For Darla Iuliucci, a former Pine Forest High School English teacher, explaining MagicSchool—the K-12 designed artificial intelligence platform she now represents—starts with a familiar classroom challenge: giving students meaningful feedback on their writing.
Picture a teacher facing more than 100 student essays. The work extends well beyond marking misplaced commas. Does each paper make a clear argument? Does the evidence support it? What should the student try differently in the next draft?
Iuliucci, MagicSchool’s regional vice president for the Southeast, described how the platform’s Class Writing Feedback tool could help.
The platform would suggest scores and individual feedback, then help the teacher see patterns across the classroom. Several students might need help connecting evidence to their claims. Others might be struggling with subject-verb agreement. Those patterns could help shape the next lesson and the best part is that the teacher reviews the feedback before students see it.
Cumberland County Schools is expanding access to those tools through a $193,197 agreement funded by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. The agreement, which started July 1 and runs through June 30, 2027, provides MagicSchool for students and staff in grades 6-12 to support teachers’ instructional work and introduce students to AI through teacher-directed activities.
Nationally, AI is already part of many educators’ routines. A Walton Family Foundation-Gallup survey released October 14 found that 59% of K-12 educators in the U.S. used AI for work during the 2025-26 school year. Among those users, 64% said it freed up time for the parts of teaching that mattered most to them, while 29% reported no change and 7% said it cost them time.
As AI becomes a tool for both preparing lessons and completing classroom activities, the district is refining expectations for how teachers and students use it. On November 3, the school board’s policy committee approved revisions that would explicitly require instructional staff to teach responsible AI use when applicable and expand student privacy provisions to address information shared through AI tools. A vote by the full school board has not been scheduled.
‘Built Specifically for K-12’
MagicSchool offers teachers tools to plan instruction, assess student work, and tailor lessons and support to individual student needs. Tonya Williams Leathers, the school district’s Chief Academic Officer, outlined its offerings during a presentation to board members.
“They give us access to 80-plus AI-powered tools, including lesson planning, rubric creation, IEP drafting, writing feedback,” Leathers said.
Iuliucci described the platform as “built specifically for K-12,” combining those classroom tools with district oversight.
For a teacher deciding how to introduce the three branches of government, for example, the process could begin with a request for a lesson on that topic. The teacher could then use the platform to explore activities, consider whether the material fits the grade level, and check its alignment with instructional standards, Iuliucci said.
The next task might be adapting that lesson for students who need different kinds of support. That process, known as differentiation, could involve adjusting a reading passage’s difficulty or translating material for a multilingual learner.
Teachers can also use MagicSchool to create grading rubrics that establish what an assignment should demonstrate. For an essay, those criteria might include the organization of ideas, supporting evidence, and grammar. The platform’s Class Writing Feedback tool can then use the rubric to suggest scores and comments on student work.
In an example on the company’s website, an educator workspace displays a solar system worksheet beside a student-submission review panel. The panel organizes feedback into strengths and areas for growth, next steps, and a score breakdown, with an option to edit the rubric.
“Now, nothing goes back to the student until it’s reviewed by the teacher,” Iuliucci said. “So the teacher still has complete control over that.”
Other tools help teachers organize the information used to plan a student’s individual support. The Individualized Education Program, or IEP, generator prompts an educator to select a grade level, identify a disability category, and describe the student’s strengths, needs, and behaviors. Educators are instructed to leave out personally identifying information.
A teacher could describe a student who understands material discussed aloud but struggles to read independently. The tool could use that information to draft a description of the student’s needs and suggest measurable goals, accommodations, and modifications for the educational team to consider.
Those suggestions are a starting point. Educators must review them against what they know about the student, revise the language, and work with the team responsible for developing the individualized education program.
Districts can also give the platform information that applies across those tasks, including local policies and pacing guides, Iuliucci said.
“With our platform, districts also can build their own knowledge into the platform,” she said.
A teacher requesting a lesson on a topic scheduled for April, for example, could receive a reminder that it falls later in the district’s instructional calendar. That local information helps connect an individual request to what the district expects students to learn and when.
A Student’s ‘Thought Partner’
Before a student interacts with MagicSchool, the teacher sets the instructional purpose, Iuliucci said.
“It is not a general use tool,” she said. “So anytime a student interacts with MagicSchool, the instructional purpose has to be set by the teacher.”
Teachers can establish student rooms with activities tied to a particular skill or assignment. If writing feedback reveals that students are struggling with subject-verb agreement, for example, a teacher could provide a room where they practice that skill with AI guidance.
But inviting students to work with AI raises a question that goes beyond whether they understand the material: What prevents them from asking the platform to complete the assignment?
“We always hear people talk about the worry of cheating, right?” Iuliucci said. “And I mean, it’s a very fair fear and fair worry. But I think what matters most is that students are using AI with guidance and with visibility.”
Teachers can review students’ interactions with the platform, she said, allowing them to see how students seek help rather than only examining the finished work.
“So it becomes part of that learning process rather than a workaround,” she said.
Iuliucci described a student using AI as a “thought partner” while developing a five-paragraph essay. If the student asks the platform to write the paper, she said, it is designed to redirect the request.
“The reply they’re going to get out of MagicSchool is to say, ‘I can’t write your paper for you, but I can help guide you through the process. What are you thinking?’” Iuliucci said.
That oversight also extends to the information students share. Alongside the platform’s warning against entering personal details, Iuliucci said districts receive privacy and governance controls to oversee its use.
“We don’t treat privacy as optional,” she said.
For students, learning to use the platform includes deciding what to ask, what information to protect, and whether an answer deserves their trust.
Another Tool in the Teacher Tool Kit
If AI can plan a lesson, suggest a grade, and guide a student through an assignment, where does that leave the teacher?
Iuliucci said concern that the technology will take over teachers’ jobs overlooks the personal attention students need.
She described a teacher recognizing that one student is reading two or three grade levels behind. Helping that student catch up takes time, but so does meeting the needs of everyone else in the classroom.
Reducing the work of preparing materials and providing feedback could give teachers more room for small-group instruction and individual support, she said.
“I think AI can take on some of that workload. And it allows teachers to be able to have those very personal interactions and support students in a way that they could not before,” Iuliucci said.
She described the platform as “just another tool in the tool kit,” with teachers still responsible for deciding how to use it.
In the English classroom she imagined, AI might help review more than 100 essays. The teacher would still decide what feedback to share, which lesson to revisit, and who needs a conversation beyond the comments on a page.
“The teacher is always in the loop,” Iuliucci said. “We’re never going to remove the teacher from the process.”
