As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly enters classrooms, the most important question is not what the technology can do but how educators choose to use it. AI is already shaping how students learn, how educators work, and how school systems operate. To effectively lead their educator teams toward strategic AI implementation, district and school leaders deserve opportunities to collaboratively and strategically plan and explore how AI may bolster success for both students and educators.
To support strategic AI implementation, SCORE partnered with the technology nonprofit, Playlab, to launch the Tennessee AI Ecosystems Project. With support from Google.org, we convened nine innovative Tennessee school districts and charter management organizations (CMOs) that are passionate about shaping what responsible and effective AI implementation can look like across Tennessee. This network includes Kingsport City Schools, Memphis School of Excellence, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Oak Ridge Schools, Paris Special School District, STEM Preparatory Academy, Sumner County School District, University Schools of Memphis, and Valor Collegiate Academies. Each has identified an AI task force to lead this work for their team.
An Impactful First Convening
The first of three convenings for this network conveyed a shared sense of direction toward specific practices: beginning with a problem of practice, building literacy to understand AI, and then exploring opportunities for how thoughtfully designed AI tools can lend support. These practices are central to how SCORE is encouraging education innovation with AI.
During the first convening in April, Playlab guided participants through hands-on AI learning and development, helping practitioners better understand both the technical foundations and practical applications behind the transformative opportunities with AI. Importantly, Playlab grounded the cohort in three fundamental principles that SCORE believes are essential to keep in mind as educators explore AI to accelerate student outcomes:
- AI can support learning: Research shows benefits for academic performance, motivation, and higher-order thinking. The key condition: teacher-led, structured use of AI. Unguided use can lead to weaker outcomes.
- Teachers are central: Studies position the teacher as essential. AI lacks student context and must be actively prompted and supervised. Schools must invest in AI literacy and professional development before scaling.
- Real risks require real plans: Inaccuracies, privacy exposure, and student overdependence are recurring concerns. Schools need a shared strategy, verification routines, data-protection rules, and explicit norms for checking AI output.
The convening was anchored by the belief that good AI design is connected to a strong vision and encourages deeper thinking rather than simply providing answers. Teams worked through several hands-on activities that helped them build AI skills that go beyond how to interact with typical large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. For example, they explored how to deconstruct AI apps — starting with a challenge that could be supported by AI, clarifying necessary background inputs, and shaping prompts so the AI app they are building asks users what it needs to know before producing outputs. The focus on prompt generation — the directions educators must refine to achieve the intended result — helped educators actively design tools aligned to needs they identified.
One of the most exciting components of the day was seeing district and school leaders with different levels of AI experience work side by side sharing the apps they built on Playlab and inviting colleagues to test early versions of the AI they built. Leaders spent time working within their own teams and with others, learning from how their colleagues across the state are approaching AI strategy and partnership.
Building Toward a Statewide Ecosystem
Over the next year, this network of Tennessee practitioners will build strategy around AI literacy, educator and student AI agency, systems leadership and innovation, and solutions-oriented implementation planning. With continued SCORE support, each district and CMO will collaborate with Playlab to construct AI implementation plans that are tailored to unique local context and goals for teaching, learning, and operational efficiency. In 2027, Tennessee districts and CMOs will showcase their innovative use cases and continue learning from each other.
This project further builds on free AI training Playlab provided in late 2025 to 388 Tennessee educators, each of whom built their own AI app. The broader Google AI Ecosystems Project is part of a national effort to grow regional ecosystems that can drive meaningful, responsible AI adoption in education. In this case, Tennessee joins Idaho and Indiana as state peers focused on building stronger foundations for AI. With their identified AI task forces, each Tennessee school system will contribute toward emerging practices that are shaping a national model for how AI can strengthen education.
While the work ahead is complex, SCORE is focused on bringing practitioner leaders together early, grounding innovation with a focus on teaching and learning, and collaborating so that AI may serve students, educators, and systems well.