Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education

Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicate those objectives to students.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can generate standards-aligned, clear lesson/unit objectives and produce scripts, slides, or messages to communicate them to students, effectively automating this task in many settings.

Read books to entire classes or small groups.

AI: Fully automatable - Text-to-speech and audiobook systems can read books aloud to whole classes or small groups with appropriate pacing and expression, effectively automating this task.

Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can fully generate standards-aligned objectives and course outlines at scale, producing usable curriculum maps that meet state and school guidelines with minimal human input.

Prepare for assigned classes and show written evidence of preparation upon request of immediate supervisors.

AI: Fully automatable - By 2025, AI can generate aligned lesson plans, worksheets, and written documentation on demand given curriculum inputs, effectively automating class preparation and producing evidence for supervisors.

Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.

AI: Fully automatable - By 2025, AI can compile student data, write individualized and aggregate reports to administrative specifications, and automate routine report generation with minimal human input.

Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among the students for whom they are responsible.

AI: Partial - AI can draft rules, recommend procedures, and help monitor behavior, but cannot fully exercise the real‑time authority, relational judgment, and emotional labor teachers use to enforce classroom order.

Instruct students individually and in groups, using various teaching methods, such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations.

AI: Partial - AI can deliver lessons, tutor individuals, and facilitate some discussions or demonstrations digitally, but it cannot fully replace a teacher's in‑person orchestration of group dynamics, hands‑on demos, and socioemotional scaffolding.

Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests.

AI: Partial - AI can generate and adapt instructional materials and suggest differentiated approaches at scale, but teachers remain necessary to interpret social cues, implement adaptations in situ, and make nuanced pedagogical judgments.

Confer with parents or guardians, teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.

AI: Partial - AI can prepare reports, suggest intervention strategies, and draft communications to stakeholders, but cannot fully manage sensitive, trust‑dependent conversations and collaborative problem‑solving among parents and staff.

Prepare students for later grades by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.

AI: Partial - AI can generate personalized encouragement scripts, growth-mindset activities, and prompts to foster perseverance but cannot reliably reproduce the real-time relational, emotional, and in-class motivational presence of a human teacher.

Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.

AI: Partial - AI can design lesson materials, create checklists, and produce printable/digital resources but cannot physically prepare or arrange classroom spaces and manipulatives.

Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.

AI: Partial - AI can curate and create a wide variety of digital resources and activity plans for exploration and imaginative play but cannot supply or arrange physical tactile materials on its own.

Guide and counsel students with adjustment or academic problems, or special academic interests.

AI: Partial - AI can offer tutoring, referral suggestions, and basic counseling scripts or resources for academic/adjustment issues but lacks the full ethical, legal, and empathetic competence to replace human counseling.

Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.

AI: Partial - AI can analyze digital work, assessment data, and video/audio signals to flag issues and provide evaluation support but cannot fully interpret nuanced behavior, social development, or health without human professional judgment.

Enforce administration policies and rules governing students.

AI: Partial - AI can monitor, flag, and partially automate administrative rule enforcement (e.g., attendance, digital policy violations) but cannot exercise in-person authority or manage disciplinary resolution end-to-end.

Provide disabled students with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.

AI: Partial - AI can recommend, configure, and document assistive technologies and provide guidance, but it cannot provide physical assistance or ensure safe, hands‑on support for accessing facilities.

Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.

AI: Partial - AI can plan balanced instructional activities, generate demonstrations and work-time plans, and supply materials and scripts but cannot fully replicate dynamic, in-person facilitation and responsive classroom management.

Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and to determine priorities for their children and their resource needs.

AI: Partial - AI can prepare progress reports, translate communications, and draft meeting agendas and recommendations but cannot fully conduct sensitive parent/guardian discussions or make final judgments about priorities and resources independently.

Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.

AI: Partial - AI can design personalized remedial programs and resources, but implementation requires in-person instruction, relationship-building, and classroom management that AI cannot fully provide.

Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons promoting learning, following approved curricula.

AI: Partial - AI can generate aligned lesson plans and scheduling suggestions, but it cannot fully replace the interpersonal negotiations and collaborative decision-making among staff.

Prepare, administer, and grade tests and assignments to evaluate students' progress.

AI: Partial - AI can create and auto-grade many assessments and support administration, yet high-stakes proctoring and nuanced evaluation of complex student work still require human oversight.

Use computers, audio-visual aids, and other equipment and materials to supplement presentations.

AI: Partial - AI can produce and control digital content and manage many AV tasks, but physical setup, troubleshooting, and live classroom integration still rely on human teachers.

Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.

AI: Partial - AI can automate data entry and record maintenance and help ensure consistency, but legal compliance, privacy judgments, and final verification need human responsibility.

Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, and storytelling.

AI: Partial - AI can design activities, scripts, and materials (and even lead virtual sessions), but in-person leadership, engagement, and social-emotional facilitation require human presence.

Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.

AI: Partial - AI can prepare reports and summaries to inform meetings, but the confidential, collaborative, and judgment-driven nature of multidisciplinary meetings requires human professionals.

Assign and grade class work and homework.

AI: Partial - AI can generate assignments and auto-grade many item types while offering feedback, but evaluating nuanced student work and pedagogical decisions still need teacher judgment.

Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment and materials to prevent injuries and damage.

AI: Partial - AI can provide instructions, demonstrations, and sensor-based monitoring aids, but it cannot reliably substitute for real-time human supervision and intervention to prevent injuries.

Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops to maintain and improve professional competence.

AI: Partial - By 2025, AI can synthesize conference content, summarize training materials, and simulate some PD interactions, but cannot fully replicate the interpersonal networking and experiential benefits of live professional meetings.

Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of elementary school programs.

AI: Partial - By 2025, AI can analyze program data, draft revisions, and propose evaluations, but cannot fully replace human collaboration, negotiation, and consensus-building among teachers and administrators.

Organize and label materials and display students' work.

AI: Partial - By 2025, AI can design labels, signage, and display layouts and produce printable materials, but cannot perform the physical organizing and hanging of students' work in the classroom.

Supervise, evaluate, and plan assignments for teacher assistants and volunteers.

AI: Partial - By 2025, AI can assist with performance metrics, scheduling, and assignment planning for teacher assistants and volunteers, but cannot carry out in-person supervision or final personnel judgments.

Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guest speakers or other experiential activities, and guide students in learning from those activities.

AI: Partial - By 2025, AI can plan logistics, create curricula and risk-checklists for projects and field trips and generate student guidance materials, but cannot replace on-site supervision and real-time student management.

Administer standardized ability and achievement tests and interpret results to determine student strengths and areas of need.

AI: Partial - By 2025, AI can score and interpret standardized test results and proctor/monitor some online assessments, but cannot fully manage in-person administration, accommodations, and test-security requirements.

Attend staff meetings and serve on committees, as required.

AI: Partial - By 2025, AI can prepare agendas, take minutes, and support committee workflows remotely, but cannot fully substitute for human participation, responsibility, and decision-making in staff meetings.

Perform administrative duties, such as assisting in school libraries, hall and cafeteria monitoring, and bus loading and unloading.

AI: Partial - By 2025, AI can automate administrative tasks like library cataloging and scheduling and assist with monitoring tools, but cannot perform most of the physical duties such as hall/cafeteria monitoring and bus loading/unloading.

Involve parent volunteers and older students in children's activities to facilitate involvement in focused, complex play.

AI: Partial - AI can design volunteer roles, outreach messages, schedules, and training materials to facilitate complex play but cannot perform in-person recruitment, supervision, or adapt in real time to group dynamics.

Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.

AI: Partial - AI can manage inventory databases, recommend and place orders, and suggest supplies based on curriculum, but physical storage, issuing items, and final procurement approvals typically require human action and oversight.

Sponsor extracurricular activities, such as clubs, student organizations, and academic contests.

AI: Partial - AI can plan activities, produce schedules, publicity, and materials for clubs and contests, but sponsoring requires in-person supervision, legal responsibility, and real‑time student management.