Source: Dusseault, B., Sims, M., & Berardino, M. (2025). AI early adopter districts: The promises and challenges of using AI to transform education. Center on Reinventing Public Education. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED674608.pdf
LEARN Brief Credit: Dr. Jeannie Haubert
Overview
This is research brief 2 of 4 coming out of a comprehensive study of AI use at the district level. CRPE’s national study found that the districts making the most progress with AI aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the flashiest tools — they’re the ones with the right internal conditions in place. Clear vision, a culture that gives staff permission to experiment, and sustained investment in adult learning matter more than any single procurement decision. No district in the study had every condition figured out, but together, the patterns form a genuine roadmap. For superintendents, the highest-leverage AI investment may not be a new platform at all — it may be building the internal culture and capacity to use whatever platform comes next.
Key Insights
Five enabling conditions recur across the most advanced adopters: (1) a clear AI vision embedded in the strategic plan, not treated as a side initiative; (2) a superintendent- and board-led culture of psychological safety that gives staff explicit permission to explore; (3) professional learning that reaches principals, cabinet, and non-instructional staff, not just teachers; (4) integrated technology and instructional teams working from a shared vision; and (5) solid foundational infrastructure — devices, connectivity, and trust built from prior tech initiatives.
- Adult AI literacy, not tool access, is the real bottleneck. Most districts have not codified AI competencies for staff and instead rely on informal, one-off training sessions led by whichever early-adopting teachers or IT staff happen to have picked up the skills on their own.
- Leaders point to three concrete reasons adult literacy is foundational, not optional: it addresses staff mistrust and fear rooted in not understanding what AI can and can’t do; it prevents misuse of tools in ways that reinforce bias, introduce inaccuracy, or misalign with instructional goals; and it expands what leaders and teachers can even imagine AI making possible, from rethinking how time is used to redesigning assessment.
- Several concrete practices are already showing promise across districts: role-specific professional development tailored to teachers, IT staff, and school leaders separately; peer-to-peer coaching and shared repositories of vetted tools and use cases; explicitly low-risk spaces where staff can try tools without fear of making mistakes; multimodal PD (in-person, virtual, self-paced) for broad access; and partnerships with national organizations like Digital Promise, TeachAI, and ISTE.
Action Steps
Audit your district against all five enabling conditions and identify your single weakest link — that’s your next investment priority, not the next tool purchase.
- Extend AI professional learning beyond classroom teachers to principals, cabinet members, bus drivers, front-office staff, and other non-instructional roles who shape the student and family experience.
- Issue an explicit, public “safe to try” policy from your office authorizing staff experimentation within clear guardrails — psychological safety accelerates adoption faster than any mandate.
- Stand up a peer-coaching structure or shared internal resource hub so lessons learned by early adopters don’t stay siloed with a handful of enthusiasts.
- Join an established AI-literacy network (Digital Promise, TeachAI, ISTE, or a state collaborative) rather than building professional learning infrastructure entirely from scratch.
Full Article
Read the full CRPE report: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED674608.pdf
