What Happens When AI Policy Meets a Real Classroom?

Every school district writing AI policy right now is making a bet about the future, often without much data behind it. On This Week with EdSurge, we look at that bet from two very different vantage points: one guest who spent a year studying policy from a distance, and another who helped write it from the inside.

Studying Policy From a Distance

Jody Britten spent the last year coding AI policy from more than 100 school districts across the country into a five-level framework, ranging from active promotion to outright prohibition. Her findings point to a system that leans cautious, and is often disconnected from the state guidance meant to inform it. What the numbers reveal about where most schools land might surprise you.

Building Policy From the Inside

Tambra Clark helped write her own district’s AI governance policy in Birmingham from scratch, sitting on the very kind of committee Britten’s research describes. What her committee discovered when they first sat down together says a lot about why so much AI policy in this country still has a long way to go.

Listen to the episode:

Stories Mentioned in This Episode

Study: The National AI Policy Landscape in K-12 Education by Jody Britten

Voices of Change Fellowship featuring Tambra Clark

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