Leading AI
In Texas Education
EDUCATE TEXAS is the education hub for AI in Texas, helping district leaders navigate the most consequential shift of our lifetime in how we learn and how we work.
The Challenge
AI is already in Texas classrooms — shaping how students learn, how teachers teach, and how district leaders make decisions.
The challenge isn’t access to tools; it’s the capacity to lead through this shift responsibly, with students at the center and opportunity as a genuine commitment.
District leaders are being asked to make high-stakes decisions about technology, instructional models, student data, and workforce readiness without sufficient guidance, peer networks, or a clear view of what’s actually working in schools like theirs.
Our Role
Educate Texas approaches AI in education the same way it approaches every challenge in public education: with rigor, deep partnerships, and an unwavering focus on what actually works for students.
We convene the leaders who are closest to the work, build the research that translates real classroom experience into practical guidance, and advance the policy that helps Texas school systems lead rather than react.
Our approach is designed to stay responsive to what’s emerging while keeping students and educators at the center.
How We Work
Convene leaders across systems to share what's working in real classrooms and build the peer networks district leaders need
Build and translate research into practical guidance school systems can act on
Advance policy that helps Texas school systems lead responsibly and get ahead of this moment
Connect public and private resources to sustain this work at scale
Stay responsive to an AI landscape that is continuously evolving
Educate Texas addresses the biggest challenges in public education — and right now one of the most pressing is preparing students for a world shaped by AI. Getting this right will shape the future of Texas, and EDTX is committed to doing this work for the long term to ensure that AI in schools advances learning and strengthens teaching.
“We believe that all Texans deserve an education that empowers them to earn a good living, find a purposeful career, and realize bold dreams for themselves, their families, and their communities.”
AI + Education Leadership Collaborative
When Educate Texas launched the Collaborative in September 2025, it reflected what the organization has always believed: that meaningful change begins with learning.
More than 125 district leaders and education experts from across Texas came together to explore responsible AI leadership, learn from experts, share lessons from their own systems, and build peer networks.
The focus was on developing AI literacy — understanding how AI works, its risks and limitations, and its impact on teaching, learning, and the workforce.
In a rapidly evolving landscape, the Collaborative was designed to support the continuous learning and adaptation that AI readiness requires.
In July 2026, we launch the next region of the Collaborative in the Rio Grande Valley.
Superintendents, deputy superintendents, chief academic officers, chief technology officers, deans, directors of digital learning, HR leaders, and regional service center coordinators in the DFW — alongside additional leaders from the Rio Grande Valley, Austin, and the Texas Panhandle, and leaders from local and statewide nonprofits, higher education, and philanthropic organizations.
Across the Collaborative, every participating district and CMO advanced at least one point on the AI readiness continuum from where they began (1 = not started; 4 = early adopter, strong systems in place). By May 2026, most districts had moved from “in progress” to having AI guidance in place.
What We're Learning
Drawn from our work alongside more than 100 senior leaders across Texas school systems, these insights reflect what districts are experiencing right now as they lead through the AI shift.
Executive vision and strategy are critical
The superintendent and leadership team’s vision drives both responsible AI use and workforce readiness — yet most AI professional development reaches teachers and tools, not leaders.
AI crosses central office silos
Leaders across central offices are at different points in their AI journeys, and disconnects across departments are a real barrier — especially for those ready to move forward.
Traction comes from existing priorities
AI initiatives succeed when connected to current priorities, not launched as standalone tech projects — with teacher prep time, ongoing guidance, and outputs that fit real educator workloads.
Policy is shifting to embedded guidance
The pace of change is moving districts from standalone board policies toward guidance embedded in Acceptable Use Policies, paired with guiding principles.
Student data protection is growing in complexity
The expertise required to vet AI-embedded tools against FERPA, HB 149, and DIR TAC 219 is being outpaced by the rate of AI change.
Instruction is moving from experiments to results
Districts are demonstrating real gains in instructional capacity: AI-powered writing feedback, curriculum apps, and personalized learning supports.
Operations are getting measurably more efficient
Retention analytics, automated job-fair check-in, and HR workflows are freeing up administrator time across participating districts.
Families need to be part of the AI conversation
Leaders consistently named aligning families around AI as an unresolved challenge. Without family-facing guidance and engagement, district AI visions risk losing community trust just as adoption accelerates.
Workforce realities are reshaping K–12
The pace of AI-driven change in industry is outstripping how quickly K–12 pathways and curricula can adapt. Leaders named updating programs to reflect new-economy skills among their top priorities for 2026–27.
Examples of AI in Action
In the 2025–26 school year, Educate Texas supported 14 districts and an education regional service center working through a structured Problem of Practice with technical-assistance partners, including Digital Promise, MGT, Playlab, and VIDA Collaborative. Examples of what they built:
Principal AI Playbook
Anchored in a “human-led, AI-assisted” philosophy: a portrait of an AI-informed principal, use-case-driven workflows, and a phased strategic roadmap.
Gave principals job-embedded uses of AI for their jobs
AI Task Force & Support Playbook
Convened leaders from across the region to chart a shared path on AI — producing a practical guide organized by implementation pillars and a resource bank of vetted tools districts can put to work right away.
Scaling guidance across 76 districts
Curriculum Capacity
Facing the task of updating hundreds of curriculum documents across 4 content areas and 13 grade levels with just six academic coordinators, the district built custom TSIA2 college-readiness and STEM-integration apps on Playlab, generating standards-aligned resources in minutes instead of weeks.
Produced the equivalent work of ~30 people
Writing Instruction
To give students more frequent, personalized writing feedback than teachers could provide alone, the district used HMH Writable’s AI-assisted feedback on a bi-weekly writing cycle in grades 3 and 6, supporting STAAR and TELPAS writing growth.
Teacher Time
With teachers spending hours each week hand-drafting rigorous math assessments, faculty co-designed a Math Illustration Tool that generates STAAR-level questions on demand, and reinvested the reclaimed time into 1:1 instruction and coaching.
Student Attendance & Staff Retention
An AI retention analytics dashboard with two AI agents — one identifying at-risk students from attendance, behavior, and academic patterns, and one for risk identification and competitive analysis.
The Voices at the Table
In addition to district leaders across the state, we’ve engaged more than 40 national, state, and local K–12 thought leaders as speakers and thought partners through our AI + Education Leadership Collaborative — from technology companies and research universities to policy organizations and Texas-grown partners.
This work is growing.
A couple new AI Leadership Collaborative cohorts are in development, and Educate Texas continues to build out convenings, research, and policy efforts that reflect what Texas districts are facing as the landscape evolves. As we learn, we share. As the field changes, so does our work.
Questions? Contact us at ai@cftexas.org