This week I revisited A New Direction for Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, Protect, a Brookings global study on AI and children’s education that I contributed to through the Delphi panel.
The paper released last week took some time to digest.
The report lands on a clear and all too familiar sentiment. At this stage, the risks of AI in education outweigh its benefits, not because the tools lack promise, but because current adoption is outpacing pedagogical, ethical, and developmental safeguards.
In my own work over just the past six months I see this truth in action. Among the organizations I’ve been working with the data is pretty consistent. There are massive numbers of tools being used to support education in one way or another, and many of those tools are being fed teachers own intellectual property, organizational information, and even student information (that is sometimes unmasked). All without safeguards.
The student end of things comes next, but for now the adult side of AI and education is still dicey.
Let me be clear. This isn’t about everything being perfectly staged with 100% agreement and aligned national and international policy.
We messed up on systems level readiness with 1:1 initiatives, social media use, and the app store launch — this is much more powerful technology, and we must get implementation right.
It is basic fact that we have serious work to do at the local level in every single community.
The report homes in on the fact that the most serious risks identified are not technical failures but developmental ones, including cognitive offloading, weakened student agency, erosion of teacher student relationships, and widening equity gaps.
But in my own work it’s not that students aren’t using these tools, especially outside of school. It’s that their use doesn’t mesh well with traditional classroom practice. Hence the importance of the pedagogical piece of these findings (this is much deeper than any of us probably realize).
Much of this aligns with what I see in schools and teacher preparation programs experimenting with AI. When AI replaces productive struggle, short circuits reflection, or becomes a proxy for relationship, it undermines the very capacities education is meant to build.
But there is real struggle in understanding why we are handing students paper-based assignments with stringent and already outdated expectations for “not using AI.” The simple work is to ban AI. The harder work is figuring out how to do this right so that implementation pairs with evidence-based practice, as well as what we know about how kids learn outside of school. (If you haven’t yet, please read Julie Evan’s book on free agent learning).
I strongly agree with the report’s call for AI use, grounded in learning science, and supported by robust professional development, and holistic AI literacy for educators and students alike.
One thing I would unequivocally add to that list is systems readiness. Why? Because after training teachers for over a decade in even the earliest iteration of this work often they gain the skills, but their systems aren’t ready (or stable).
Where I continue to push the field is on moving from principle to practice. Many systems now understand the risks yet lack the implementation architecture to respond. Governance frameworks, readiness assessments, co-design models, low bandwidth training pathways, and inclusive procurement criteria are still missing in too many contexts (on every continent).
It was refreshing to see that my team is already actively contributing to case studies and implementation examples for all 12 of the recommendations. We are doing the hard work with educators and professionals, and we are all learning so much along the way. This is hard work, but it is helping teachers and leaders so that they in turn can support students.
Building those bridges between aspiration and operational reality is where much of my current work is focused.
The report ultimately reinforces a core truth: The future of AI in education will be determined less by the technology itself and more by whether we choose to build systems that protect human development, sustain trust, and expand opportunity.
Read the full report at https://www.brookings.edu/articles/a-new-direction-for-students-in-an-ai-world-prosper-prepare-protect/.
A huge shout out to friends Mary Burns and Rebecca Winthrop — they wrangled a beast with this work and should be so incredibly proud of the result.
Remember that the future of education is being shaped now. We need informed, thoughtful voices to make meaningful choices. Subscribe to Jody’s newsletter for weekly updates as soon as they’re published at https://jodybritten.medium.com/subscribe
