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Moving from Overwhelm to Opportunity: 3 Takeaways from Our AI x Coherence Academy Convening

March 13, 2025

At Education First, we know that AI—like any initiative—must be purposefully designed and integrated into a district’s broader strategy to make a real impact. Otherwise, it becomes just another disconnected tool. That’s why coherence isn’t just important—it’s essential. This belief sits at the heart of our AI x Coherence Academy.

Last month in Atlanta, we convened 11 district teams to explore how AI can enhance teaching and learning without feeling like an isolated initiative. Our focus? Helping leaders set the right conditions for meaningful AI exploration and adoption from the start.

Through the Academy, district teams are finding solutions to the overwhelm that can accompany AI adoption. After reviewing data from facilitators and participants, we found that attendees had three takeaways on how K12 districts can harness AI strategically and ensure it supports system-wide goals. Their insights are shaping what’s next for our Academy.

What are AI x Coherence Academy participants taking away after 2.5 days together?

1. Leverage Cross-Functional Teams to Foster Collaborative Innovation

Our cross-functional district teams included a mix of primary role groups to support collaboration, including 21 district-level teaching & learning leaders (superintendent, chief academic officer), 17 technology leaders (chief technology officer, technology manager), 14 teachers or school-based instructional coaches and 7 school leaders (principals, assistant principals).

Participants emphasized that working in cross-functional teams enabled them to develop AI use cases aligned to real classroom needs. For some teams, this was their first opportunity to collaborate in-person across district departments, including curriculum, technology and school-based staff. One attendee reflected, “We finally had a chance to collaborate across teams…and learned so much from each other’s viewpoints.” This inclusive approach helped break down silos and cultivate trust, creating stronger conditions for successful AI exploration and integration.

2. Define the Right Problem

The power of engaging cross-functional teams became clear as participants focused on precisely defining the problems they wanted AI to solve, rather than jumping straight to solutions. Attendees noted that previously, discussions about AI often started with tools, but through this collaboration, pivoting to clear problem-framing emerged as a critical first step. One participant shared, “The problem is much more important than we had originally realized.” AI solutions become more targeted and effective by focusing collaboratively on a single, well-defined challenge—and by asking whether AI is even the right solution in the first place.

When considering the problems they wanted AI to solve, attendees reflected: “As a [teacher/clerk/manager/PL team/leader], I want to use AI to…

Lesson planning and differentiation

  • Integrate our framework into my planning, instruction, and assessment for student learning so that I can generate conditions for learning that support all of my students.
  • Create interactive and differentiated lessons from our high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) that foster authentic student engagement.
  • Align math fluency practice with conceptual lessons, ensuring that students build procedural fluency in a way that reinforces deep understanding and preps them for application tasks.
  • Generate accessible tasks that align with grade-level standards so that I can provide differentiated small-group instruction without lowering rigor.
  • Streamline lesson planning during curriculum adoption of HQIM, ensuring my lessons are curriculum-aligned and engaging for students.

Teacher development

  • Generate scaffolded lesson plans with built-in instructional and differentiation suggestions so that I can develop as a first-year teacher while ensuring all students are supported.

Real-time instructional support and data-driven teaching

  • Access real-time insight into student learning so I can adjust my instruction more effectively without adding to my workload.
  • Help us identify common student misconceptions related to our PLC learning goal or suggest targeted instructional strategies based on data so we can effectively adjust lesson plans and interventions.
  • Be an instructional support so that students can access instruction that helps them demonstrate grade-level outcomes.

Administrative support

  • Streamline attendance monitoring to improve communication with stakeholders and accelerate responsive actions.
  • Craft potential future scenarios to motivate teachers and staff to implement innovative strategies for our environmental magnet theme.
  • Quickly locate and summarize relevant district policies, curriculum guides and instructional materials so that I can focus more on lesson planning and engaging my students.

3. Balance Excitement with Intentional Implementation

While there’s excitement around AI tools, attendees repeatedly echoed the refrain, “Go slow to go fast.” Teams recognized careful, intentional planning is critical to avoiding common pitfalls such as siloed efforts, unclear success metrics or insufficient teacher input—issues that cross-functional teams are uniquely positioned to proactively navigate. This approach ensures AI exploration and any AI integration remains supportive rather than just another initiative to navigate.

What are AI x Coherence Academy teams seeking support with moving forward?

Prioritize Continuous Learning and Improvement through Data and Research

Many teams want to track whether AI tools actually reduce administrative tasks, improve student outcomes or bolster teacher satisfaction. While part of this comes from due diligence in contracting with edtech partners, district teams are also considering what research questions and action research cycles they can conduct in-house. They want to use this opportunity to collect quantitative and qualitative data to gauge what’s working and what needs tweaking. One respondent shared, “We’re ready to cannonball in, but not without a clear plan.”

Looking Ahead

Knowledge sharing, ongoing research and continuous improvement align with our AI x Coherence Framework’s Learn Forward focus, and we look forward to leaning into this learning mindset in the coming months with our district partners and with you.

As we continue our work with the AI x Coherence Academy, we’ll share more about the strategies, successes and lessons learned. We’re excited to see how thoughtful, collaborative AI approaches can make a meaningful difference for students. While this convening focused on district teams, the AI x Coherence approach applies across the education ecosystem—from state agencies to nonprofits to philanthropic organizations. We hope these takeaways spark new ideas for harnessing AI in impactful and inclusive ways, no matter where you are on your AI journey.

Want to learn more?

If you’re ready to take the next step, contact us. We’re here to help you integrate AI, coherently.

Meet the experts who authored this post

Professional headshot
Tara Czupryk
Principal Consultant
 Sydney Ganon
Sydney Ganon
Director of Consulting Practice

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