Overview

Oakland Academy is a self-paced high school program serving at-risk students in Indiana. With just one teacher per subject area, students often work at different levels within the same classroom. To better support this model, Oakland Academy partnered with QuadC to introduce AI Tutor, a tool that supplements one-on-one instruction and helps students make consistent progress.

Key Results

Since adding QuadC’s AI Tutor, Oakland Academy has seen more credits earned, higher engagement, and greater student confidence:

• 229% increase in math credits earned (329% of last year’s total)
• 12% increase in English credits earned (112% of last year’s total)
• 3,932 messages exchanged, averaging 91 per student
• Math was the most-used subject, followed by English and Literature
• Students reported higher confidence and motivation when receiving step-by-step guidance from AI

The Challenge

In a self-paced environment, students don’t always get immediate help when they’re stuck, especially when a teacher is working with someone else. Teachers needed a way to ensure students could continue learning independently without sacrificing the quality of support or instruction. The team at Oakland Academy also wanted to maintain a consistent learning experience that reflected each teacher’s approach and course materials, even when delivered through AI.

The Solution

Tutor Ocean’s AI Tutor gave students 24/7 access to academic support, especially in high-demand subjects like Algebra, Geometry, English, and essay writing.

“I think one thing that has been a HUGE help for us with students is they have a more ‘private’ opportunity to ask for help. While we do the best we can to lower the stigma of asking questions, teenagers can still have a hard time asking for help. By having an AI available on the computer, students can more discreetly ask the program questions. ” Kathryn Parthun, Principal, Oakland Academy

Teachers also used the platform to build custom AI bots tailored to their content and classroom needs. For example:

• The English teacher created bots focused on writing skills, proofreading, and emotional regulation. These bots were built using the teacher’s own materials, so students received support aligned with classroom expectations.
• In math, students used the AI Tutor to check their work and ask follow-up questions to deepen understanding, rather than just completing assignments.

Additional feedback from teachers suggests that students are using AI to verify their work and deepen their understanding of subjects. One educator remarked that “a student at first appeared to be doing a lot of rote questions, but upon further investigation, was using the AI to check his work and get direct feedback in math”.

Results

The first sign of success came from a measurable increase in academic progress.

“I would say that we are meeting our main goal of having students utilize this as a math and English support in the classroom. We earned more math credits this year than we did last year.” Kathryn Parthun, Principal, Oakland Academy

Credit completion data collected to date supports this:

• Math credits are at 329% of last year’s total, a 229% increase.
• English credits are at 112% of last year’s total.

Student engagement has also been strong. A total of 3,932 messages were exchanged between students and AI Tutor, averaging 91 per student. Math was the most-used subject, followed by English and Literature.

Sentiment analysis found that students responded most positively when the AI broke down complex math problems step by step or encouraged them during writing tasks. Key themes in student feedback included clarity, motivation, and feeling “free” to ask for help without judgment.

One student explained how AI Tutor supports them in the classroom and at home, offering guidance on assignments, creative projects, and even everyday questions:

“I use it on my phone. It’s helpful! If I’m writing a poem, I can have it help me fix it. It’s easy! … I use it for checking essays and it will give you a rubric on how to make a good essay. I really like that, it’s helped me. Even just yesterday, we were searching up examples of drugs and what it’s used for. It would break it down and put it into simplified words for me. I think it’s more helpful than Googling.” Student, Oakland Academy

Next Steps

With strong signs of progress and consistent engagement, Oakland Academy plans to continue its use of AI Tutor. The combination of teacher-built resources and AI-powered guidance is proving to be a reliable way to extend support, even in a small program with limited staff.