are now being forced to write policy around, including in New York City, where a comprehensive classroom AI policy was expected before students return for a year starting September 10 (Chalkbeat, 2026).
Share who agree or strongly agree that heavier AI use harms critical thinking, by grade, Dec. 2025 (n=1,214). Source: RAND
What Pre-K Teachers Say About Materials for Kids Who Learn Differently
This item is older but still unpublished in a form most parents ever see: a fall 2024 RAND survey of public-school pre-K teachers, folded into the same August 17, 2026 commentary. Eighty-five percent of pre-K teachers said they mix and match multiple instructional materials in the same classroom, largely because no single curriculum covers the range of needs sitting in front of them (RAND, 2026).
The gap shows up clearly once you ask what teachers reach for to support specific kids. To support students with an IEP or IFSP, only 28 percent of teachers said they used their comprehensive core curriculum, while 56 percent said they used materials they created themselves. For English learners, it was 24 percent using the core curriculum against 37 percent relying on self-created materials (RAND, 2026). In both cases, the materials of unknown quality, self-made worksheets and activities the district never reviewed, were doing more of the differentiation work than the vetted curriculum was.
None of this means pre-K teachers are failing their students. It means the tools the system hands them were not built with every learner in the room in mind, so teachers are quietly filling the gap themselves. For a parent of a child with an IEP or an English learner heading into kindergarten, it is a reasonable question to ask a teacher directly: what materials do you actually use to support my child specifically, versus the class as a whole?
Share of pre-K teachers using each material type to support specific learners, fall 2024. Source: RAND
Where Ontario's Teacher Contract Talks Stand as School Starts
Collective agreements for Ontario's five education unions, ETFO, OECTA, OSSTF, AEFO, and CUPE-OSBCU, together representing more than 255,000 teachers and education workers, expired August 31, 2026 (ETFO, 2026). Most students return to class on September 8 without a finalized deal in place. The unions' stated priorities include stronger special education supports, smaller class sizes, mental health supports, and addressing understaffing, alongside wages (ETFO, 2026).
Bargaining has not reached any of that yet. The talks are stuck on a procedural question: whether certain issues get negotiated centrally with the province or locally with individual school boards. After four days at the central table, CUPE-OSBCU rejected a Ministry proposal to centralize items that have historically been settled locally and referred the scope question to the Ontario Labour Relations Board, a process that can take weeks to resolve before substantive talks on wages or class sizes can begin (CP24, 2026).
Teachers have also secured strike mandates in the meantime. ETFO announced that its teacher and occasional teacher members voted 95 percent in favour of central strike action, with reported mandates across the teacher unions landing in the mid-to-high 90s (ETFO, 2026). A mandate is not the same thing as a strike, and union leadership has been explicit about that. OECTA president Rene Jansen in de Wal noted that "a strike vote is not a strike," pointing out that roughly 98 percent of labour disputes settle without one (CP24, 2026). Ontario's education minister, Paul Calandra, has said he remains "very optimistic" about reaching agreements and sees "no reason for parents to plan for a strike."
Ontario has been in this position before without a closure, most recently reaching agreements in 2020 and 2022 through rotating job action and arbitration. For now, the practical answer for families is that the school year is proceeding as scheduled, and this is worth watching rather than reacting to.
What This Means for Ontario Families and Teachers
These four items sit in different corners of a school system, a Tennessee classroom, a national panel of teenagers, thousands of pre-K rooms, and a bargaining table in Toronto, but they share a blind spot. Whether AI is actually helping or quietly undermining a specific child, whether a specific classroom has the right materials for how that child learns, and whether a specific support role survives this year's negotiations are all things a report card was never built to tell you. You mostly find out by asking, or by having someone else watching closely enough to notice first.
Connect Education works exclusively with Ontario Certified Teachers and ECEs in good standing. They work with your child directly, not a general classroom average, so they notice early when a skill is not sticking, when a tool like AI is being leaned on instead of understood, or when extra support is not landing the way it should. If anything in this week's research has you wondering whether your child's specific gap is being watched closely enough, you can book a free 15-minute assessment or browse certified tutors to get started.
Questions Parents Ask Most
Does AI tutoring actually help kids learn?
A large Tennessee trial found AI-guided math practice raised scores by about 3 percentage points over regular computerized instruction, a real but modest gain. The catch is that the benefit only showed up on problems similar to what students had just practiced, not on harder, unfamiliar ones.
Is my child's AI use hurting their critical thinking?
Sixty-seven percent of students surveyed by RAND in December 2025 agreed that heavier AI use for schoolwork harms critical thinking, and the students who use it least were the most skeptical. It is a self-reported belief rather than a measured outcome, but it signals real unease among students themselves.
Will Ontario teachers go on strike in September 2026?
Not automatically. Contracts for Ontario's five education unions, representing more than 255,000 teachers and education workers, expired August 31, 2026, and teachers have since secured strike mandates, with ETFO members voting 95 percent in favour of central strike action. A mandate is not a strike, though. Talks are currently stalled on whether certain issues are bargained centrally or locally, a dispute now before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, and Ontario's education minister has said there is no reason for parents to plan for a strike.
How do I know if my child's classroom has the right materials for their learning needs?
You often cannot tell from the outside. A RAND survey of pre-K teachers found only about a quarter relied on their core curriculum to support kids with IEPs, leaning instead on self-created materials over half the time. If your child has an IEP, it is fair to ask a teacher directly what materials they use for extra support.
Sources
- The Hechinger Report (2026), Proof Points: Slow math, kids may learn more when AI makes them review mistakes (August 17, 2026), hechingerreport.org
- RAND (2026), The State of Public Education in 2026 in Five Charts (August 17, 2026), citing survey data from December 2025 and fall 2024, rand.org
- Chalkbeat New York (2026), New NYC teachers prepare for school year as city weighs AI rules (September 1, 2026), chalkbeat.org
- Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (2026), Ontario's Education Unions Serve Notice to Bargain (June 3, 2026), etfo.ca
- Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (2026), ETFO members' 95 per cent strike mandate sends resounding message to government to start bargaining, etfo.ca
- CP24 (2026), Ontario teachers set to return to classroom without new contracts (September 2, 2026), cp24.com
