Accelerating Coaching & Collaboration with AI: Supporting OpenSciEd Biology in Wauwatosa
Featuring district-wide OpenSciEd implementation with a spotlight on High School Biology
In our inaugural workshop, we explored how Wauwatosa educators are using AI to improve science instruction and equity. They’ve seen measurable gains in mastery—especially among Black students—through untracked classes and rigorous, NGSS-aligned instruction with OpenSciEd.
We shared a mini-app we co-created that uses AI to:
Support teacher discussion and norming
Analyze student writing (even from scanned handwriting)
Provide instant, rubric-aligned feedback
Surface strengths and areas for growth
💬 Teachers shared: “This made my feedback better.” “It helped me see through the writing to what students understood.”
Accelerating Coaching & Collaboration with AI: The Wauwatosa Story
In Wauwatosa School District, science leaders Sarah Blechacz and Rachel Duellman have been working to implement OpenSciEd with a coaching-centered model and a strong emphasis on data-driven equity. Their early outcomes show measurable gains in mastery for Black students, without sacrificing progress for others.
🏫 The Wauwatosa Journey
Wauwatosa Public Schools has been deeply engaged in a multi-year adoption of the OpenSciEd curriculum. Their approach is supported by coaching and collegial inquiry .
Key milestones:
Equity-focused implementation: Mastery among Black students grew from 49% to 57%.
Detracked courses: Removed “advanced” biology and chemistry tracks to provide rigorous learning for all students.
Instructional shift: Tasks now emphasize modeling, design, and student-generated explanations.
📈 Equity Gains in Student Outcomes
After one year of OpenSciEd implementation, the percentage of Black students earning A, B or C grades in Biology rose from 49% to 57%, reducing the achievement gap with White students from 46% to 34%.
🤖 Why Bring in AI?
Wauwatosa’s teachers were seeing a huge increase in student writing—authentic, multi-paragraph explanations tied to rigorous phenomena—but it came with a cost: feedback and grading took much longer. Sarah and Rachel partnered with Eddo Learning to explore whether AI could help close that feedback loop faster and more equitably.
🧠 Co-Designing AI Tools with Teachers
The Wauwatosa team collaborated with Eddo Learning using a design thinking approach. They identified high-leverage teacher pain points, prototyped a feedback tool, and tested it with real student responses. The goal? Amplify what teachers are already doing and make high-quality feedback more accessible to students in real time.
This co-creation process shows how educators collaborated to explore AI tools for student feedback. Starting from discovery and AI experimentation, teams reflected on student impact and proposed scaling the work through a grant.
💬 What the AI Did
The prototype AI assistant analyzed student writing samples, provided rubric-aligned strengths and suggestions, and helped teachers spot class-wide trends. One teacher noted that seeing the AI’s language helped improve her own feedback to students. Others used it to norm grading more effectively across PLCs.
🛠️ Try It Yourself
Curious to see what’s possible? Visit apps.eddolearning.com and explore the “Analyze Student Work” tool. You can upload student writing, view AI feedback, and even ask the data questions like “What misconceptions are most common?”
The next workshop will focus on AI-supported lesson planning with OpenSciEd. We’ll explore what happens when ChatGPT already knows the curriculum and can help teachers visualize and pace a unit. If you’re interested in co-creating the next tool or leading a session, let us know!
