Montgomery County Educators Embrace AI to Personalize Learning

Brendan Robertson 

10/9/2025

 

As AI becomes more prevalent in schools across the country, teachers in Montgomery County have made it a tool rather than a threat by using it to personalize lessons while teaching responsibility.

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“I think that we have to look at AI as being our responsibility to teach our students,” says Blacksburg Middle School librarian Kelly Passek. “And so if we refuse to use it or if we prohibit its use in our classes, students are going to use it anyway…” 

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Her view describes the shift in viewpoint from MCPS educators who once called for an outright ban. Now they say outright bans would leave students unequipped to use tools that are already a part of daily life.

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At Christiansburg High, college-level math teacher Brett Sherfy compares this debate to the similar reactions when calculators first arrived: “I think people will see it as like, kind of like when the calculator came about… it’s gonna move the load from people having to do certain procedural things… to being productive in a way without having to do that task.” 

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Passek, Sherfy, and other teachers at MCPS employ the use of a platform called SchoolAI, a startup backed by artificial intelligence giant OpenAI. OpenAI and SchoolAI developers claim that teachers who use the program “report saving 10+ hours a week,” which allows them to “spend more meaningful moments one-on-one with students.“

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While generative AI can personalize instruction and reduce teacher burden, it has also raised concerns about academic integrity. This is something each school has to navigate separately; however, the U.S. Department of Education has recommended “combining teacher judgment with vetted tools and explicit lessons in digital literacy and ethics.”

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Montgomery County's technology policy acknowledges AI’s ability to “enhance learning, streamline administrative tasks, and promote creativity,” while acknowledging a strict tie to educational purposes by limiting its use to work “in support of education and/or research, or for legitimate school business.”

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As districts nationwide begin to develop their own AI policies, educators at MCPS stress an open-minded vision for this new tool that’s revolutionizing education.“It’s helping teachers connect with students,” Sherfy says, a case that, for many MCPS teachers, defines their success more than any grade ever could.