Go Slow to Go Fast: Building Resilient School Policies in the AI Era
When generative artificial intelligence suddenly burst into classrooms in late 2022, school districts worldwide experienced an immediate wave of policy anxiety. While some met the technology with excitement, many classrooms faced a sudden friction. Teachers worried about academic integrity, parents raised questions about data privacy, and school boards struggled to keep up with the breakneck pace of technological change.
During a recent "EDU on Air for K-12" live session, educational leaders gathered to discuss how school systems can shift from a state of anxiety to active, resilient governance. The panel featured Zac Chase, Global Lead of Scaled Programming for Google for Education; Kristina Ishmael, a Program Manager and consultant for Google's policy and guidance program; and Ralph Valenzisi, the Assistant Superintendent of Digital Learning and Innovation at Norwalk Public Schools in Connecticut.
Addressing the Initial Wave of Policy Anxiety
Valenzisi recalled the immediate reaction from teachers when generative AI first entered the scene. "I think everybody was all around cheating," Valenzisi said. Beyond concerns about academic integrity, many educators felt personally challenged by the technology. "Some of them actually felt offended at the use of AI. They felt they felt insulted saying it's like wait a second... they felt like that it was infringing on their craft."
Parents also expressed immediate concerns, starting with student data privacy and quickly moving to "social and chatbots and how that actually affects social emotional learning." To address this anxiety, Norwalk Public Schools took a proactive approach that avoided the "shiny new tools" trap that often plagues educational technology.
A Pedagogy-First, Integrated Approach
Rather than drafting an entirely new, isolated set of rules that could create bureaucracy, Norwalk embedded AI guidelines into existing school policies. "There's this let's create an entire new AI policy and they don't necessarily take the time to say where does this fit in with what we've already got," Chase observed, warning against creating rules that "disagree or entangle."
Because technology evolves daily, rigid policies risk becoming obsolete immediately. "If we make these policies too specific, then the technologies can outgrow them too quickly," Chase noted. In Connecticut, Norwalk overcame this by keeping high-level policies broad while maintaining flexible underlying regulations that can be adjusted rapidly by the superintendent.
Sacred Space: The AI Policy and Guidance Labs
To help other systems find their footing, Google partnered with Ishmael to co-design and facilitate platform-agnostic AI policy and guidance labs. Ishmael, who previously led the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education, emphasized that the labs focus strictly on pedagogy first. "We wanted to focus on the instruction and then how... does AI support the pedagogy and practice," Ishmael said. "We wanted to ground ourselves in that and not be about the shiny tools."
The two-day intensive workshops help school leaders move from "passive compliance to active ongoing governance." The labs guide districts through three primary deliverables:
- An AI Readiness Assessment: A diagnostic tool measuring six focus areas, including governance, infrastructure, safety, ethics, educators, and learning.
- A Position Statement: A brief, two-to-three-sentence declaration of how the district views AI to support teaching and learning, aligned with their core mission.
- A 12-Month Roadmap: A structured action plan with a six-month check-in to ensure continuous progress.
From Passengers to Pilots
The panelists agreed that successful AI adoption requires moving from having a "human in the loop" to having an "educator in the lead." Valenzisi shared a powerful quote from a Norwalk teacher's feedback survey: "As teachers we need to pilot with AI not just be a passenger."
This "pilot" mindset shifts the focus from having AI perform tasks for educators to having educators actively direct the tools. For example, Norwalk middle school teachers now use Gemini to ingest curriculum materials, creating curated, teacher-directed study tools for their students. This approach respects and amplifies the "mastery of what they know" and their "multi-master degrees."
Ishmael noted that this educator-led approach is also finding success globally. Having run labs in seven countries, she observed that many jurisdictions choose to focus on teacher use cases—like lesson planning and translating resources—before introducing AI to students. "Being able to use some of these tools for that... would have been my dream in the classroom," Ishmael said, recalling her days teaching in Omaha, Nebraska, where public schools recognize 115 world languages.
Overcoming Policy Paralysis
Are you feeling stuck or overwhelmed trying to draft the perfect AI policy for your school district? You are not alone. As Ishmael noted, "Everyone has anxiety about this." But trying to write a perfect, all-encompassing policy will only lead to delay. To move forward, leaders must embrace a culture of continuous learning and transparent collaboration.
Learn & Try
Take your first step today by completing a micro-module on AI policy in our official course catalog. Then, copy and paste this prompt template into Gemini to kickstart your district's position statement:
"Act as an expert educational policy consultant. I want to draft a brief, 3-sentence position statement for our school district regarding generative AI. Our district's core mission is to promote digital equity and student-led learning. Please draft three distinct options that outline a positive, pedagogy-first stance on AI while emphasizing student data privacy and teacher leadership."
Reflect
How has your approach to AI policy shifted after hearing from our guests? Share your thoughts in the comments below using the Harvard Project Zero thinking routine:
I used to think... [Your original assumption about AI policy]
Now I think... [Your new perspective on active, iterative governance]
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