Project Case Study: Empowering NYC Public Schools with AI through Robust Data Foundations

Spruce partnered with NYC Public Schools to lay the data foundation for AI-powered learning, enabling personalized, secure, and scalable classroom innovation.

Project Overview

In 2023, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS), the largest school district in the U.S., launched a pioneering effort to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into K–12 classrooms. The goal: to improve personalized learning and deliver real-time feedback to students. At the center of this initiative was a custom-built AI-powered teaching assistant, developed using Azure OpenAI Service. Designed to respond instantly to student questions and adapt to individual learning styles, this assistant represents a significant leap forward in education technology.

The Challenge

Successfully deploying AI in education — especially at the scale of NYCPS — requires more than just model training. It demands reliable, secure data infrastructure and seamless integration with existing systems. The school district needed a way to prepare and govern student data that would allow the AI assistant to operate accurately, responsibly, and at scale.

Spruce’s Role

Spruce provided the critical foundation to enable this AI transformation, focusing on building scalable, compliant, and high-quality data pipelines. Our contributions included:

• Data Integration — Consolidated and harmonized data from student information systems, learning platforms, and assessment tools.
• Pipeline Development — Created robust, scalable data pipelines to deliver continuous, clean data to AI models.
• Data Security and Compliance — Ensured all data handling met NYCPS’s strict privacy protocols, protecting sensitive student information and aligning with K–12 data governance best practices.

The Power of Strong Data Foundations

High-impact AI in the public sector, especially in education, is only as effective as the data behind it. In this case: 

• Accuracy — Clean, well-structured data empowered the AI teaching assistant to deliver relevant, high-quality responses. 
• Scalability — Reliable pipelines supported broad classroom rollout, serving the needs of a vast, diverse student population. 
• Personalized Learning — Integrated data enabled the AI to adjust responses to individual learning paces and academic needs.

Results

In a two-week classroom pilot, nearly 100 students used the AI-powered classroom assistant, asking more than 2,000 questions. This volume of real-time student interaction would have been impossible to manage manually, underscoring the value of artificial intelligence in enhancing educational engagement and equity.

Conclusion

This NYC Public Schools AI initiative highlights how the right data strategy enables real impact. By investing in data integration, secure infrastructure, and scalable pipeline development, Spruce helped NYCPS turn a bold vision into a working, real-world solution. As school districts nationwide explore AI in education, this project stands as a model for successful implementation grounded in strong, responsible EdTech foundations.