The use of artificial intelligence has quickly spread across the world, and the Hawaiʻi Department of Education plans to follow suit by implementing AI education within its new computer science standards.
The updated standards define computer science as the study and human-centered practice of using data, algorithms and computing systems to solve problems, make discoveries and express ideas.
Department officials said students need to be taught from an early age how to responsibly and ethically use AI tools, adding that they don't want students to be left behind the curve of advancing technology.
During the last state Board of Education meeting, some board members questioned if they believe AI could replace critical and independent thinking in students.
But Winston Sakurai, the executive director of the DOE's Office of Curriculum and Instructional Design, said it's a matter of how students are taught to use it.
"We do know that eventually, AI will be a part of the everyday life of people here in Hawaiʻi," Sakurai said. "You're absolutely correct, it can be used in a way where critical thinking skills are not being developed in the students, (but) there are other ways in terms of how you initiate the instruction and practice where it says if the teacher can instruct in a certain way, it actually increases student achievement, and that's really what we want to see."
It has been nearly a decade since the K-12 computer science content and performance standards were last updated department-wide. The new DOE standards are closely modeled after the Computer Science Teachers Association's 2026 guidelines, and officials said they have been tweaking and developing the final draft over the last three years.
Sakurai said the department is watching research studies across the country closely, including the pilot program in New York that is banning AI from classrooms for the next year, to see what best practices could be adopted locally.
