New tool to help assess whether AI systems used in K–12 education are ethical, equitable, and safe for students

BOSTON, May 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Just Horizons Alliance, a nonprofit applied research lab focused on advancing responsible artificial intelligence, today announced the launch of the AI Ethics Index for K–12 Education, a new tool designed to help educators, policymakers, funders, and companies evaluate the ethical dimensions and real-world impact of AI systems used in schools.

As artificial intelligence tools move rapidly into classrooms, school systems are being asked to make high-stakes decisions about technologies that can shape instruction, student support, assessment, engagement, and learning. Yet the field still lacks shared, independent, evidence-based methods for determining whether AI tools are safe for students, effective for learning, transparent in design, equitable in impact, and appropriate for real educational settings.

“Educators deserve more than broad assurances when evaluating whether AI tools can effectively support teaching and learning,” said Janet Kang, executive director of Just Horizons Alliance. “The AI Ethics Index is designed to give educators, policymakers, and technology leaders a more rigorous way to understand how AI systems actually perform in practice and whether they strengthen or undermine the conditions students need to learn, develop, and thrive.”

What makes the K–12 Education Index distinctive is its integration of deep technical and ethical analysis with education expertise from Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Through the collaboration, Just Horizons Alliance and BU Wheelock are working to ensure that questions of learning outcomes, student development, equity, and classroom implementation are central – not secondary – to how AI systems are evaluated.

“Improving education requires understanding the effects of any new tool or system on learning, teaching, development, and opportunity. This collaboration reflects the need for evaluation methods that are grounded in the realities of classrooms and the needs of students and educators,” said Penny Bishop, dean of BU Wheelock.

For more information about the AI Ethics Index for K–12 Education is available at https://aiethicsindex.org/

Just Horizons Alliance
Just Horizons Alliance is an independent nonprofit applied research organization focused on the human impact of intelligent systems. Working at the intersection of human behavior, ethics, and artificial intelligence, the organization develops frameworks, research, and public-interest infrastructure to help institutions better understand how emerging technologies affect people, learning, decision-making, and society. Through collaborations across academia, civil society, and industry, Just Horizons works to advance more rigorous, human-centered approaches to the development and governance of AI. For more information visit https://justhorizons.org/

About Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development is a top-ranked college that focuses on cross-disciplinary research, experiential learning, and community engagement. We seek to empower our students, faculty, and staff to reshape the systems that impact learning and human development, more firmly centering them in justice, diversity, and belonging.

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SOURCE Just Horizons Alliance