The Learning Accelerator

Educators are taking the lead on AI integration rather than waiting for top-down directives The School Teams AI Collaborative brings together 80+ educators from 19 schools nationwide who are pioneering practical applications of AI in K-12 education. At DSST: College View High School in Denver, students in Zach Kennelly's civics class are building custom chatbots for real-world applications. Last semester, they created VoteWise Colorado, an app helping voters understand ballot measures. This semester, students are developing AI tools for mental health support, financial literacy, and more. Meanwhile, Boston Public Schools' Eliot K-8 Innovation School is using Claude AI to provide targeted feedback on student writing assignments. What makes this initiative unique is its cross-institutional collaboration. Co-led by nonprofits Leading Educators and The Learning Accelerator, the program facilitates knowledge-sharing between early adopters who are approaching AI with both enthusiasm and healthy skepticism. "We're not here saying AI is the solution and the end-all, be-all," notes Jin-Soo Huh from The Learning Accelerator. The collaborative acknowledges that technology has often "overpromised and underdelivered" in education. This pragmatic approach acknowledges AI's inevitability while emphasizing student agency. As teacher Zach Kennelly aptly puts it: "People who don't understand this technology are the ones most likely to be exploited by it." What's your take on AI in education? Is your school or district exploring similar initiatives? Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4i4rtvY

At #SXSWEDU 2025 ???, we’re exploring promising #AI-enabled practices from a cohort of trailblazing schools with hands-on experimentation. Join Jin-Soo Huh from The Learning Accelerator, Albert Kim from Leading Educators, and Zach Kennelly from DSST Public Schools for the rotation workshop, “Enough Talk! Let’s Play with AI,” today! ? Save the session to your schedule: https://loom.ly/dc_hxOQ

TLA leaders Beth Rabbitt and Jin-Soo Huh are @ #SXSWEDU this week! Want to connect and chat about education #innovation? ?? Drop us a DM or comment below ??

Leaders from Khan Academy, Mastery Track, and The Learning Accelerator are sitting down with Michael B. Horn and John Bailey to explore how personalized learning, mastery-based education, and AI can help schools meet the diverse needs of all students. Join us for a discussion on reimagining education and creating a system that works for every learner. ?? Tune in to the livestream on March 5th, 4:00 p.m. ET: https://loom.ly/NjmE3NE ?? Have questions? Send them to [email protected]

?? ?? ?? Release of AI-Enabled Instructional Strategies ?? ?? ?? One of the major goals of the School Teams AI Collaborative is to elevate promising AI-enabled practices from this cohort of trailblazing schools. We know that providing educators with concrete examples of how to implement instructional practices empowers teachers with new strategies and helps the K-12 education sector more rapidly and efficiently adopt this technology. ?? We are excited to announce the first wave of strategy cards! Check them out in our blog post here: https://bit.ly/3Xt7e3g Albert Kim, Zach Kennelly, and I are presenting on some of these strategies tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. at SXSWedu: https://lnkd.in/gTd5a7mH Examples of practices include: - Traci Griffith and the team at the Eliot School in Boston Public Schools coming up with a protocol on Claude to generate feedback for student essays and a protocol for students to process and apply the feedback. - Zach Kennelly of DSST Public Schools developing a chatbot to help him generate complex free-response questions for his AP Psych class and using Class Companion to give students immediate and frequent feedback. At its core, the initiative emphasizes the human element of education – ensuring students continue to do the cognitive heavy lifting and learning, and that the critical connections between students and teachers remain strong. The school teams in the Collaborative are continuing to implement strategies and we look forward to sharing these out and later in the year compiling them into collections. Let us know what feedback you have and if you have examples of how you are using AI in instruction! The teams at The Learning Accelerator and Leading Educators are eager to learn about other AI-enabled instructional practices. #edtech #edchat #education #schools #ai #edleadership #sxswedu #sxswedu2025 #sxsw25

Headed to #SXSWEDU 2025? ??? Be sure to check out our rotation workshop, “Enough Talk! Let’s Play with #AI," featuring Jin-Soo Huh from The Learning Accelerator, Albert Kim from Leading Educators, and Zach Kennelly from DSST Public Schools! ?? This hands-on session on March 4 will explore how to leverage promising practices emerging from action research. Want to explore how AI can help make differentiated support plans? Or learn how to teach students to create their own chatbots? Let’s play! Save the session to your schedule: https://loom.ly/dc_hxOQ

?? AI isn’t a silver bullet for education, and the School Teams AI Collaborative knows it. That’s why educators in this initiative—co-led by Leading Educators and The Learning Accelerator are approaching AI with both curiosity and caution. Technology has overpromised and underdelivered before, so this cohort is focused on intentional, responsible, and meaningful experimentation to understand how AI can actually improve teaching and learning. “We’re not here saying AI is the solution and the end-all, be-all. I think there is a healthy skepticism in our group.” – Jin-Soo Huh, The Learning Accelerator More on this approach via EdSurge: https://hubs.la/Q038LnXc0

With narratives around school choice strengthening, we need an evidence base on what makes a high-quality choice. Our work with the Evidence Sites as part of The Learning Accelerator's Exponential Learning Initiative unlocks critical evidence to help us understand how these innovative models work, under what conditions, and for whom. Want to know more? Check out Dr. Beth Holland, EdD and my guest blog on Getting Smart: https://loom.ly/PrgJ-Sg

?? Looking to drive meaningful change in your school? Check out the Real-Time Redesign toolkit, created by TLA alongside Bellwether Education Partners. Developed with school leaders in mind, the toolkit provides leaders with a realistic, inclusive, and rapid process for making targeted improvements. ? The process is simple but powerful: 1?? Form an inclusive team to lead the work. 2?? Define the improvement you want to see and explore potential solutions. 3?? Prototype and pilot changes on a small scale. Ready to take action? Learn more here: https://loom.ly/RqGINJc ?? #K12 #SchoolInnovation

Jin-Soo Huh, Partner at TLA, is heading to the #AIK12DeeperLearning Summit and co-hosting a session with Leading Educators! You won't want to miss Nerdout Session 4 ?? Stations to Innovation: Powerful and Practical AI Practices for K12. In this station-based format you'll dive into: ?? Creating AI Handbooks ?? Collaborate in small groups to uncover actionable strategies for integrating AI in K-12 learning ?? Building custom AI bots for math ? and more ??? Feb 28, 2025, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. PT ?? https://hubs.la/Q036nCsb0 Looking to connect while there? Send us a message or comment below!