Implementation of a Generative AI Assistant in K-12 Education: The CGScholar AI Helper Initiative

This paper focuses on the piloting of the CGScholar AI Helper, a Generative AI (GenAI) assistant tool that aims to provide feedback on writing in high school contexts. The aim was to use GenAI to provide formative and summative feedback on students' texts in English Language Arts (ELA) and History. The trials discussed in this paper relate to Grade 11, a crucial learning phase when students are working towards college readiness. These trials took place in two very different schools in the Midwest of the United States, one in a low socio-economic background with low-performance outcomes and the other in a high socio-economic background with high-performance outcomes. The assistant tool used two main mechanisms "prompt engineering" based on participant teachers' assessment rubric and "fine-tuning" a Large Language Model (LLM) from a customized corpus of teaching materials using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). This paper focuses on the CGScholar AI Helper's potential to enhance students' writing abilities and support teachers in ELA and other subject areas requiring written assignments.