The Importance of AI Literacy Among Educators

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly prevalent in education, its integration into classrooms represents both an opportunity and a responsibility. However, successful integration requires a foundational understanding of AI among educators. AI literacy is not just a technical skill—it is a prerequisite for informed, ethical, and meaningful conversations about how AI can and should be used in schools.

Why AI Literacy Matters

1. Understanding the Tool Before Teaching It
   Educators cannot effectively guide students in the use of AI without first understanding it themselves. By developing AI literacy, educators gain insights into the capabilities, limitations, and ethical considerations of AI, enabling them to approach its use in a balanced and informed manner. This ensures that decisions about AI are grounded in knowledge rather than fear or misinformation.

2. Navigating Complex Conversations
   AI brings with it a host of challenges, including concerns about bias, data privacy, and its impact on student creativity and effort. Educators who are AI-literate can engage in these discussions with confidence, advocating for policies and practices that prioritize student well-being while leveraging AI’s strengths.

3. Building Confidence and Trust
   Without a solid understanding of AI, educators may feel apprehensive about its integration. By prioritizing AI literacy, districts can foster trust in the technology, empowering teachers to see it as a partner in education rather than a threat.

4. Setting the Stage for Student Use
   AI is already a part of students’ lives, from predictive text on smartphones to AI-driven learning platforms. Educators who are well-versed in AI can guide students in using these tools responsibly, teaching them how to critically evaluate AI outputs, understand ethical implications, and use AI to enhance their learning rather than replace their efforts.

A Vision for AI Literacy

To ensure educators are equipped for these responsibilities, professional development programs should:

• Provide Practical Training: Focus on hands-on applications of AI tools for teaching and administrative tasks, helping educators see immediate benefits.

• Highlight Ethical Considerations: Cover topics such as bias, data privacy, and the ethical use of AI in the classroom.

• Foster Iterative Learning: Encourage a growth mindset, emphasizing that AI literacy is an ongoing process that evolves alongside the technology.

• Promote Collaboration: Create spaces for educators to share insights, challenges, and best practices, building a community of AI-informed professionals.

The Path Ahead

By prioritizing AI literacy among educators, districts can ensure that conversations about AI integration are thoughtful, informed, and aligned with educational goals. This foundational work will not only prepare teachers to use AI effectively but also empower them to guide students in navigating the complexities of an AI-driven world. In doing so, we position education as a leader in shaping the responsible use of AI for generations to come.

Reimagining Grading: Empowering Students Through Simplicity and Agency→

Robert Talbert, in an article on Substack, talks about his use of “spec grading” and the EMRF rubric he used:

“The EMRF rubric does this. It is basically a Pass/Fail rubric in which instead of one decision that needs to be made about a student’s work… there are two. The first is whether the specs are met. The second one is: If the specifications are met, then is the work really excellent (‘E’) or not excellent but just OK (‘M’)?”

I find this approach compelling. Simple labels like “Success” and “Retry” on student work help students retain their agency—something crucial in education today.

I’ve always been uneasy with grade-focused conversations: students fixated on getting an “A” or asking if content will be “on the test.” Grades like C and D often fail to provide meaningful feedback about learning. The “Retry” concept shifts the focus to quality over completion, telling students, “You’re not done yet. Keep trying.” As Talbert notes:

“It wasn’t about points, it was about quality and there’s a world of difference here.”

Moving from grading to feedback transforms classroom dynamics, emphasizing learning and personal growth over mere completion.

Empowering Agency for Growth→

Tyler Rablin, writing for Edutopia:

“People learn best when they have the autonomy to pursue their interests and focus deeply on topics that are directly relevant to their needs and challenges.”

I’d argue that this principle applies to everyone in our educational community—teachers, administrators, and students. When individuals are empowered to explore their interests and address their specific needs, engagement and motivation soar, leading to deeper understanding and lasting growth. By fostering an environment that values autonomy and relevance, we can enhance learning outcomes and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement across our schools.

“The response is not: ‘You are bad, you need to leave.’ The response is: ‘What you did was wrong, so we need to fix that.’”

— Allison Payne (Villanova University), quoted in “What Is Restorative Justice, and How Can It Be Implemented in Schools?” by Brooke Schultz in Education Week, June 19, 2024

Move Over, ‘Stranger Danger’→

Joe Keohane, writing for the Boston Globe, highlights multiple studies that emphasize the widespread fear of talking to strangers is largely unfounded and that such interactions can help young people develop critical social skills and reduce their reliance on technology:

"According to a growing number of psychologists, talking to strangers confers a host of benefits that will lessen the malaise affecting young people... studies she [Sandstrom] and others have conducted have consistently found that talking to strangers makes people happy, enhances a sense of belonging and connectedness, and alleviates feelings of loneliness, isolation, and distrust. This holds for men and women and introverts and extroverts across a wide range of ages."

Addressing Smarphone and Social Media Use in Schools→

Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone and founder of Screen/Life Balance, about children, smartphones, and social media:

"We are in the middle of a youth mental health crisis... there has been something happening between 2010 and 2015... we shifted from what [Jonathan Haidt] calls a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood and that there were dramatic changes in Social patterns, Role Models, emotions, physical activity and even sleep patterns."

Price makes a compelling case for proactive management of these technologies. She advocates for limiting smartphone use during school hours to encourage face-to-face interactions and reduce distractions. She emphasizes the importance of integrating comprehensive digital literacy into the curriculum to educate students on the risks of social media, the importance of privacy, and how to use technology productively. Additionally, she stresses the need for schools to work closely with parents to align policies with home practices, encourage activities that promote physical, social, and emotional development, and provide robust mental health support services. Training staff to recognize signs of digital addiction and cyberbullying is crucial to ensuring students have the support they need.

This is a recommended watch for educators and parents.

Teaching & Learning through Bookend Lessons

It's so refreshing to hear teachers talking about the work that they do in schools. The "Bookend Lessons" initiative at Bay City Public Schools integrated essential skills like collaboration, communication, and agency into daily learning.

In each Bookend Lesson, students start by setting skill goals, engage in meaningful student-centered activities, and conclude with reflections on their progress to teach academic content but also fosters crucial life skills. Teachers collaborate, share strategies, and refine these lessons to align with our curriculum standards, creating a unified educational experience across all grades.

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

— Maya Angelou

Key lessons from research about project-based teaching and learning→

Anna Rosefsky Saavedra and Amie Rapaport, writing for Kappan:

"Our research has demonstrated that inquiry-based learning can be intellectually rigorous and cover a sufficient breadth of content and skills. Students learning through these approaches outperform comparison students on meaningful outcomes, including probability of high school graduation and AP scores."

They do a nice job summarizing implementation challenges inherent in project-based teaching and learning:

On the struggle of integrating PBL in traditional settings:

"In studies of PBL instruction that was not schoolwide, teachers struggled as the only adult in the building using the approach... For a student immersed in a traditional school, a PBL classroom can feel new, different, and unfamiliar."

On the tension between project depth and curriculum breadth:

"PBL requires students to spend a lot of time deeply exploring fewer content areas... This requirement can be in tension with the need to teach the breadth of content and skills in district and state learning standards."

On the financial and resource challenges of adopting PBL:

"Teaching PBL well requires materials and professional learning support that can be costly for schools and districts... These costs add up and can make transitioning to PBL a costly budget item for schools and districts that may already be strapped for cash."

They do an equally nice job of summarizing potential solutions and insights related to those challenges:

On the importance of patience and support for educators:

"Transitioning to effective implementation of PBL requires patience because pedagogical skills and culture take time to evolve... Educators, particularly those new to PBL, struggle."

On aligning PBL with standardized assessments:

"The IB Diploma Programme’s approach to assessment helps teachers overcome this barrier... students will have the choice on the exam to address questions related to those areas without being required to delve into others."

On leveraging open access resources and professional development:

"Many curriculum resources are open access... Even when the resources are free, professional learning workshops and coaches have costs, as does providing teachers with the time for extra course planning and professional learning community meetings."

They advocate for whole-school implementation of PBL as it addresses many of the challenges revealed in their research, such as the misalignment between different teaching methods and the need for a unified school culture that supports inquiry-based learning. They also emphasize the importance of district-level investment and support. This includes providing adequate resources, professional development for teachers, and the alignment of assessments with PBL methods to ensure that they measure the broad range of skills and knowledge that students gain.

The overarching message is that with support at both the school and district levels, the implementation of PBL can lead to transformative educational outcomes, fostering students who are not only academically successful but also adept at critical thinking, collaboration, and lifelong learning.

In my experience, that checks out and could easily be applied more broadly than to just PBL.

Designing Schools for Meaningful Impact

I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my journey and insights on expanding educational opportunities for students at the recent Accelerate ED convening in Houston. It was a deeply rewarding experience to engage with so many attendees who connected with my story. Finding common ground was not expected but quite appreciated!

I’m so thankful to be a part of this vital work and look forward to what’s next for the Michigan Design Team!

A Missing Element in Some Primary-Grade Reading Classes: Motivation→

Seth A. Parsons and Joy Dangora Erickson, writing for Kappan

"We support the fundamentals of the science of reading... However, if we teach these components of reading without regard for motivation, we are undermining our efforts at supporting students’ literacy learning."

This makes logical sense but can get lost in practice if not explicitly called out. By integrating activities that are relevant, engaging, and collaborative, we respect students' diverse needs and interests, thereby promoting a deeper, more enduring engagement with reading.

“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.”

— John Dewey, School and Society