THE AI PEACE TREATY SUPPORTING TEACHERS WITH AI THAT WORKS DO GRADES MAKE SENSE IN THE AI ERA?
Brought to you by:
Explore how educators, researchers, and product teams from the Engagement Collaborative for Research and Equity (ENCORE) are turning disruption into innovative learning solutions for teachers and students.
Today’s classrooms are changing fast. New technologies, shifting student needs, and persistent equity gaps demand solutions grounded in research and built with educators. The question is no longer if education will transform, but whether that transformation will advance equity for every learner. ENCORE, a subnetwork of the AIMS Collaboratory, ensures innovation strengthens teaching and supports real students in real classrooms through collaborative co-design, evidence generation, and practical tools that scale.
Collaborative Co-Design with Educators and Developers
Two-year co-research teams co-design, test, and refine tools grounded in real classroom needs.
Real-World Solutions that Scale
District, university, and education organization partnerships help expand what works, and why, to strengthen teaching and learning at scale.
Equity-Centered Innovation
ENCORE centers educator and student experience to ensure innovations benefit the learners who need it most.
Classroom-Based Evidence and Insights
Shared measures and rapid-cycle testing generate actionable evidence on teaching, learning, and student engagement, motivation and persistence.
Editor’s letter
AI has brought education to a new inflection point. We are challenging traditional models of teaching and learning, considering new forms of assessment and rethinking teacher training. This is not simply the latest technological update — this is a structural rupture in how we define learning, rigor and academic integrity.
This issue of Disruption: AI drills down into these shifts and explores where they are taking education. We examine the adult version of productive struggle and provide a blueprint for getting stakeholders on the same page in “The AI peace treaty.” We take a critical look at performance indicators in “Do grades make sense in the AI era?” We delve into practical support with “Supporting teachers with AI that works” and view classroom realities in “Teachers share most intriguing ways students have used AI.”
And this is just a taste of what’s inside. This issue is packed with tips and ideas to help you move beyond viewing AI as a procedural shortcut and instead see it as a partner for cultivating deeper educational outcomes and future-readiness. Let us know what you think. Send me a note at kanoe.namahoe@futurenet.com We are always listening!
Best,
Kanoe
Namahoe, Editorial Director SmartBrief Education & Business Services
FUTURE US 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street New York, N.Y. 10036 futureplc.com
SALES VP of Sales
Aaron Lawrence aaron.lawrence@futurenet.com
Head of Partnerships Sarah Mercado sarah.mercado@futurenet.com
CONTENT
Director of Content Kanoe Namahoe kanoe.namahoe@futurenet.com
Pulse Points
Step by step
Do traditional indicators of learning — homework and projects — still work for assessing students’ comprehension? Or is it time to shift?
It’s time to shift, according to Mehran Sahami, professor at the Stanford School of Engineering, who spoke at this year’s AI+Education Summit at Stanford University.
“[W]hat we do is we evaluate products,” Sahami said during a session titled “Creativity in the Age of AI – Catalyst or Hindrance?”
“We ask students to turn in papers or a program or solutions to a problem set. ... Our conceit in education is that a strong product that we assess is indicative of a strong process that the students went through to generate that product.”
Generative AI has dismantled this assumption. Students can create a polished product without having to go through the learning steps. What we need to do now is consider how learning engages with process, Sahami said. He recommends teaching students how to be effective users of AI.
“Research shows that prompting models to ‘think step-by-step’ improves their performance,” Sahami says. “These are things that should be taught. Because if we don’t teach them, students will
teach themselves. Many have already taught themselves how to use these tools to short-circuit their learning.”
Teach students how to work creatively with AI, Sahami urges. Let them use these platforms to produce rich, novel outcomes.
“We don’t need more essays about the Civil War,” Sahami says. “We need students to think critically about how to engage with these tools.”
MOOR STUDIO/GETTY IMAGES
Pair proven PD with cutting-edge AI
Harness the power of AI—grounded in what works. Led by experienced practitioners, our customizable PD equips your team to strengthen instruction, foster collaboration, and boost student learning from day one.
With flexible one- or multi-day PD options, your staff will explore how to use AI purposefully—as a tool to enhance teaching, support teamwork, and accelerate student learning.
What you’ll gain:
• Stronger instruction: Apply AI to support planning, differentiation, and feedback, all anchored in evidence-based teaching methods.
• Responsible implementation: Create practical, policy-aligned strategies for using AI while protecting student privacy.
• Expert-led training: Experience facilitated training by expert Solution Tree associates who understand both classroom realities and emerging technologies.
Pulse Points
DIY training
Limited high-quality training on AI tools has prompted some school leaders to take professional development matters into their own hands, according to a 2025 report by the American School District Panel, a research collaboration between Rand and the Center on Reinventing Public Education. The report included findings from surveys of school districts, plus feedback from interviews with 14 school leaders who participated in the surveys.
Eleven of the leaders personally developed their district’s training program, setting the learning targets, curating the content and developing the training format. More than a third of the leaders interviewed were directly involved in deploying the training sessions. Much of this involvement was fueled by personal experimentation with AI tools and a desire to create learning experiences for teachers that would educate and motivate them — not discourage them.
These leaders’ efforts highlight the need to tailor AI training to specific district demands. They also underscore schools’ need for credible AI experts who understand the unique nuances of educational environments.
The policy gap
When it comes to using AI properly, many students seem to be flying without a net, according to the 2026 AI Index Report from Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. The newly released report highlights a significant gap between AI usage among students and the clarity of school policies regarding AI.
According to the data, the majority of US high-school and college students — up to 84% — are using AI tools for schoolwork, often for research, essay editing and brainstorming. Despite this widespread adoption, many students remain uncertain about when and how they are allowed to use AI.
And no wonder. The report data show a severe lack of clarity and consistency in school AI policies. Only about half of K-12 schools have any AI policy, and of those, just 28% allow AI use in certain situations. Among students, 36% say their school’s AI policies are extremely clear, while 47% say they have wanted to use these tools but were unclear on their school’s stance. Only 6% of teachers say the rules are clear. State and federal guidance remains fragmented and mostly nonbinding, leaving local educators to navigate AI integration without
Digital twins
Ever wish you could clone yourself? Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks you should, SmartBrief editor Michael Domingo writes.
Zuckerberg is developing a “CEO agent” — a digital twin designed to help him manage more efficiently — and is encouraging the company’s 78,000 employees to build and use personal AI tools that enhance their workflow. Central to this push is Second Brain, an internal agent built on Anthropic’s Claude model, which staff can use to query documents and handle tasks. Employees are also experimenting with other agents, and these AI-powered assistants even interact with each other on internal messaging boards, streamlining processes and minimizing reliance on traditional management structures.
For more AI tips and updates, subscribe to AI Impact from SmartBrief
adequate direction or resources.
Students aren’t waiting for the grown-ups to figure it out. They are embracing AI at a rate that far outpaces institutional readiness. How should schools respond?
By acting on the data, says Dan Fitzpatrick, founder of The AI Educator. In a recent Forbes article, Fitpatrick offers three ways school leaders can get out in front of this issue. First, craft a one-page AI policy that is easy for students to understand, focusing on when and how AI can be used. Next, train teachers on AI prompting rather than specific tools, as prompting is the more durable skill. And finally, shift conversations about AI from cheating to thinking, emphasizing cognitive augmentation over cognitive off-loading.
LINCOLN A LEARNING COAC
Support for Every Learning Moment
Lincoln AI Learning Coach is available a secure, education-first environment. It g thinking, problem-solving, and understa confidence and keep learning beyond th
Perfect for: Homework help, test prep, independent study, and exploring new to
How Does Lincoln AI Keep Students Safe?
Curriculum Grounded
Trained on Lincoln Empowered cu academically aligned, age-approp
Privacy & Policy Aligned
Built to meet industry privacy standards and responsible AI practices.
Secure by Design
Purpose-built guardrails keep students focused, supported, and on a safe learning path
Ready to Transform Learning?
Discover
AI works. Humans
make it work better
AI is widely used — but its impact depends on human guidance.
First, the basics
26% Student AI use for school (2025 vs. 2024) 86% of education organizations now use generative AI
Source: “AI in Education Report: Insights,” Microsoft (August 2025)
21% Educator AI use for work (2025 vs. 2024)
Use vs. trust gap
58% Teachers use AI occasionally or regularly 6% Teachers say benefits outweigh harm
Source: Teachers Pay Teachers survey (2026); Microsoft ( 2025)
Student AI interactions on school devices
Student
reliance on AI 80% Acceptable
64%
* Includes cheating, bullying, self-harm content
Source: Education Week (March 2026)
Students using AI some, most or all of the time for schoolwork
Instruction: AI alone vs. AI with guidance
AI alone
■ Limited reflection
■ Simpler interactions
AI with human/ structured guidance
■ Learning gains in 100% of studies
Source: Pew Research Center (February 2026)
■ Stronger outcomes
Source: Brookings (January 2026)
The AI peace treaty
It’s the grown-ups’ turn for productive struggle.
By Diane Benson Harrington
AI has arrived in US schools as the disruptive new kid in class, and the adult response has swung wildly in an arc of panic. While we preach the importance of productive struggle to students, many legislators and board members aren’t modeling perseverance with an AI framework. They’re moving rapidly from curious to canceled. But pulling too far back on technology isn’t a strategy; it’s giving up — and possibly leaving students ill-equipped for an AI-infused world.
It’s time to adopt the same grit we demand of our students. We need to give ourselves permission to fail, to try a different way and to stay in “the messy middle,” as Jessica Garner of ISTE+ASCD calls it, until we’ve agreed on
a peace treaty among all stakeholders that ensures humans are in charge of AI, not the other way around.
The race against cognitive outsourcing
How do we get there? By gaining some clarity on the issues. AI in schools is, indeed, a concern. Our cognitive survival is at stake. Mahnaz Charania, TNTP chief transformation officer, warns that if we add AI on top of our existing, broken education feedback loops, we won’t see progress. One of her biggest fears, she says, is that “we’re going to use AI to make a system that was already broken more efficient, and we’re going to call that progress.” Instead, it could be a high-tech masking of a declining ability to think independently.
Julia Fallon, executive director of SETDA, warns of a tendency to let AI technology define the teacher’s value rather than the other way around. “How do we help [teachers] really be more human?” Fallon asks.
To keep humans front and center in class-
We need a peace stakeholders that ensures humans not the other way
former high-school English teacher notes that while cheating offends our sense of fairness, the deeper threat is the erosion of thinking.
“Human brains need friction to grow,” Wessman asserts. “When friction goes away, learning stops.”
He draws a sharp line between cognitive offloading (where the tool supports your thinking) and cognitive outsourcing (where the system thinks and you simply consume the result).
When a student takes an AI shortcut, they bypass the attention, brainstorming, reasoning, word choice, revision and much more — the very cognitive work that writing is meant to develop.
“Before deploying any AI tool in any activity,” Wessman says, “educators should ask one question: Does this increase or decrease the cognitive work my students need to do?”
They also need to stop assuming kids know how to use AI because they’re digital natives. “They’re not AI natives,” Casey Cuny, the 2024 California Teacher of the Year, says.
He argues that using AI effectively isn’t actually a technical leap — it’s a mental and creative one that requires human guidance as well as a sophisticated vocabulary of inquiry: terms like evaluate, challenge my thinking and give me a comprehensive plan
Classroom AI Charter
This template for a mutual agreement with students establishes clear boundaries and lays a foundation for accountability and appropriate use of AI.
We, the members of this class, in order to improve our learning, develop new skills and practice integrity, do establish this charter for using AI in our work:
rooms, Garner says, “we have to push ourselves to do better, not just work faster.” She notes that teachers need to adjust some instructional methods — not their instructional intention — to ensure the technology enhances students’ thinking process instead of speeding up an assignment.
The risk of the frictionless school
If we don’t guide AI’s growth, we risk creating what Rob Wessman, Ed.L.D., SchoolAI’s vice president of Ethics, Safety and Learning Innovation, calls the “frictionless school.” The
GORODENKOFF/GETTY IMAGES peace treaty among all humans are in charge of
way around.
“That level of thinking is something we really need to develop in our students,” Cuny says. That requires the teacher not just to help students prompt a chatbot, but to guide them through a new vocabulary that forces them to think more deeply.
The regulatory tug-of-war
While educators are focusing on the way students’ minds work, state leaders are focusing on the law. Fallon notes that state legislatures are moving quickly to regulate AI and edtech in schools — many jumping in when the federal government hadn’t. Finally, on March 20, the White House released its “National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” which stopped short of setting specific classroom rules, instead leaving sector-specific regulation to existing agencies and recommending that states avoid “unduly burdensome” bans that stifle innovation.
Still lacking the clarity of a federal mandate, the states’ actions have turned into a patchwork of plans. As of April 2026, 25 states have active AI-in-education bills, with Idaho, Georgia, Ohio, and Oklahoma already signing mandates into law. The approaches range from intractable to negotiated.
1. We are honest about using AI. When AI helps us with a project or assignment – brainstorm ideas, create an outline, revise a draft – we will make a note of that on the work.
2. We use AI to help our thinking – not to replace it. AI is a support tool. It gives us help, but it doesn’t do the work for us. We protect our learning by doing the main thinking in an assignment. When we turn it in, we will be able to explain and defend all of it.
3. We show our work. We show the steps and process involved in an assignment.
4. We honor the rules of AI use. Every assignment will identify if AI use is allowed and any limitations of that use. We will respect those boundaries.
5. We fact-check AI. We don’t trust AI search results; they can be wrong. To ensure our work is accurate and reliable, we will double-check the information and sources we cite in our work against non-AI sources.
STOCKPLANETS/GETTY
Teacher’s AI Charter
Teachers need frameworks too.
1. Instructional purpose. Before deploying any AI tool, educators must ask: “Does this increase or decrease the cognitive work my students need to do?”
2. Equity of experience. AI will increase, not decrease, the amount of highquality human mentorship a student receives.
3. Cognitive ownership. Insist that students attempt work before AI assists. The “productive struggle” is nonnegotiable.
4. Visible thinking. Ensure students can explain their choices, down to individual word choices, and document how AI contributed to their process.
5. Human advocacy. No high-stakes decision — grading, placement or discipline — will be made by an algorithm without human review.
Fallon warns that the policies that stop at the protection of students create a culture of “defensive compliance” rather than innovation. “Systems don’t run on warnings; they run on clarity.”
Garner points to the “Atlanta model” as the gold standard for a well-considered
Instead of ... Tweak it by ...
Treating AI as a cheating problem to be detected ...
Asking AI for the answer ...
Following AI like a GPS without looking at the road ...
Consuming an automated buffet of quick AI summaries ...
Implementing total screen bans ...
Outsourcing the drudge work for its own sake ...
Use AI as a launchpad. Require students to attempt the work first, then use AI to identify gaps in their reasoning.
Design for dialogue. Use AI to raise thought-provoking questions that force the student to defend their choices.
Act as executive editors. Teach students to verify AI directions against their own internal compass of the subject matter.
Move to farm-to-table learning. Require students to know the ingredients (sources/logic) of their arguments before consuming the result.
Create human-only checkpoints. Build in AI-free blocks for Socratic seminars and oral defenses of work to confirm independent understanding.
Prioritize 1:1 coaching. Use AI to differentiate lessons for multiple reading levels, which can give teachers 15 minutes of personal coaching time with struggling students.
balance between safety and innovation. By prioritizing a human-at-the-center philosophy, the district focuses on how AI can complement instruction rather than simply list what is forbidden. Atlanta Public Schools didn’t lead with a cumbersome or alienating new AI policy; they leaned on existing integrity guidelines. By treating AI as a Socratic sandbox — a safe space where the tool asks questions rather than giving answers — the district allows students to use it as a collaborator, but it requires them to document their reflections by hand to ensure the thinking remains visible and human-led.
The human aspect is also necessary because these skills are vital once students graduate and enter the workforce or head to college. AI is already embedded in almost every industry, and guests who speak to classes are sharing how. Curtailing students’ knowledge of what AI does — and will do — and not ensuring they’re proficient in it before they leave school will create a work gap on top of the current academic gaps.
Equity is an important component, too. Existing divides will widen if affluent students are getting all the AI bells and whistles while students in poorer communities are getting passive AI software and teachers without the professional development to guide them. Charania believes this risk can be avoided by
using AI as an instructional assistant — a tool that buys back teacher time for the human aspects of the job.
Winning the peace
An AI peace treaty that brings humans together rather than letting AI divide them requires moving away from reactive bans and toward repeatable, decision-making frameworks. Instead of asking whether schools should use AI, we should be asking what we need AI to do to strengthen the human teacher-student bond.
US schools are at an inflection point. Finding the middle ground — creating safe frameworks that allow students to understand and use this life-changing technology without impeding vital skill acquisition or threatening privacy — requires a seat at the table for everyone: parents, students, teachers and legislators.
And it requires productive struggle, because that’s where the hard work and growth happen — for adults as well as children. ●
Diane Benson Harrington is a SmartBrief education editor. SmartBrief editors Kanoe Namahoe, Lindsey Feth, Lilla Ross and Nina Snyder also contributed to this feature. Gemini AI contributions were edited and validated bySmartBrief editors.
Putting educators at ease with AI
Solution Tree associate and author William Ferriter, a 25-year National Board Certified Teacher, makes AI seem far less daunting in this Q&A.
By SmartBrief
For decades, teachers have handled with finesse the changing federal and state standards, new curricula, parental expectations and even a pandemic. But AI jumped off the school bus in a league of its own. “Garbage in, garbage out,” “cheating,” “hallucinations” and other terms that are often paired with AI make it intimidating and help some educators disavow it and stick to the tried and true.
But what if AI really can be helpful? We sat down with career classroom teacher, author and coach William Ferriter to talk about how he counsels administrators and teachers when it comes to making the most of AI in classrooms and the main office.
SmartBrief: So many educators are nervous about AI. How do you put them at ease — and why should we? What can AI really do for educators, both in
the classroom and the front office?
Ferriter: Human beings have a strong bias towards the status quo. We overwhelmingly prefer things to stay the same, even when change would benefit us. I think that explains what’s happening with AI in schools right now. Educators aren’t nervous because the technology is complicated. They are nervous because nobody has shown them what it looks like inside their work.
Here’s what AI can do for teachers right now: It can generate a first draft of a forma-
ANNA/GETTY IMAGES
tive assessment in 30 seconds. It can take your lesson plan and differentiate it for three readiness levels before you finish your coffee. It can help you brainstorm targeted intervention strategies for the kids who haven’t yet achieved proficiency. None of that replaces your professional expertise — but who doesn’t want another thought partner and a helping hand?
And it’s not just for classroom teachers. Building leaders can use AI to draft feedback after observations, analyze schoolwide data patterns or prepare for coaching conversations with collaborative teams. District leaders can use it to summarize research, build professional development agendas or create communication plans. The applications are practical and immediate across every role in a school system. Solution Tree has a full
Who doesn’t want another thought partner and a helping hand?
AI gives teachers the capacity to realistically act on what we have always known our students needed.
line of AI-focused professional development services designed to help educators at every level figure out where AI fits into the work they are already doing.
SmartBrief: Wow. That’s a lot. It seems daunting. Where should a school or district start, and how do you tame it so it’s engaging and manageable — and doesn’t make a teacher feel like a thirdgrader walking into an AP chemistry class?
Ferriter: Start with one thing. Not 10 things. Not a districtwide rollout with a 40-page implementation guide. One thing. Pick a task you already do every week that takes too long — writing parent emails, building practice sets, creating rubrics — and learn how AI can help you do that one thing faster and better. Master that. Then pick the next one. AI doesn’t have to be “one more thing” that teachers have to learn. It should be the first thing that actually makes our jobs easier. If your first experience with AI makes your workload heavier, something went wrong with how it was introduced — not with the technology itself.
SmartBrief: What’s the best way for educators to learn about AI? Can’t AI just teach us about AI?
Ferriter: AI can teach you how to use AI It can’t teach you what to use it for. That requires someone who knows your work — who understands what a collaborative team actually needs during their Tuesday afternoon meeting, what a building principal is wrestling with while supporting a struggling teacher, what a district leader is trying to accomplish with limited time and competing priorities. AI doesn’t know any of that. Expert educators with deep knowledge of teaching and learning do.
Here’s a question I like to ask the schools that I work with: Would you rather learn
about AI from someone who knows the workof teachers deeply or from a tech bro who’s never set foot in a school? That’s not a throwaway line. Too many districts are investing in AI tools without changing practice and then wondering why nothing improves. But that’s not an AI problem. That’s a professional development problem. The difference between useful AI training and a waste of everyone’s time is whether the person leading it deeply understands the actual work AI is supposed to support. Context is everything.
SmartBrief: What else is important for educators to know about AI right now?
Ferriter: Our goal as educators has always been to find strategies that help all students learn at the highest levels. Every teacher I’ve ever worked with believes in that goal. But if we are being honest, that goal has always felt out of reach because the range of needs students bring with them to the classroom is enormous. One teacher with 30 kids all at different readiness levels, and you are supposed to reach every single one of them? The will was there. The capacity wasn’t. Not because teachers aren’t good enough, but because the math is impossible.
AI changes that math. When a teacher has a thought partner that can generate dozens of new strategies in minutes, suddenly that impossible goal starts to feel possible. Not easy. But possible. AI gives teachers the capacity to realistically act on what we have always known our students needed.
And that gives me real hope for both teachers and for students. ●
William M. Ferriter is an author, coach and career classroom teacherwho spent 29 years working in middle-school classrooms in Raleigh, N.C. Bill has designed professional development courses for educators nationwide on a varietyof topics. Learn more about booking Bill forSolutionTree’sAI-infused PD
Ferriter
AI panic is blinding leaders to the signals that matter
Leaders who overcome their AI panic will be able to adapt and use the technology wisely.
By Scott Hutcheson
Not long ago, newsfeeds were dominated by fears of automation replacing jobs. Before that, the panic was about globalization erasing industries. Now, AI has become the next existential threat in the minds of many leaders. Yet, when viewed through the lens of biology and the ecosystems we inhabit, panic is almost never the most adaptive response.
In healthy ecosystems, biotic actors (living organisms) coexist and compete with abiotic factors (non-living forces ) like climate, terrain or chemical composition of the environment. AI is not a predator. But biology teaches us that when environments change, those who thrive are the ones who remain highly attuned
to their sensory inputs and adapt their behaviors accordingly.
Why panic disables the sensory shortcut
In the biology of behavior, sensory systems are the entry points for adaptive action. Whether it’s a gazelle spotting movement in the grass or a leader sensing a shift in market sentiment, the first step toward a productive response is noticing. In ecosystems, ignoring sensory data is a fast track to extinction. Panic, however, is the neurological equivalent of tunnel vision. Leaders gripped by AI panic stop noticing subtler cues like the early signs of opportunity, the weak signals of emerging partnerships or the nuanced feedback from their teams. Instead, they rely on
secondhand interpretations of risk, often from sensational headlines or speculative forecasts.
Lessons from evolutionary adaptation
In evolutionary terms, species that survive environmental disruptions tend to follow three patterns:
1. Exploit new niches: When volcanic eruptions create new land, certain plants are first to colonize the soil.
2. Develop symbioses: Organisms often partner with others to adapt to new constraints or access new resources.
3. Shift behavior before structure: Behavioral plasticity, the ability to change behavior without changing underlying biology, is often the first line of adaptation.
Leaders facing the rise of AI can borrow from each of these strategies. New niches are emerging in AI oversight, human-AI collaboration and ethical governance. Symbioses are forming between organizations and AI providers, combining computational scale with human judgment. Behavioral shifts, like learning to prompt AI effectively, are possible without overhauling entire systems overnight.
How panic erodes behavioral plasticity
Behavioral plasticity depends on accurate perception and clear signaling. Warmth, competence and gravitas are three behavioral “channels” that leaders can dial up or down to fit the situation. Panic distorts all three.
■ Warmth suffers because fear-driven leaders tend to pull inward, reducing trust-building interactions.
■ Competence appears shaky when decisions are made reactively rather than strategically.
■ Gravitas evaporates when leaders are broadcasting uncertainty instead of stability.
The biology of behavior shows that confidence signals are often reciprocal. If you stop
sending them, others stop sending them back — precisely the wrong posture for leveraging a disruptive new factor.
Reframing AI as an abiotic factor
When we label AI as a mere abiotic factor, we remove the predator-prey dynamic that fuels panic. AI is not hunting us. It is, however, reshaping the terrain. In a forest, a new river can be a barrier or a resource depending on whether you fixate on what you’ve lost or on
how you might cross it. Leaders who treat AI as an environmental change rather than an existential threat open themselves to strategic experimentation.
What makes AI unusual is its ability to mimic the outputs of biotic actors: art, strategy, language. But we know from examples in ecosystems that instead of asking how we stop it, we should ask how we can evolve our behaviors in response.
Sensing opportunities before others do
Adaptive leaders in any era share one habit: They invest in sensory awareness. They seek firsthand data, ground-level perspectives and diverse inputs. For AI, this might mean:
■ Experimenting with AI tools to understand their real capabilities and limitations.
■ Observing how competitors are integrating AI and where they’re struggling.
■ Listening for signals from employees about where AI helps and where it hinders.
The biohacker’s advantage
In biohacking leadership, the goal is to optimize biological systems — our own and those of our organizations — for impact. While AI panic trains leaders to skip awareness and go straight to reaction, the biohacker stays rooted in observation, experimentation and iteration.
Think of it as tuning the ecosystem’s behavioral channels rather than abandoning them. Warmth to keep teams engaged and collaborative in uncertainty. Competence to demonstrate mastery of both human and AI tools. Gravitas to hold a steady center while the terrain shifts.
Ecosystems reward pattern recognition over panic. Leaders who keep their senses open can spot not only threats but also inflection points, those moments when the environment is most malleable. AI is such a moment.
In evolutionary terms, species that survive disruptions tend to follow three behavioral patterns.
The biology of behavior doesn’t promise a smooth transition. It promises that those who sense and adapt fastest will shape what comes next. AI is not a predator at the gate. It is a change in the weather. Leaders who train themselves to feel the wind, watch the clouds and plan accordingly will do more than survive. They will thrive. ●
Scott Hutcheson is a senior lecturer of engineering and technology leadership at Purdue University and author of Biohacking Leadership
WILDPIXEL/GETTY IMAGES
Research leads the way to edtech’s human influence
How Digital Promise and Kyron Learning are partnering to improve edtech.
By SmartBrief
Digital education tools require far more than pinpointing a good idea and devising an app that helps. Of course, the technology must be easy to use, feature smart elements, meet key standards and be affordable. But the product also must stem from a deeper understanding of what humans need and how humans operate. Will it give students answers or help them learn? Will it tackle teachers’ administrative tasks but limit personalization? The rush of AI-powered
products demands an even closer look.
Digital Promise’s mission is to combine research, practice and technology to shape the future of learning, ensuring everyone has equitable access to top-notch learning experiences. Through its Powerful Learning framework, its strong connections to ENCORE, a sub-network of the AIMS Collaboratory, and its work with ENCORE grantees such as Kyron Learning, Digital Promise has a holistic window into edtech.
We spoke with Rajen Sheth at Kyron Learning about their work with Digital Promise to help
ensure edtech products meet student and educator needs without losing the human element.
SmartBrief: As AI becomes more embedded in education, how are you thinking about the role of human interaction in teaching and learning? Why does that matter?
Rajen Sheth: We see AI as a way to scale great teaching while preserving what makes it powerful.
VOLODYMYR KRYSHTAL/GETTY
The most impactful learning experiences come from educators who can explain concepts clearly, guide practice and respond to how students are thinking. The challenge isn’t the quality of teaching; it’s that this level of support is difficult to deliver consistently to every student, especially when many are still working through foundational concepts. That’s where AI can play a meaningful role.
Kyron turns educator-provided content into guided, interactive instruction that helps students build those foundational skills through explanation, practice, feedback and reinforcement in real time. It ensures students do the work of learning, not just receive answers.
By taking on that layer of support, Kyron helps ensure every student builds a strong foundation with key concepts, giving educators more space to focus on higher-value moments — deeper discussions, applied thinking, and insights and connections that elevate learning.
Kyron Learning’s AI ensures students do the work of learning, not just receive answers.
This is why human interaction matters. AI can scale consistency and access, but meaningful learning still depends on the expertise, judgment and perspective that educators bring. The goal is to strengthen that role, not replace it.
SmartBrief: How does a humancentered approach shape the way AIpowered tools are developed?
Sheth: It starts with recognizing that we already know how students learn best. Decades of research in learning science have shown what drives real understanding. Learning isn’t a single moment; it’s a process. Students build understanding when they are guided through concepts, given opportunities to practice and supported as they work through challenges. That includes productive struggle, which is a critical part of learning, not something to be avoided. AI should be designed to support that process, not shortcut it.
At Kyron, that means structuring experiences that help students engage, reflect and apply what they are learning, while creating an environment where they feel comfortable asking questions and working through uncertainty. Psychological safety matters. Students need space to explore ideas, make mistakes and try again without fear, and Kyron is designed to provide that supportive learning environment.
Just as importantly, a human-centered approach ensures that educators remain in control. When designed this way, AI becomes a way to scale effective teaching practices while keeping the human element at the center.
A human-centered approach ensures that educators remain in control.
SmartBrief: As a participant in this work through ENCORE, a sub-network of the AIMS Collaboratory, how has collaborating influenced the way you design your AI tutor to support, not replace, educators?
Sheth: Our work through ENCORE and the AIMS Collaboratory has been a strong reminder that the best ideas in education come from collaboration. Working closely with educators and institutions gives us a much clearer understanding of how teaching actually happens in practice, what constraints exist, and where support can have the greatest impact.
That has reinforced our belief that AI should be designed as an extension of the instructor. Educators bring context, experience and judgment that are essential to the learning process. Our role is to build technology that carries that forward in a consistent, scalable way.
It has also shaped how we think about product development. Staying close to educators ensures that what we build continues to align with real classroom needs and evolves alongside them.
SmartBrief: What three questions should edtech developers ask themselves when evaluating their AI concepts or products for a human connection?
Sheth: Does it support all different styles of learning and approaches? Does it have the ability to earn educator trust? Can you tie the use of the tool to meaningful learning outcomes? ●
Rajen Sheth is the CEO and co-founderof Kyron Learning, a public benefit company focused on expanding access to high-quality, one-on-one teaching through AI. He previouslyspent17years at Google, where he served asvice president of Google Cloud AI and helped build Google Workspace and Chrome for Education.
Sheth
Are Educators Overusing AI?
Emails, grant applications, newsletters and more. Just like in the classroom, educators should know the appropriate and inappropriate times to use AI.
By Erik Ofgang
FRANCESCO CARTA
Melissa Jacobs, the director of library services for New York City Public Schools, has recently noticed a somewhat unsettling trend in education.
More and more of the professional writing materials she sees from her educator peers seem to be written by AI.
“I think newsletters are more AI-driven. I think evaluations and summaries and narratives and things that used to be the individual creating are now being driven by AI,” she tells me recently.
I’ve noticed the same thing in my communications with students and, in some cases, from peers. I recently wrote about how, at the start of 2026, I started suspecting students were writing me AI-generated emails. Jacobs began noticing this uptick in AI use by educators over the past six months.
We discuss this growing and little-talkedabout problem in education, and what can be done about it.
Using AI doesn’t always make things easier
One area Jacobs has seen a big uptick in AI-style writing is on grant applications she oversees.
“The answers to the questions for a large majority of them appear to be very AI-driven, rather than, ‘This is my own thought, my own belief, my own answer to this question,’” Jacobs says.
Educators looking for a grant shouldn’t be outsourcing the grant-writing process to AI for many reasons, but one is that it does the opposite of making your grant application stand out.
Additionally, the application process is designed to help grant recipients succeed once they receive a grant. Part of that, Jacobs explains, is to help applicants plan out the program for which they will use the grant.
“If they’re not doing the work in the beginning, then they’re not going to be successful running the program if they do receive the funding,” Jacobs says. “They’re missing out on a big component of it. We’re asking questions not as busywork, but as a thought process.”
AI shouldn’t replace thinking
In the AI era, it has become a cliché that AI shouldn’t be used to outsource thinking, but Jacobs believes some educators may need
a reminder of that.
“I’m not saying it’s not a good tool to use, but I am encouraging original thinking,” Jacobs says. She adds that some educators are using AI in just the way we try and discourage students from using it. “They’re not using it as someone that they’re editing with, but they’re like, ‘Oh, okay, it’s done. I’m just going to cut and paste this here.’”
She adds this approach can be seen in the quality of work they submit. “Their voice is not consistent across all of their work, if you’re looking at multiple pieces, and I think that they’re not putting the effort into it.”
Like we constantly tell students, it may be OK to use AI in certain instances to help you figure out how to write, but you shouldn’t use it to write for you.
We need AI work culture norms in education and beyond Jacobs says that right now the use of AI by adults who are professionals can create awkward situations. She notes that it’s hard to provide feedback to someone who didn’t create the work that you’re critiquing.
These are the kind of discussions and challenges educators have been navigating with their students since the debut of ChatGPT, but now are becoming more common among educators themselves. Jacobs wants to see this issue get more discussion,
Using AI in the grant-writing process does the opposite of making your grant application stand out.
and for more workplace cultural norms to develop around AI use.
In the meantime, she believes educational leaders can look to the playbooks they developed around AI use and students.
“There has been a lot of focused attention on teaching students how to use AI effectively, but there has not been a lot of focus on how to use it effectively with colleagues,” Jacobs says. She adds that it might be time to change that. ●
ErikOfgang isa journalist, author and educator. His workhas appeared inTech &Learning, The New YorkTimes,The Washington Post, Smithsonian andThe Atlantic. He currently teaches at Western Connecticut State University’s MFA program.
Good AI makes a difference; here’s how
to vet it
Educators can make the best case for using edtech and AI when they know how the programs they choose are safe and effective.
By SmartBrief
All too often, AI in education is a shortcut not a savior. Giving students answers without helping them think through problems does students a disservice. AI that hasn’t been properly trained and vetted can be disastrous. Done right, AI can be a powerful
educational tool that saves teachers time and helps students learn by thinking critically.
We spoke with Lincoln Learning Solutions product owner Anäis Wheeler to find out more about the Lincoln AI Learning Coach and how educators can make safe, savvy choices when selecting educational AI.
SmartBrief: Students are on their phones or tablets all the time. Since edtech speaks their language, why are there so many detractors recently? Wheeler: Most of us can’t escape devices or the onslaught of digital media. About half of teenagers reported four hours or more of daily screen time, and most teachers are
already using digital tools daily in their classrooms — 65% say they use it for instruction
Screens aren’t going anywhere, so despite edtech detractors, the question is not whether kids are using technology for school, it’s how and what they’re using. Namely, are they using technology tools that center learning?
We shouldn’t dismiss concerns that students are losing their attention spans or the ability to engage in deep learning: 88% of teachers say they believe student attention spans have decreased, and 71% blame technology. Educators can’t keep students off screens, but they can make smart choices about the technology they encourage students to use.
SmartBrief: When we add AI to edtech, we get more edtech detractors. Should we get rid of AI? Should it work the same across all programs?
Wheeler: Emerging technologies always
Key to our vision is transparency for teachers: They have insight into students’ usage and learning via a teacher dashboard.
come with unknowns. The truth is, teachers and students didn’t choose AI — it initially arrived in classrooms uninvited. Not all AI is appropriate for schools, yet 86% of K–12 students reported using AI for school last year. Sixty-one percent of teachers say they used it professionally in 2025 — almost twice the 2023 rate. That’s an incredibly quick adoption of a technology that hit the market in late 2022.
At the same time, 70% of teachers report concerns that AI weakens students’ research and critical thinking skills.
AI tools have already flown out of Pandora’s box, but we can intentionally provide students with AI tools designed for learning contexts and trained on trusted, high-quality curriculum. Learning requires a student to actively engage, not just receive information. Lincoln Learning is first an education and curriculum provider, focusing on cultivating critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
SmartBrief: What role does Lincoln Learning’s curriculum play in Lincoln AI?
Wheeler: Lincoln AI is trained on Lincoln’s standards-aligned curriculum so it shares age- and grade-appropriate information that comes from trusted sources developed by educators. That alignment ensures critical thinking and academic inquiry and can deliver vetted learning resources to students.
SmartBrief: Is AI a necessity or just another bell or whistle?
The question is not whether kids are using technology for school, it’s how and what they’re using.
Wheeler: When we developed Lincoln AI, we were focused on outcomes, not bells and whistles. With Lincoln AI, students can select an avatar as their learning coach, and that avatar speaks out loud and on “video” to replicate a conversation — but this isn’t a gimmick. The multimedia experience, segmenting of information and opportunity for active processing increase student engagement. We find that different students respond to different avatars — whether a tiger character or a human-like one — and that this form of conversation makes engagement intuitive. This is an intentional difference in a market that largely includes text-based products.
SmartBrief: We’ve heard about accidentally inappropriate incidents stemming from the use of AI in classrooms. How does Lincoln AI keep learning safe for students?
Wheeler: Safety is at the forefront of Lincoln AI’s design, starting with our vetted curriculum. Custom educational guardrails align with rigorous privacy standards and responsible AI policies. The program will provide a warning, shut down a session and alert an adult when a student triggers it with inappropriate or dangerous topics.
Key to our vision is transparency for teachers. They have insight into students’ usage and learning via a teacher dashboard — where safety alerts are also front and center.
The Lincoln team worked closely with our AI partner, Creatium, to generate and thoroughly test scenarios in our aim to meet or exceed safety standards. We implemented, tested and retested the guardrails to be certain they are strong and operate appropriately. ●
AnäisWheeleris Lincoln LearningSolutions’ Product Ownerfor Lincoln AI, a suite of tools designed tosupport learning in safe, meaningful ways. She hasworked on education technologyproducts and curriculum since 2008.
How guidance, college counselors can use AI tools
AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Esslo can ease workloads for guidance and college counselors.
By Nina Snyder
As workloads increase for guidance counselors, AI tools can assist with a range of administrative tasks.
According to the American School Counselor Association, the ideal ratio of guidance counselors to students is 1 counselor for
every 250 students. However, the average ratio inched up to 1 counselor for every 385 students in 2022-23
With an average workload of 385 students, it can be challenging to provide personalized guidance to each student. AI tools can help counselors stay on top of their workloads and focus on what the students need for the
daunting college application process.
“Adobe’s built-in AI helps me synthesize teacher comments so I can approach counselor letters of recommendation with a clear, comprehensive view of each student,” says Shana Russell, the associate director of college counseling at a boarding school in Connecticut. “I rely on tools like ChatGPT and
Gemini for drafting emails, communicating with families and staying current on trends in college counseling.”
Jeffrey Neill, the director of college counseling at Graded – The American School of São Paulo, offers a list of top 10 AI tools for guidance counselors, including Esslo, a tool to help review college essays, and College Genie, a tool that provides college admission support. Neill also includes helpful AI prompts for ChatGPT to assist students in the college decision process.
Students should hesitate before using AI
While guidance and college counselors can rely on AI tools to streamline their work, most counselors offer a word of caution for stu-
I rely on tools like ChatGPT and Gemini for drafting emails, communicating with families and staying current on trends in college counseling.
Russell, college counselor in Connecticut
dents using AI tools to write college application essays.
“I would tell students to be very careful with how they use AI in their essays,” Russell says. “It’s all right to use AI to support your writing, but it should not replace your voice or the time you spend on your personal essay.”
According to a report from the College Board, 84% of high-school students used generative AI tools for school in May 2025, with ChatGPT listed as the AI tool of choice. The research also shows that 50% of highschool students used AI to revise or edit essays.
Colleges have started notifying highschool students of consequences if AI use is discovered. For example, the University of Colorado, Boulder, requires applicants to certify their information, spokesperson Deborah Mendez-Wilson says.
“Every prospective undergraduate student is required to agree to the following before submitting their application to the University of Colorado Boulder: ‘I certify that all information submitted in the admission process — including this application and any other supporting materials — is my own work, is factually true, and has been honestly presented, and that these documents will become the property of the institution to which I am applying and will not be returned to me, I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades and degree should the information I have certified is determined to be false.’”
Consequences of misrepresenting work
The University of Minnesota expelled a graduate student last year from its Ph.D.
program over allegations of using AI.
The student filed a lawsuit disputing the charges, and the court upheld the university’s action. But part of the problem is that detecting AI work can be tricky, even for AI bots.
Even ChatGPT warns that its product may not always be truthful; however, it’s buried in the terms and conditions of the parent company, OpenAI, which many users don’t bother to read: “Output may not always be accurate. You should not rely on Output from our Services as a sole source of truth or factual information, or as a substitute for professional advice.”
However, Russell says AI tools can be used in an ethical way to help with grammar and uncover themes in college essays. “I think students can use AI as a starting point, but not an ending,” she says.
Russell uses Esslo to offer personalized, actionable feedback to her students. She even used it to help her son with the process of applying to colleges.
“Esslo has been one of the most helpful tools I’ve used, especially when supporting my son and his friends through the college application process,” Russell says. “In addition to their college counselor’s guidance, Esslo added an objective layer of feedback that was easy to understand and act on.
“Within minutes, I could offer suggestions that went well beyond grammar and really focused on what makes a strong college essay, helping students clearly see how to elevate their ideas without emotion entering the conversation. ●
Nina Snyder is an editorforSmartBrief who focuses on education and business services. Snyder is the author of two picture books for children, Mardi Claw and ABCs of Balls.
PHIWATH JITTAMAS/GETTY IMAGES
Shana
Do grades make sense in the AI era?
When it comes to writing assignments, AI has exacerbated many existing problems, an educator argues.
By Erik Ofgang
I’ve always been uncomfortable with the grading part of being a professor. As a student, I loved learning, particularly writing, but dreaded the judgment of an instructor and the harsh disapproval of their red pen. When I started teaching, grading was my least favorite part of the job. I’d obsess over minor discrepancies and second-guess myself constantly. Even when I felt I was completely
fair in handing out a less-than-stellar grade, I worried about whether the student truly deserved a permanent mark on their record for something minor, such as forgetting to include a cover page. But I plugged along as a reluctant grader anyhow.
Then came the age of AI
I am constantly seeing AI-generated papers, AI-generated emails and even other AI forms
of written communication from students. This has made grading, particularly grading written work, seem more unfair.
In other words, generative AI has poured gasoline and lit a match on top of an already flawed grading system.
While I understand that grades are still necessary and grade my classes in accordance with the institutional policies of the colleges I teach at, increasingly, I’m convinced that the widespread nature of AI provides more of an
argument against grades in favor of some other model, such as standards-based grading or mastery learning. Here’s why.
1. AI adds to the randomness of paper grading
Most educators, myself included, believe we grade papers fairly. Unfortunately, data does not really back this. In fact, much research that goes back to the early 1900s has found that when educators grade the same paper, there is huge variation in the scores given; for instance, one 2011 study asked 90 different high-school teachers in the same school district to grade the same paper according to the same rubric. Scores this identical paper received ranged between 50 and 96.
I’ve noticed similar variations myself when I’ve observed the teaching habits of other educators I’ve supervised. What earns a B in my
class might earn an A or a C in a colleague’s, or worse, a D.
AI further unbalances this already unfair system. It’s clear that when we assign takehome papers these days, we’re creating a moral conundrum. Some students will use AI and receive good grades, while others won’t and might receive a poor grade as a result. This is not what any educator I know wants, but it is the default system that has emerged for handling AI.
2. AI undercuts motivation argument for grades
One of the main arguments for grades is that without any, students won’t do any work. Again, studies don’t really confirm this. According to one review comparing grading to feedback without grades, students who received feedback without grades achieved more and were more motivated to learn.
Regardless, given how widespread AI cheating is these days, I wouldn’t place as much weight on grades as I once did. What I’m seeing in the world of writing education is that more and more, grades are merely a measure of how effectively a student is using AI without getting caught.
4. AI makes it clear teaching to the grade isn’t best
Almost all teachers I know rail against teaching to the test, but how different is that really from teaching to the grade? In fact, I believe that part of the reason students are turning to AI so frequently is that they’ve been taught implicitly that the grade, not their learning, is what matters. Therefore, when a tool comes along that can get that grade without work, there’s no reason not to use it. That is at least the way many of my undergraduate students seem to feel.
Instead of grades motivating students to write, grades are motivating students to use AI to do their work for them.
That said, I’m willing to grant that fear of getting a bad grade does motivate some students. Even I admit that I would worry about getting quality work from my students without some aspect of the fear-based motivation that grades provide.
The problem is that AI has already undercut this argument. In many instances, students no longer fear grades. Instead of grades motivating students to write, grades are motivating students to use AI to do their work for them.
3. AI makes grading useless as a ranking system
Another rationale for grading is that it helps sort students into various abilities, both for employment and for the next level of education. I never loved this as motivation for grades. Helping companies decide who to hire may have its uses, but it’s not likely to show up as an answer if you ask educators why they got into teaching.
On the other hand, with my graduate students, AI use is nonexistent. That’s because they are in graduate school to learn to write, not just earn a grade. Of course, duplicating graduate student motivation for undergrads and K–12 students isn’t easy.
I also know that eliminating grades overnight and switching to a mastery-learning method isn’t plausible. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive toward creating a new motivation for students; we may not succeed in this process 100%, but we can do much more as a profession to move classroom motivation away from grade-based fear-mongering. If we don’t, I think our students will keep turning to AI, no matter how hard we try to catch it, and take-home writing assignments will become a sad remnant of the past. ●
ErikOfgang is a journalist, author and educator. His workhas appeared inTech &Learning, The New YorkTimes,The Washington Post, Smithsonian and The Atlantic.
WANAN YOSSINGKUM/GETTY IMAGES
How AI is reshaping special education
A new generation of AI tools is improving differentiation.
By Lilla Ross
For decades, special education teachers have been urged to personalize instruction, differentiate materials and honor individual learning needs — even as class sizes grow, staffing shortages persist and administrative demands multiply. Now, AI tools are beginning to change what that looks like in practice.
More than half of special education teachers are already using AI tools, with 15% applying AI to individualized education programs and nearly a third using it to track student progress. The shift reflects a growing recognition that AI, when carefully implemented, can act as assistive technology — much like spell check, screen readers or glasses.
Nicholas Provenzano, a former high-school
English teacher and middle-school technology coordinator who has dyslexia and ADHD, spent more than two decades in classrooms advocating for students with disabilities.
“I wasn’t diagnosed until college. Once I realized I wasn’t dumb — I just thought differently — it completely changed how I saw learning.”
That realization shaped his career.
Provenzano became known for designing project-based, technology-rich classrooms that supported accessibility long before such approaches were common. He pushed for audio systems for students with hearing impairments, multilingual support, flexible assessment models and digital tools that removed barriers for neurodivergent learners.
Today, Provenzano, community manager for the AI learning platform SchoolAI, sees the
technology as the next chapter in assistive learning — one with enormous implications for special education.
“The traditional model of differentiation just isn’t realistic,” he says. “You can have 30 students, 15 of whom have IEPs, 504 plans or undiagnosed needs, and you’re told to personalize learning for every single one. The math doesn’t work. There’s not enough time.”
AI, he argues, changes that equation.
A judgment-free space to ask for help
For many neurodivergent students, the barrier isn’t intelligence — it’s anxiety.
Provenzano still remembers sitting in class as a student, processing directions late, missing steps and being afraid to raise his hand more than once.
“That fear sticks with you,” he says. “You don’t want to look like the kid who isn’t paying attention.”
AI-powered learning spaces, when designed with guardrails, can offer a different experience. Students can ask the same question multiple times, receive clarified directions or request alternative explanations without judgment or social pressure. For students with processing delays, dyslexia, ADHD or autism, that alone can be transformative.
Equally important, Provenzano said, is what AI frees teachers to do.
“If students are asking AI questions that are already answered in the directions — how to open a tool, where to find something — that saves me minutes at a time,” he explains. “That means I can spend my time sitting next to the student who’s overwhelmed or the student who has a big creative idea and needs mentoring.”
Closing the loop on IEPs and documentation
At Better Speech, a speech therapy telehealth company expanding into education technology, leaders saw a different kind of problem: special education teachers drowning in documentation.
“We found that teachers were experimenting with generative AI, but they were worried about data privacy, intellectual property and hallucinations,” Maura Connor, the company’s chief operating officer, says.
In response, Better Speech developed Streamline, an AI-based platform built on a closed system that districts can customize to their own policies and restrictions. Unlike open AI tools, Streamline allows educators and auditors to see exactly what content a teacher entered and what was generated by AI.
Teachers also can dictate session notes, track minutes, monitor progress and generate reports with significantly less manual effort. A color-coded dashboard highlights students who may need additional intervention, while built-in analytics help administrators identify caseload gaps and staffing needs. “It’s giving time back to teachers so they can spend it with students,” Connor says.
AI as support, not replacement
Provenzano and Connor are careful to emphasize that AI cannot — and should not — replace a teacher’s ability to read a classroom,
AI is good at connecting data. Teachers are good at connecting humans.
Nicolas
Provenzano,
Community Learning Manager, SchoolAI
navigate social dynamics or recognize when a student’s struggle has nothing to do with academics. It cannot substitute for empathy, relationship-building or professional judgment.
“AI is good at connecting data,” Provenzano says. “Teachers are good at connecting humans.”
That distinction matters in special education, where two students with the same diagnosis may require entirely different approaches. AI-generated materials, Provenzano says, should always be treated as drafts — starting points that educators refine based on deep knowledge of their students.
A future focused on access
As AI tools continue to evolve, many educators see their greatest potential not in efficiency, but in early intervention and self-advocacy. AI-driven analytics may help schools identify learning challenges sooner. Private AI support can empower students to ask for help without fear. Multimodal tools — combining text, audio and visuals — can accommodate a wider range of cognitive and sensory needs.
For Provenzano, the stakes are deeply personal: “A younger version of me might have believed in myself sooner if these tools existed. There were dreams I gave up because I was told I wasn’t good enough at something.”
Today’s students, he believes, deserve better.
“AI isn’t about lowering standards,” he says. “It’s about removing barriers so more students can reach them.” ●
Lilla Ross is an education editor atSmartBrief.
KALI9/GETTY IMAGES
How district and school leaders can support teachers with AI that works
AI can help both teachers and students when used correctly.
By Kristen Brooks
AI is no longer a futuristic concept. It’s here, and it’s already shaping how schools operate. From lesson planning to personalized learning, AI is becoming part of the everyday toolkit for educators.
For district leaders, the challenge isn’t deciding whether to bring AI into classrooms. It’s figuring out how to do it responsibly, effectively and equitably. When we approach AI with
openness, collaboration and clear guardrails, it can elevate teaching and learning rather than undermine them.
This rapid shift means we can’t just evaluate tools on their features. We must also anticipate how AI will affect teaching practices, student engagement and community trust. AI can spark excitement and concern like calculators, laptops and tablets before it. Leaders who lean in early, set clear expectations and work closely with their communities will be
best positioned to maximize the benefits while minimizing risks.
Start by listening
The first step to introducing AI into schools is listening to teachers, families and students. Form committees with representatives from each group so every voice is heard. Even when people’s preferences aren’t chosen, being part of the process builds trust.
HISPANOLISTIC/GETTY IMAGES
Too often, AI decisions happen behind closed doors at the district level, leaving out teachers and families. This can lead to poor adoption and wasted resources. Invite teachers to explore tools, test them and share honest feedback. In my district, having teachers help shape our technology plans improved outcomes, boosted morale and strengthened retention. Educators felt seen, valued and respected. Early involvement helps reduce top-down tool fatigue and ensures stronger adoption.
Prioritize professional development
Fear and uncertainty are two of the biggest barriers to AI adoption. Professional development should be ongoing, inclusive of all staff roles and led by trusted facilitators. A onetime workshop won’t cut it, because AI tools change too quickly.
Make training relevant to everyone from art teachers to counselors and highlight real classroom examples. A language arts teacher
might use AI to generate reading-levelappropriate prompts, while a PE teacher might design warm-ups tailored to students’ abilities. The more practical and connected to their daily work, the more likely staff will embrace it. Ongoing, role-specific PD doesn’t just build confidence; it also reduces burnout. When AI is introduced in ways that save teachers time on lesson prep, grading and communication with families, it creates space for more meaningful, human-centered work. Over time, this kind of support helps retain passionate educators and sustain high-quality teaching.
Establish clear guardrails
Begin with your state’s guidelines and, when possible, collaborate with other districts to create unified policies. Utah’s AI framework and resources from Future Ready Schools are strong starting points. Guardrails should cover acceptable use, data privacy, intellectual property and transparency.
Families should know how AI-generated content will be used. Students should be taught to evaluate AI output critically. Aligning with state or regional frameworks also helps ensure consistency for students who move between districts.
Shift the mindset from fear to opportunity
One of the biggest misconceptions is that AI will replace teachers or encourage cheating. AI can act as a teacher’s assistant, helping with administrative tasks, generating ideas and supporting creativity so teachers can focus on instruction and relationships. Tools like ClassDojo for Districts and its AI assistant, Sidekick, are great examples.They help teachers streamline communication, save time and personalize learning.
I’ve seen AI help shy students deliver powerful visual presentations or assist struggling writers in organizing their ideas. When we frame AI as a bridge between what students imagine and what they can produce, it becomes a tool for unlocking creativity and confidence.
Communicate clearly and consistently
Once policies are in place, make resources easy to find and share them often. Use multiple channels — your district website, newsletters and social media — to keep everyone informed. AI tools can simplify these commu-
When we frame AI as a bridge between what students imagine and what they can produce, it becomes a tool for unlocking creativity and confidence.
nications, helping teachers reduce parent update time by 40% and boosting response rates. That kind of impact builds trust and frees up time for the work that matters most.
Highlight success stories. Show how AI has supported teachers and improved student outcomes. Over time, regular updates can turn AI from an abstract concept into a trusted, everyday tool.
Prepare students for the future
AI isn’t going away. We are responsible for ensuring students graduate with AI literacy — the ability to use these tools responsibly, question their output and combine them with human judgment. This fits naturally into a broader digital citizenship curriculum.
My hope is that every student learns to use AI in ways that spark creativity, deepen learning and build confidence. If we remove the fear factor, we open doors — for students, teachers and our school communities. Responsible adoption of AI is ultimately about people: empowering teachers to focus on meaningful work, giving students more ways to express themselves and fostering a culture where innovation feels safe and supported.
With thoughtful planning, collaboration and trust, AI can be more than a tool. It can be a partner in helping every child reach their fullest potential. ●
Kristen Brooks has three decades of experience as an educator and district instructional technologycoach. She is passionate about supporting the professional learning and growth of teachers, administrators and district leaders.
How multiplier leaders can help schools thrive
Educational leaders should build up their teams instead of undermining them.
By Michael Gaskell
Earlier in my career, the principal got a bad, bloody nose. So bad that he needed to go to the emergency room to get treatment for it to stop. I acted instinctively, taking him, waiting for him and driving him back to the school after being treated. Instead of a typical “Thank you,” he said: “Do NOT share this with anyone else. This is between us and only us.”
I couldn’t understand why this statement made me so uncomfortable. Looking back
three decades later, having led schools with hundreds of employees and thousands of students, combined with my writing research, I realize that the uneasy emotion I felt made sense. I was among a tiny group of individuals whom the principal confided in. At the time, I was honored, though I was not sure why others were walled off from him. Sure, they had complaints and questioned his decisions. But shut them out? It didn’t seem quite right.
This is a good example of what I call a broken pyramid of leadership. Broken pyra-
mids exist in organizations everywhere and are among the most common downfalls of once-successful organizations. Leaders cut off others’ access to them, and only a small few might have their ear.
Effective organizations are characterized by a hierarchical structure, such as in a high-performing school system. Leadership and decisions flow from the superintendent and board of education at the top, through district and building administrators, down to teachers and support staff who directly serve students, and
back up again in a connected flow.
Since broken pyramids cut off others from access, the leader is not in touch with the concerns of those in the trenches. This can create unproductive and dangerous results. Consider one classic example of a broken pyramid that resulted in serious consequences.
Paralyzed by bureaucracy:
The 1986 space shuttle disaster
Leading up to the launch, information about an engineering flaw was not adequately communicated, and decision-makers were not aware of the extent of the risks involved. Pressure from management to launch led to downplaying the engineers’ concerns. Additionally, a lack of a clear reporting structure meant there wasn’t an established way for engineers to escalate safety concerns to the highest levels of management effectively.
Diminisher leaders often snuff out team members’ innovation, leading to missed opportunities and a lack of growth for the organization.
Broken pyramids in leadership happen so frequently that it’s surprising they aren’t recognized and that resolution isn’t happening more often. Broken pyramid leaders have been so far removed from the practical applications of day-to-day organizational functions that they fail to adequately communicate and delegate responsibilities down the pyramid. Worse, those who need to warn or advise them don’t have a forum for such important conversations.
Imagine the confusion, inefficiency and lack of accountability this leads to. Important information or decisions are lost or delayed as movement up and down the pyramid breaks down. Broken pyramids can create toxic and unproductive workplaces. It is critical for leaders to actively recognize the cracks in the pyramid and prevent them from growing.
Broken pyramids across organizations and in schools have consistent characteristics where too much is at stake, and we can identify them and troubleshoot. Because kids lose when broken pyramids puncture the teaching and learning continuum, we must act proactively.
Diminisher vs. multiplier leaders
Characteristics of broken pyramids are often represented by “diminisher” leaders. These are leaders who suppress their team members’ intelligence and capabilities. Sometimes diminishers are intentional, and other times they are not. Regardless, they undermine their team’s potential by not allowing them to fully utilize their skills and abilities. They tend to micromanage, take credit for their team’s successes and dismiss their team’s ideas and opinions.
The dangers in day-to-day work include decreased productivity and morale. An environment is created where team members feel undervalued and discouraged. This can ultimately impact the success of the team or organization.
Children lose under diminisher leaders
Diminisher leaders often snuff out innovation by preventing their team members from fully utilizing their skills and abilities. This can lead to missed opportunities and a lack of growth for the organization. Again, children lose.
How do leaders put their pride aside; acknowledge that others may, and often do, have a better idea or alternative; and allow them to share this idea? By being a multiplier leader. Amplify rather than snuff out the intelligence, skills and capabilities of the people around you. Instead of being the sole source of knowledge and decision-making, you create an environment where everyone feels empowered, encouraged to contribute their best ideas and motivated to take ownership of work.
Most broken pyramids and their diminisher leaders stubbornly persist because leaders fear someone being stronger, smarter or better than they are. The thought magnifies the fear that if someone is better, they will become obsolete. In reality, this is rarely the case, and the most successful teams are led by an inclusive leader who allows for access to them and the ability to offer creative alternatives to existing ideas.
Ironically, multiplier leaders often appear stronger, have a better reputation and are greatly appreciated. While this may make a leader feel a sense of personal pride, which motivates them to care more, what matters in school leadership is that the performance achievement of students improves, as does the community’s trust in their leadership. This has repeatedly reinforced for me, as a school leader and author, that putting my ego aside and leaning into the multiplier mindset solidifies the pyramid. In this pyramid, children should stand side by side with me at the top and excel. Bloody noses and all, it’s best to open the door and let people in. Children win. ●
Michael Gaskell, Ed.D., is the author of Radical Principals and a veteran principal in New Jerseyworking at Central ElementarySchool in East Brunswick.
PIXABAY
Faculty Lounge
What’s the most intriguing way a student has used AI in your class/school?
Casey Cuny
Founder & CEO of AI-powered teaching partner Whit; 2024 California Teacher of the Year; high-school English and mythology teacher; Santa Clarita, Calif.
A student who realized he learns best through listening discovered how to use Google NotebookLM to create a podcast from notes, created one for economics, where he was struggling, listened to it while in the gym and got an A on his next test.”
Watch their full response
Maitreyee Karmarkar
Computer science teacher, PreparatoryStratfordBlackford, San Jose, Calif.
A student created an autonomous robot navigationsystem using theGPT-4 and lidar, allowing activation throughwritten orspokenwords, theabilitytolocate objectsin 3Dusing 2Dcamera images, and theplanningofitsmovementwhile continuouslyupdating itsenvironmental understanding toavoidcollisions.”
Miranda Ketcham
5th-grade teacher, King School,Elementary King, N.C.
Students used AI asadigitalmirrorto masterthe art of descriptivewriting.An input/outputmindset helpedthemwin a writingcontest.”
Watch their full response
Kali Lambrou
Lead engineering teacher, Trinity School Clinton Falls, N.J.
A student designed and developed a de-bias website that can take any URL or text, remove bias and list only the facts.”
Watch
Watch their full response
Rachelle Dené Poth
Spanish and STEAM educator working with ISTE+ASCD, formerly of Riverview School District in Oakmont, Pa.
A student created an AI tutor to help them learn to narrate in Spanish in the past tense.”
In the Know
Did you know that SmartBrief has more than 7 million subscribers for its 250 newsletters — and about two dozen newsletters for education alone? Want to learn more about K-12 esports or civics? We have you covered. We produce SmartBrief-branded newsletters on several topics, and we compile and edit ultra-niche news roundups for education associations such as the Association for Career & Technical Education, ISTE+ASCD, the Center for Civic Education and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Did you know that the SmartBrief editors, as well as educators from around the world, write articles that appear only on SmartBrief’s education website? We are selective about the topics we cover and experts we use. If you’d like to be a part of this elite group, reach out to us by putting EBOOK in the subject line. ●
