Education before adoption
People should understand what AI can and cannot do before any purchase, policy or classroom rollout.
About us
We help schools make better decisions about AI.
Abrams Research & Associates educates school leaders, teachers, students and parents so that choices about AI are informed by evidence, not driven by sales pitches.
Why we exist
Schools are being oversold on AI.
School leaders hear every week that AI will transform learning, and that the next platform is the answer. Our own research tells a more careful story. In a randomized controlled trial with 233 learners in Guyana, adding AI features to a learning platform did not, on its own, improve results in Mathematics or English.
What matters is the people around the technology: leaders who set clear purpose and guardrails, teachers who are prepared to use it well, and students who learn to question it. So we do not start by selling a tool. We start by helping your community understand AI well enough to decide for itself.
Read the researchOur principal
Dr. Karen Abrams, MBA
Principal, Abrams Research & Associates
Dr. Karen Abrams leads Abrams Research & Associates and its AI Literacy and Readiness Institute. Her work sits where research meets practice: she studies what helps students learn, then builds programs that put those findings to work in real schools.
As Director of STEMGuyana, she led the Learning Pods program, a network of 40 community learning centers across all ten regions of Guyana supported by the Inter-American Development Bank’s IDB Lab. Her doctoral research at the University of Florida evaluated AI tutoring in those pods through a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Through STEM Guyana’s AI for Teachers workshops, she has trained 671 teachers, 485 of whom earned a certificate by passing an assessment.
- Ed.D., Educational TechnologyUniversity of Florida
- MBASan Francisco State University
- DirectorSTEMGuyana Learning Pods
What we believe
Four principles guide everything we teach.
Evidence over enthusiasm
We share what research shows, including when it does not support the hype, and we name the limits of our own study.
People decide
AI can draft and assist. Leaders, teachers and families make the decisions, and stay accountable for them.
Context matters
What works in one school or country may not work in another. Each program is shaped around local needs and realities.
In their words
What teachers say.
Reflections from participants in STEM Guyana’s AI for Teachers workshops, shared with permission.
671teachers trained
485earned a certificate
233learners in a randomized controlled trial
“The workshop enlightened me on how to use AI effectively to plan my lessons and create worksheets and posters — while making sure the information is accurate and useful. I encourage other teachers to try it to make their workload lighter. I am so grateful.”
“The STEM Guyana AI for Teachers workshop helped me appreciate the power of using Artificial Intelligence in a meaningful way — in teaching, lesson planning, and innovative pedagogy. It was an enriching experience during my doctoral research on innovative strategies to enhance STEAM education, helping me understand the role technology plays in supporting primary teachers to provide meaningful, engaging, and creative learning opportunities. For teachers who are unsure about AI, I would encourage them to study and adopt it in a competent and responsible manner — and see it as a tool that can help them improve upon effective pedagogy, rather than replace them.”