Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta Bios: https://www.theedleadershippair.com/about-us

Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

🔗 Connect With Us
📸 Instagram: @edleadership_pair
▶️ YouTube: The EdLeadership Pair
🌐 Website & Newsletter: www.theedleadershippair.com

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

Episode Overview

AI policy isn’t about controlling technology — it’s about protecting learning.

In this episode, Courtney and Mario continue their conversation on AI in schools by shifting the focus from classroom use to system-level policy decisions. Using recent research, real-world district examples, and legal risk scenarios, they explore why many school systems are dangerously underprepared for AI and what leaders must do now to protect students, staff, and instructional integrity.

The conversation unpacks emerging research from MIT and other scholars on cognitive load, learning depth, and memory recall when students over-rely on AI tools. Courtney and Mario then connect that research directly to policy implications.

This episode makes the case for clear, values-driven, research-informed AI policies that guide teachers, students, and administrators toward responsible, learning-centered use of AI.

Big Ideas from the Conversation

AI policy exists to protect learning, not control behavior.
Unreliable AI detection tools create serious legal and ethical risks.
Over-reliance on AI leads to shallow processing and weaker long-term learning.
Human thinking must begin and end every AI interaction.
Policy cannot be created in isolation from parents, students, and teachers.
Data privacy violations are one of the biggest unseen AI risks in schools.
Most students and teachers currently have no clear guidance on AI use.
One-size-fits-all AI policies fail at the classroom level.
Professional learning around AI must be ongoing, embedded, and differentiated.

Leadership Actions Recommended in This Episode

1. Define the problem your AI policy is solving - Before writing policy, clarify your purpose: academic integrity, instructional quality, data privacy, staff efficiency, student preparedness, or all of the above. Policy without clarity creates confusion and risk.

2. Establish clear use categories - Explicitly define what AI use is allowed, limited, conditional, or prohibited, differentiated by role (students, teachers, administrators) and by grade band (elementary, middle, high school).

3. Do not rely on AI detection tools for discipline - AI detectors are inconsistent and unreliable. Using them as the sole evidence for academic misconduct exposes schools to lawsuits and long-term student harm.

4. Protect student data aggressively - Set strict guardrails around what data can never be entered into AI tools. Train staff on FERPA-aligned practices before encouraging AI use in PLCs or instructional planning.

5. Learn from districts already leading - Study existing models from districts like Chicago Public Schools, Dallas ISD, and state-level guidance such as Washington’s H–AI–H framework (Human → AI → Human).

6. Involve your community early - Parents, students, and teachers must be part of AI policy conversations. Surprising communities with AI policies invites backlash and erodes trust.

7. Commit to ongoing professional learning - AI training cannot be a one-time module. Leaders must plan for continuous, differentiated professional development that meets educators where they are.

8. Leverage AI to help build the policy itself - Use AI as a starting tool to draft frameworks, prompts, and guiding questions — then apply human judgment, values, and reflection before implementation.

Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta Bios: https://www.theedleadershippair.com/about-us Podcast: The EdLeadership
Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

🔗 Connect With Us

📸 Instagram: @edleadership_pair

▶️ YouTube: The EdLeadership Pair

🌐 Website & Newsletter: www.theedleadershippair.com

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

Episode Overview

AI isn’t waiting for permission to enter schools. The leadership question is whether we shape its use ahead of time—through assessment redesign, transparent expectations, and community-ready policy—or whether we react after problems explode. The episode argues that AI doesn’t have to kill learning or critical thinking… unless we keep assigning work that only asks students to produce answers.

· AI didn’t “invent” cheating—it exposed old problems, the real solution is assessment redesign.

· Detection tools are unreliable

· The episode offers leaders a set of assessment moves that restore validity and preserve thinking:

· In-class starts: begin rough drafts, planning, and core thinking in class (devices away when needed)

· Processing artifacts: drafts, annotations, planning documents, version history, evidence of thinking

· Conferencing: teacher-student check-ins that surface understanding and authorship

· Oral defense: students explain reasoning, justify decisions, and demonstrate learning live

· AI policy cannot be created by administrators alone. Schools must involve:

· teachers,

· students,

· parents/community.

· AI Policy can go wrong if it drops into a community that hasn’t been prepared.

· AI can reduce workload without diminishing expertise—if implemented correctly.

· Where AI can help most:

· Lesson planning / unit design

· Grading (especially pattern-finding, rubric alignment, trend analysis)

· But AI output is often “garbage” if teachers give it vague inputs. The winning approach is:

· invest upfront in good prompting (targets, learner needs, constraints),

· then edit and refine rather than start from scratch.

· Education can no longer be primarily about producing content (answers, essays, solutions).
AI can generate products. Therefore, the value shifts to what humans can do:

· justify

· defend

· evaluate

· apply

· transfer

· explain why

· critique the tool’s output

· AI only kills critical thinking if we keep assigning work that rewards answers instead of reasoning.

Big Ideas from the Conversation

1. AI is inevitable, your leadership stance must be proactive.

2. Stop relying on detection as the primary strategy. Redesign assessment instead.

3. Make learning visible again: drafts, conferencing, oral defense, in-class starts.

4. Adopt transparency norms: tool used, prompts given, edits made.

5. Policy must be co-built with stakeholders, especial

Hosts: Courtney Acosta & Mario Acosta
Bios: https://www.theedleadershippair.com/about-us
Podcast: The EdLeadership Pair – Unfiltered Conversations for Today’s School Leaders

🔗 Connect With Us

• 📸 Instagram: @edleadership_pair
• ▶️ YouTube: The EdLeadership Pair
• 🌐 Website & Newsletter: www.theedleadershippair.com

Join our growing community of school leaders navigating today’s challenges together. Let us know what topics you want us to tackle next.

Episode Overview
Does reading really matter for school leaders who are already overwhelmed by the demands of the job?

In this episode, Courtney and Mario make a compelling case that reading is not optional for effective leadership; it is essential. They share the books that most shaped their own leadership journeys, why those texts mattered at critical moments in their careers, and how the ideas inside those books directly influenced how they led people, managed change, and protected school culture.

Rather than focusing on education-only texts, this conversation explores business, history, and change-management books that translate powerfully into school leadership contexts. Along the way, Courtney and Mario unpack lessons about systems, culture, dignity, consistency, trust, and developing future leaders from within.

Big Ideas from the Conversation
Reading expands perspective. Leaders who stop reading eventually lead in isolation.
Systems protect organizations. Sustainable success cannot depend on individual heroes.
Culture resists change by default. Momentum must be built with the willing, not forced on everyone.
Dignity preserves relationships. Strong leaders challenge ideas without destroying people.
Consistency beats charisma. Discipline and follow-through matter more than chasing every new initiative.
Great leaders grow replacements. The strongest cultures build leadership capacity from within.

Leadership Actions Recommended in This Episode

1. Build systems, not dependency on individuals
Audit your campus or district processes and ask: What would break if one person left tomorrow? Prioritize systematizing critical work so success is not personality-dependent.
2. Start change with the willing
When leading change, identify staff members who already see the need. Pilot, refine, and build momentum before asking the entire organization to move.
3. Protect dignity during disagreement
Commit to addressing conflict without humiliation. Leaders can hold firm to expectations while still allowing people to save face and maintain relationships.
4. Identify your “Grant”
Find a trusted advisor who will tell you the hard truth, challenge your thinking, and remain loyal once decisions are made. Leadership is too complex to do alone.
5. Practice disciplined consistency
Resist chasing every new initiative. Decide what matters most, then protect your staff by staying focused and consistent over time.
6. Grow your own leadership bench
Intentionally develop future leaders inside your organization. Hire for values, coach for growth, and prepare people to eventually take your job.