This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet focused on education. The Hechinger Report is a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on one topic: education.

A.I.’s math problem reflects how much the new technology is a break with computing’s past. By Steve Lohr In the school year that ended recently, one class of learners stood out as a seeming puzzle.

Segue Institute for Learning teacher Cassandra Santiago introduces a lesson on word problems to her first graders one spring afternoon. Credit: Phillip Keith for The Hechinger Report The Hechinger ...