As student test scores continue to plummet in conjunction with the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence tools in classrooms, backlash is growing as parents demand answers from school officials and Big Tech.

Last month, international assessment results revealed that American students are continuing to fall behind, with reading and math scores plummeting to new lows. The scores are just the latest evidence of a grim outlook for student achievement, which has seen a steady decline over the past decade. Experts say major contributing factors to the decline are the ubiquitous spread of smartphones and social media, which studies have shown has sapped the attention spans of young minds, reduced study time and sleep, and lowered cognitive test scores.

Now, a preponderance of evidence is showing that the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence is pouring gasoline on the fire. A Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday detailed how Google has established a near-total foothold in classrooms across the country, with 93% of U.S. school districts planning to purchase the platform’s Chromebook laptops this year. Google Search’s AI Overviews and AI Mode chatbot come standard on the laptops, and they “cannot be turned off in administrative controls that Google gives partner school districts.”

The results have been catastrophic for student achievement. Students interviewed by WSJ admit that they are being handicapped by AI. One 15-year-old described how the temptation to use Google’s AI-assisted search to answer virtually every question in his homework was too much. After a year of using his school-provided laptop, his “grades were tanking.” “It slowed my thinking down,” he admitted. “When I was in a test and I couldn’t use AI, it was hard to think.”

An art teacher in Miami further attested to how AI chatbots are sinking classroom performance. After Google’s Gemini chatbot was made available to all high school students last year, Kaitlyn Ruano described being “shocked” by how many of her students had not passed an AP test in art history, even the kids who got As and Bs in class work. “I had kids come to class after saying, ‘Miss, I had no clue what half the material was, I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve been using AI all year,’” she described. Student surveys indeed show widespread AI use, with 70% of 13- to 17-year-olds admitting in a recent Common Sense Media poll that they use the technology to complete homework as well as assignments in class, with 63% saying they use it as a shortcut “to get answers.”

Recent assessment data has indeed pinpointed AI as the primary factor in falling test scores. Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results released last month found that AI users who used the technology to draft text for writing assignments scored an average of 20 points lower than students who never used the technology — “equivalent to about a year of schooling.” After AI tools were adopted in the nation’s largest school district of New York City last year, “reading proficiency rates declined 6 points among third- through eighth-graders.”

As a result, a group of concerned parents in Brooklyn pressed school officials to reassess its AI adoption during an August education council meeting. The following month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) “banned student AI use in classrooms through eighth grade” for the following school year, although the ban “didn’t cover Google Search’s AI Overviews or AI Mode chatbot.” The Los Angeles public school system has also implemented an AI ban for all grade levels.

But other major cities appear to be forging ahead with allowing AI in classrooms despite collapsing test scores. In Boston, where Google’s AI tools are “widespread” in classrooms, the percentage of 10th graders “who met or exceeded state thresholds on the 2026 standardized test” dropped by six points in English and science and by three points in math. Seventh graders also saw their English and math scores fall. And in Denver’s public schools, where the use of chatbots is encouraged, “English language arts proficiency rates drop more than 2.5 percentage points for sixth and eighth-graders in 2026” and “the percentage of 11th graders meeting or exceeding expectations in science, as well as SAT reading and writing, declined.”

Experts like Jonathan Butcher, who serves as a senior research fellow in Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, say that public policies should be instituted to ensure that AI and screens are properly regulated in the educational context to maximize student achievement.

“Artificial intelligence holds promise for education, but it will not replace individual instruction,” he told The Washington Stand. “What state policy makers need to adopt are good guardrails around how much time students spend on screens each day and what assignments students can use artificial intelligence with and what assignments they need to complete without using screens. Parents are rightfully concerned about their children spending too much time on screens at school and at home, and teachers should be partnering with parents when they decide how to use screens in school. We simply cannot rely on unrestricted use of computers or artificial intelligence to somehow improve student test scores.”

“The recent results from the OECD [education report] demonstrate that students who use artificial intelligence regularly for school assignments are not as prepared as their peers,” Butcher added. “And this should cause great concern for those who want to adopt artificial intelligence without careful guidelines.”