The first brief from FullScale’s Rural AI Strategy Lab, synthesizing what’s emerging across rural schools adopting AI. It highlights key patterns in adoption, including early informal use, policy-practice gaps, and operational-first entry points. The brief offers a grounded view of how rural systems are approaching AI in practice and the conditions that support more coherent implementation.
In his blockbuster best-selling book, writer Malcolm Gladwell identified a phenomenon called ―the tipping point.‖ This point marks the level at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable and something happens that, in either large or small measure, turns the world on its axis. For those who have been working to improve education, it appears that the tipping point may have finally arrived. Currently, K–12 education in the United States is dealing with three major challenges:
Authors of this work highlight 10 schools participating in the Proficiency-Based Pathways Project (PBP), in order to understand mastery-based approaches on a deeper level. Participating schools are located in rural, suburban, and inner-city regions of New England. The report examines the following issues based on the collective experiences of the schools:
Use this resource to learn more about the implementation of mastery-based approaches to teaching and learning.
This paper reframes common narratives about AI replacing teachers by examining how current role definitions shape that perception and where those assumptions break down. It outlines a vision for redesigning educator roles around professional judgment, relational work, and learning design, and identifies the structural shifts needed to support that transition.
Start professional learning programs and activities with clearly defining the rationale of the instructional model and what it looks like over time.
Accelerating Change Type: video Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVr0h9d82k0&feature=youtu.be
This sample question illustrates how rigor and justification is solicited through students’ extended responses.
This playbook distills lessons from the Increasing College Access Network (ICAN), a joint project between Jobs for the Future and FullScale (with support from the American Institutes for Research and Greater Twin Cities United Way) that explored how integrating social-emotional learning into online dual enrollment courses could support completion rates and smooth students’ transitions to four-year colleges. It offers practical strategies for educators looking to bring the same approach to their own programs.
