Who Is Building the AI Foundation for K-12 Classrooms?

AI tools can now generate a lesson in seconds, and the result usually sounds convincing. But teachers and district leaders still lack a reliable way to confirm that generated content aligns with state standards or what research says about how students learn. Learning Commons, a nonprofit backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, believes it has built that missing foundation through a newly launched open platform. More than 70 partners, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have joined the effort. But as open infrastructure enters the classroom, some educators are asking a critical question: who gets to lay the groundwork for K-12 AI?

Who Gets to Build the Tracks?

Sandra Liu Huang, president of Learning Commons, spent years building product teams at Google, Facebook, and Quora before she turned her attention to K-12 education. She joins EdSurge editorial director Ira Apfel to explain how the platform’s open knowledge graphs and AI evaluators work, and why some districts are choosing to build their own custom tools on this infrastructure rather than waiting for commercial vendors. Ira also presses her on governance, on who decides what goes into these models, and how open platforms can prevent a few major players from dominating school technology.

What Should Districts Ask Vendors?

Sandra also shares the essential questions she believes every district leader should ask an AI vendor claiming state standards alignment — from data origin and update frequency to whether state standards serve as the core foundation for their tools.

Disclosure: Learning Commons is a financial supporter of EdSurge. This episode was produced independently by EdSurge and Learning Commons had no editorial role or influence over its recording, production or editing.

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Stories Mentioned in This Episode

Learning Commons Launches Open Platform for K-12 Edtech by Ira Apfel

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