About

Dr. Denise Pope is a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where she specializes in curriculum studies, service learning, student engagement, school reform, and qualitative research methods. Her work focuses on student voices and perspectives of school, particularly examining academic stress and its impact on students' mental and physical health. She collaborates with schools worldwide to improve student well-being, belonging, and engagement. Dr. Pope co-founded Challenge Success, a nonprofit organization dedicated to partnering with schools and families to elevate student voice and implement research-based strategies to help all students thrive. She is the author of 'Doing School,' which discusses the creation of a stressed, materialistic, and miseducated generation, and co-author of 'Overloaded and Underprepared,' which offers strategies for stronger schools and healthier, successful kids. Additionally, she co-hosts the podcast 'School's In' with GSE Dean Dan Schwartz. Her research interests include adolescence, child development, curriculum and instruction, leadership and organization, parents and family issues, professional development, social and emotional learning, and teachers and teaching.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Social Science
• Political Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Pedagogy
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Social psychology
• Public relations
• Mathematics education
• Applied psychology

Selected publications

• Cheating in the second year of generative AI chatbots: a follow-up study on high school student cheating behaviors

  Educational Technology Research and Development · 2026-02-03

  articleOpen access

  Abstract This study examines the evolving relationship between AI chatbots and academic integrity and students’ AI chatbot usage in high schools one and a half years after the release of ChatGPT. Through a comprehensive survey of students across six schools (N = 4,354) in the United States, we investigated students' self-reported cheating behaviors, patterns of AI use across different school-related tasks, and student perspectives on appropriate AI use in academic settings. Our findings revealed that overall cheating rates remain stable at 72.06%, consistent with historical baselines and prior studies, suggesting that AI availability has not changed overall cheating prevalence in high school. Additionally, more students reported using AI chatbots for support tasks like concept explanation and idea generation. Regarding students' reported preferences for allowing AI chatbots for school-related tasks, at this point, they still strongly supported using AI for conceptual understanding and brainstorming, and they maintained clear boundaries against using it for completing entire assignments. These findings suggest that while AI’s prevalence has not altered the patterns of academic integrity at schools, students' evolving perspectives on appropriate AI use provide valuable insights for schools and administrators integrating AI into traditional school settings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cheating: The AI elephant in the classroom

  Phi Delta Kappan · 2025-12-01 · 1 citations

  article

  Cheating with AI is the proverbial elephant in the room, with the widespread assumption that the amount of cheating has exploded since the appearance of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. However, the research on cheating tells a more complicated story. For high schools, cheating levels did not significantly increase after the release of ChatGPT. However, the methods for cheating are changing. Victor R. Lee, Denise Pope, and Sarah Miles share research findings and provide recommendations for how teachers can respond to the concerns about AI and cheating in schools based on their research and work with schools and districts across the nation.

  PublisherDOI

• Stressed, tired, and yearning for support

  Phi Delta Kappan · 2025-03-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Denise Pope, Sarah Miles, Megan Pacheco, and Caitlin Ciannella explore three major concerns affecting high school students’ well-being: stress, sleep deprivation, and lack of belonging. Drawing from research by Challenge Success involving over 270,000 high school students across more than 10 years, they highlight how academic pressure, family expectations, and modern societal challenges contribute to unhealthy stress levels. Their research reveals that students are chronically sleep-deprived, averaging only 6.6 hours of sleep per night. Additionally, many students, particularly those from marginalized groups, report feeling isolated and unsupported at school. They offer practical suggestions for families, educators, and schools to address these issues.

  PublisherDOI

• Helping students to learn and grow

  Phi Delta Kappan · 2024-01-30 · 2 citations

  article

  Research on engagement in schools as well as research from the Challenge Success-Stanford Survey of School Experiences on how high school studentsʼ perceptions of classroom practices correlate with their engagement levels shows that more students are engaged in school when educators emphasize practices that promote learning and mastery. Authors Sarah Miles, Denise Pope, and Caitlin Ciannella offer mastery-based strategies teachers can use to increase student engagement by tweaking some approaches to grading and assessment.

  PublisherDOI

• Cheating in the age of generative AI: A high school survey study of cheating behaviors before and after the release of ChatGPT

  Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence · 2024 · 108 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Psychology

  The public release of ChatGPT and other generative AI chatbot technologies has been accompanied by questions about how academic integrity and student cheating behaviors will be impacted. We analyzed anonymous survey data from three high schools to see if self-reported cheating numbers changed following the introduction of ChatGPT and similar technologies. This survey data set is unique in that data on cheating had been collected with this set of schools both before and after November 2022, when ChatGPT was publicly released and drew attention to these educational concerns. The results suggested that cheating behaviors remained relatively stable after the introduction of this current generation of generative AI chatbot technology. However, some changes in reported behaviors differed depending on the type of cheating (social cheating, AI-related cheating, etc.). Additional survey questions about high school students’ AI chatbot usage and the perceived allowability of such technology revealed mixed opinions on the acceptability of using AI for various academic-related tasks. Most students did not think that using a chatbot to produce an entire paper or complete an entire assignment should be allowable. However, there was support for using AI chatbots to help students to start on assignments and papers and to help explain new concepts to them.

  PublisherDOI

• What Students and Teachers Do to Build Positive Reciprocal Relationships: A Study Co-Led by Youth and Adult Researchers

  American Journal of Education · 2023 · 5 citations

  • Psychology
  • Mathematics education
  • Pedagogy

  Purpose: As research increasingly links positive student-teacher relationships (STRs) to positive student outcomes, instruments to measure STRs have proliferated. Yet most neglect student agency and sociocultural variation in the operationalization of STRs. This study explores the specific actions teachers and students take to build positive STRs from the vantage point of a diverse group of US middle and high school students. Research Methods: Drawing on the principles of critical collaborative research, our intergenerational team of scholars engaged 84 youth participants (ages 12–18) in qualitative data generation and analysis, using novel youth-voice elicitation techniques known as the fishbone and diamond card sort. Findings: Findings highlight specific actions that a diverse group of youth believe students and teachers take to create positive STRs and foreground the importance of teacher power, student responsibility, safe classrooms, and reciprocity in STR construction. Implications: By pinpointing specific actions that teachers can take to build positive STRs, this work raises implications for teacher education and professional development, especially as schools struggle to regain ground with students in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions. In addition, the study demonstrates how engaging youth as partners in qualitative research can help improve the conduct and products of empirical research in education, offering a model for the field of youth validation processes.

  PublisherDOI

• Service-Learning Professional Development for Experienced Teachers

  2023-06-26

  book-chapterSenior author

  The differences between new and experienced teachers suggest creative approaches to professional development. Preservice teachers spend a year (sometimes two years) studying the field of education and working diligently to develop new curricula and to practice pedagogical techniques that are often at the cutting edge of educational reform. Many enter the field with a strong sense of idealism, hoping to make a difference in the lives of the children they will teach; in addition, many show a strong naiveté about working in schools and the frenetic day-to-day existence of busy teachers. Experienced teachers, on the other hand, often do not have the time or energy to keep up with the latest school-reform efforts, and many scoff at what they believe are ever-changing fads being touted by schools of education. We hear from the veteran teachers, “We tried that 20 years ago. Who has time to create completely new curricula? Got any proof that this new stuff works better than what I already use? My kids are doing fine. Let me close my classroom door and get back to doing what I do best. . . .” The idealism is still there, but it has been tempered by the reality of the almost impossible demands the educational system places upon teachers and the coping mechanisms many have developed to survive in the occupation for so many years.

  PublisherDOI

• Outcomes of an Innovative Best Practice Clinical Immersion Framework

  Nurse Educator · 2022-06-03 · 1 citations

  article

  BACKGROUND: Academic nursing has a long history of partnering with practice-based settings to provide clinical learning experiences for nursing students; however, these placements are not easily obtained, especially in pediatrics. APPROACH: A freestanding academic pediatric hospital and 3 academic nursing programs collaborated to provide clinical practice to nursing students hired in a practice-based internship program. A second aim was to pilot a best practice clinical immersion framework to provide academic credit to bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) students using a shared clinical syllabus and e-learning platform. OUTCOMES: Sixteen nursing students successfully completed the program; 11 (68.7%) completed the pre- and postevaluation with significant ( P < .05) changes in scores for 7 of the 20 questions. CONCLUSION: This best practice clinical immersion framework provided a strategy for obtaining clinical practice and academic credit, demonstrating the potential of innovative practice-academic partnerships. Further, this framework can be easily adapted in other practice-academic partnerships in all clinical areas.

  PublisherDOI

• A caring climate that promotes belonging and engagement

  Phi Delta Kappan · 2022 · 16 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology

  When students have a strong sense of belonging in their school community, they are more likely to thrive academically. In a study of 55,000 secondary school students across the United States, Challenge Success found further evidence of the bilateral relationship between students’ experiences of academic engagement and their sense of belonging, specifically when tied to school practices aimed at creating an authentic culture of inclusion and respect, an environment that fosters student agency, and assessment practices that are perceived as fair and equitable. Denise Pope and Sarah Miles share research-based strategies for educators seeking to create a climate of care that promotes both engagement and belonging.

  PublisherDOI

• Easing the stress at pressure-cooker schools

  Phi Delta Kappan · 2019-10-28 · 6 citations

  articleSenior author

  Adolescent stress, anxiety, and self-harm behaviors are on the rise, and the consequences have significant implications for how youth engage in school. While the data trends paint a worrisome picture of rising student stress and disengagement, evidence shows that listening to the voices and concerns of youth and implementing research-based reforms can support students to live balanced and academically fulfilling lives. Understanding the adolescent student experience reveals numerous areas for policy and practice solutions that can lead to healthier outcomes. Student experience data both explains what is happening and points to solutions.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jerusha Conner

  9 shared

• Sarah Miles

  4 shared

• Kate Phillippo

  Loyola University Chicago

  3 shared

• Mollie K. Galloway

  Lewis & Clark College

  3 shared

• Shannon Davidson

  University of Alabama

  3 shared

• Susan Verducci

  San Jose State University

  2 shared

• Don Hill

  2 shared

• Jerusha Osberg

  2 shared

Education

• M.A., Curriculum and Teaching

  Stanford University

  1995

• B.A., American Studies

  Stanford University

  1990

Awards & honors

• Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journ…