The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has inked a deal with Amira Learning to roll out the company’s AI-powered reading assistant to 25 school districts across the state. Beginning this month, more than 100,000 students in Louisiana will benefit from the reading assistant that helps students improve reading fluency and comprehension.
“Supporting our students in their foundational learning is critical, and we are confident we will continue to see improved literacy rates as districts become fully immersed,” said Adam DiBenedetto, LDOE’s new director of academic innovation.
LDOE leaders explained that Amira’s AI tutor is known for its sophisticated speech recognition, which has exceeded 10 billion spoken words with students globally. The department said the large data pool for its speech recognition capabilities makes the tutor tool well-versed in an extensive range of accents and dialects. The department further noted that this advanced AI capability makes Amira especially helpful for English Language Learners (ELL) students, those from low-income families, and those with disabilities. When tutoring students, Amira engages in dialogue, probes students’ comprehension, and tailors questions to enhance a student’s understanding and fluency.
“Research shows that Amira works for all students, but especially well for Emerging Multilingual students,” said Mark Angel, CEO of Amira Learning. “That’s why we’re happy to partner with the state to expand our reach across schools in Louisiana – helping not only multilingual students, but students of all backgrounds succeed in their literacy journey.”
Louisiana first began using the Amira tutoring tool during the 2022-2023 school year as part of a targeted effort to support ELLs. After seeing success with ELLs, many of the pilot school districts shifted to include the platform in their core curriculum.
