WHAT IF WE CENTERED YOUTH AND EDUCATOR AGENCY WITH AI?
Imagine if AI use in schools was…
brought into the open.
navigated by educators, not by it.
co-created with youth and educator voices.
Our Agency-Centered AI Literacy Collection approaches AI as part of the human experience, full of questions, emotions, and opportunities. Through research, co-designed classroom practices, and short videos, it helps educators and students explore AI together and build agency to decide if, when, and how AI fits into their lives and learning.
Jump to
START HERE: NEW REPORT
An AI Policy Isn’t a Playbook
Drawing on a nationally representative survey of more than 1,000 US public school teachers and principals, plus interviews with educators and 31 young people, the report examines how generative AI is reshaping relationships in classrooms.
It includes our Agency-Centered Framework for AI Literacy, three mindshifts, and five free classroom plays co-designed with educators and young people.
WHAT we heard
Cheating dominates the conversation
74% of teachers and 69% of principals who had experienced a dilemma related to AI described something cheating-related. Teens’ school-and-AI stories center on it, too: avoiding accusations, secrecy, pressure.
“It’s not a secret anymore … it’s everybody using AI nowadays.”
High school freshman | AGE NOT GIVEN
Detection has turned teaching into refereeing
Teachers develop what we call “AI-dar,” a hunch that students have used AI on an assignment. They can’t prove it, and students can’t disprove it. Some students deliberately underperform to avoid being flagged. The result is what we call two-way suspicion.
“It’s kind of like a hellscape for both students and teachers.”
High school SOPHOMORE | AGE 16
Teachers and students lack choice
Students described feeling pressured to use AI to keep up. Some educators described feeling limited by their school’s AI policies, whether those policies encouraged AI use or restricted it.
“I considered it cheating, but my hands were tied in terms of penalizing.”
High school math teacher
CLASSROOM PRACTICES
Five co-designed practices for exploring AI with students. Each one works on its own, or use them in order as a five-step sequence.
1. Ground in values
Students connect their personal values to real questions about how to use AI in ways that reflect what matters to them.
2. Surface hidden use
Prompts that open conversations about when and why students feel pressure to hide their AI use, so it can be talked about in the open.
3. Navigate gray areas
The class maps which uses of AI feel okay, uncertain, or over the line for a specific assignment, then decides together.
4. Reflect on the experience
Students map one real moment of AI use: how they used it, how it felt, and what they learned along the way.
5. Name to claim
A group coins terms for the cultural shifts AI is creating, which builds shared language before the harder conversations.
THE FRAMEWORK BENEATH THE PRACTICES
Each practice builds on our Agency-Centered Framework for AI Literacy, which looks at how AI works, the business models behind it, and what we value.
RESEARCH
What we’re learning from young people and educators about AI.
New report
A nationally representative survey of teachers and principals, plus interviews with educators and young people, on cultivating agency for both educators and students.
Youth advisory memo with Hopelab
Why and how teens are turning to AI for emotional support, sometimes instead of a person.
Youth advisory memo
Our youth advisors on how AI is showing up in their lives, from school and mental health to fashion, friendship, and beyond.
Report with Hopelab + Common Sense Media
What teens want adults to know about how they’re using generative AI.
AI LITERACY VIDEOS
