Because of AI (plus tablets and pair work), junior secondary students in Sierra Leone gained about 0.26 standard deviations in math in eight weeks.

A preregistered classroom-level cluster RCT of 1,763 Grade 7–8 students in 48 classrooms across 12 Port Loko schools had treatment classes use Gemini's Guided Learning in pairs for about two of four weekly math lessons; the treatment group gained +0.258 SD on independently administered tests.

The control arm got neither tablets nor structured pair work, so the package was tested, not the AI; results are a Google DeepMind/Fab AI technical report, not a peer-reviewed paper.

Compared with

Gemini-integrated lessons vs business-as-usual instruction, classroom-level randomization

Effect

+0.258 SD (described as ~1.2–1.7 years of typical progress)

Reach

1,763 students, 12 schools, Port Loko District

Domain

Education · Generative

Conflicts

Google authored the report and makes the product.

What would move the grade

An active-control arm (tablets + pair work, no AI) would isolate attribution — see the China CAL trial for why that matters.

Sources

• primaryGoogle DeepMind & Fab AI technical report (May 2026) (storage.googleapis.com)
• primaryAEA RCT Registry 16651 (socialscienceregistry.org)
• secondaryDeepMind blog summary (deepmind.google)

Editor's notes

verify: exact intervention dates (registry lists Sept 2025–Mar 2026 for the study overall).

Related

• AI-personalized computer-assisted learning did no better than non-personalized software for 8,647 rural Chinese primary students.

History

• Oct 22, 2026Added.

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