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The Language Firm reads the AI tools that districts, boards and schools already use. We read them against the agreements that were signed and the policies that were adopted, and we keep reading after the contract is signed, because that’s when most of the change happens. A tool gets approved on one day. Then its features, its default settings and the companies it shares data with keep moving.
This blog is where we think through what that means for schools.
AI doesn’t really show up as its own product anymore. It’s built into the things schools already run: the learning platform, the student information system, the search bar, the app that messages families. So AI integration has layers, and no single office holds all of them. Each post here starts with a question from one of three places:
Governance: Who decides what about an AI tool? Who answers for it once it changes? What does a policy need to say to keep up?
Teaching: What does an AI tool ask of the teacher using it? How are teachers actually managing all of these products day to day, and do the tools really save them time? When they don’t, is it the tool, or the way it was rolled out? And if it’s neither, what else might be getting in the way: the schedule, the training, the number of platforms already on a teacher’s plate? We’ll also ask what these tools do with what students give them, and how we can read what they produce with judgment instead of just trust.
How it actually works: Most AI tools in schools are built in layers. At the bottom is a model, often one the vendor didn’t build and licenses from another company. On top of that, the vendor adds its own instructions, filters and features. On top of that sit the settings a school can switch on or off. We’ll look at what each layer does: what kind of AI is in the tool (generating text, predicting a score, adapting to a student, recognizing a face or a voice, pulling up information), whether it’s built in or added on, what happens to what students and teachers type into it, and which of those layers a school can actually see, change or control.
These posts are for everyone who holds a piece of this work: board members, superintendents, tech and business offices, principals, teachers and staff. You don’t need a technical background. The goal is for the people making decisions about these tools to be able to talk about them in the same language.
Why is every post a PDF?
So you can save it, print it and bring it into the room. These are meant to be read with a pen in hand, marked up and passed around at a cabinet meeting, a board study session, a department meeting or a PD day. A PDF keeps the tables whole and the pages numbered, so everyone can turn to the same page together.
It also keeps each post dated. Like everything we publish, a post reflects what we understood on the day we wrote it. The tools will change, and having the thinking pinned to a date makes it easier to see what’s moved since.
How does this fit with everything else?
The Intelligence Layer tracks what’s happening: the Weekly Incident Bulletin, the AI Action Analysis, the Incident Memo and The First Watch drift audits. The blog is where we ask what it all means and how a school can work through it together. Both are free.
Take what’s useful and bring it into your own conversations. That’s what it’s here for.