The push to transform education has accelerated in recent years, largely because parents are asking more of their schools. Chris Watson, founder and developer of the AI tool EdLoop, is one of the entrepreneurs rising to meet that demand. On The Overton Window Podcast, he shares his experiences as an educator and parent while describing the platform he built to close the “gap that exists in the feedback loop in schools today.”

Artificial intelligence could cause big changes in education, Watson believes. “AI has tremendous opportunity to really transform education as we know it.” In his view, AI tools can “provide personalized feedback and learning opportunities that unlock creativity and really break down barriers that have often existed in education.”

His commitment to this work was born of fifteen years across the education ecosystem. “I was a classroom teacher, also an instructional coach and assistant principal and district official. But one role I've had even longer is that of a parent.”

As a parent, Watson noticed how unclear and inconsistent feedback could be. Teachers “are expected to grade and provide this feedback to families,” he says. “Oftentimes what families get back and what students get back is unclear, untimely, and lacks direction on next steps.”

That frustration sparked the idea for EdLoop. “I thought about how we leverage AI to help empower educators by providing analysis and feedback, but also more importantly... empower students and families by getting them actual narrative-driven feedback” that makes progress and next steps understandable.

EdLoop analyzes a student’s work against directions, rubrics, or standards. It helps highlight misconceptions and outlines next steps for the teachers, the student and the parent or family. Teachers receive suggestions on how to use the data. Families get practical ideas they can implement at home with “low tech” activities. Students receive guidance they can act on independently.

The tool is already being used in schools such as BMEA Independent School in Detroit, where “their entire staff and all of their families are on board it.” Watson notes that teachers find the feedback accurate and can refine it with their own insight.

EdLoop also solves a problem familiar to any parent. “In a traditional school, your kid brings home a bunch of work,” Watson says. “It gets lost.” The platform keeps a digital portfolio that preserves both the work and the feedback. Families can see how the student’s work progresses and understand why a grade was given months later.

Watson says using the tool “showed me a lot about how schools engage or don't engage parents.” He hopes it pushes schools to rethink communication, especially as homeschooling grows. He argues that homeschool families “really do” want rigorous, clear insight into their child’s learning, and that EdLoop can support them as well.

“We need to rethink how we do things. We need to reimagine how we engage,” Watson says. Artificial intelligence that unlocks barriers isn’t in the distant future, he says; it’s already here. With student performance lagging in places like Michigan, Watson says now is the moment to act.

Listen to the complete conversation on The Overton Window Podcast.

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