AI has generated a lot of excitement for its potential to solve some of the most pressing challenges in education: individualized instruction, accelerating feedback loops, and more. Our responsibility is not to stop it–AI is already transforming teaching and learning. Our responsibility is to provide the criteria, guardrails, and opportunities for continuous improvement that enable responsible and effective AI integration into our classrooms.
AERDF, Education First, and the Alliance for Learning Innovation have taken the first step to outlining effective guidelines for coherent and equitable AI adoption in the classroom. They have published “Proof Before Hype: A New R&D Playbook for Coherent AI in K-12,” taking insights from fellow education leaders and transforming them into practical recommendations and calls to action.
This playbook highlights clear priorities for AI integration in education. Key recommendations include:
- Coherence beats novelty: districts prefer customizable AI solutions that integrate with their existing tech infrastructure rather than adopting new, one-off products
- Identify the use cases before introducing tools: a clearly defined use case that articulates a real problem and explicitly names and tracks intended outcomes quickly filters out
- Start with trust: in a world increasingly skeptical of the role of tech in schools, decisions are more likely to stick when educators, students, and community members help define the problem and have a say in how technology helps solve it
Whether you’re an education leader, developer, funder, practitioner, or policy maker, review the playbook for yourself and learn what role you can play in supporting AI adoption that strengthens teaching and learning rather than fragments it.
