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In today’s CapCon, I have something special for you.
New York and the nation are grappling with how AI fits — or doesn’t fit — into nearly every aspect of society. That includes whether schools will begin integrating AI into classroom instruction.
It’s a big question that, for many districts, is going to be difficult to answer. Some have already started down that path.
But one of the state’s largest school districts has been thinking about this moment for years and has implemented its own system for reviewing the use of AI and deploying it to be used in, and outside, the classroom.
I’ll tell you all about it — and what’s on the horizon at the state level — inside today’s newsletter.
Names in today’s CapCon: Zohran Mamdani, Cecily Wilson-Turner, Kathy Hochul, Shelley Mayer, Gabriella Romero
(Jim Franco/Times Union)
✏️ The AI debate brewing in New York’s schools
Last month, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a one-year moratorium on the use of generative AI in schools and a ban on chatbots.
That plan, the mayor said, would give the city time to develop recommendations on AI use in schools on a more permanent basis. That’s set to be done through a coalition of educators, students, parents, elected officials and other stakeholders.
What Mamdani didn’t know is that, about three hours north of the five boroughs, one of the state’s largest school districts was years ahead of him.
The Shenendehowa Central School District, which is attended by nearly 10,000 students in the Capital Region, started developing its strategy toward the use of AI in schools three years ago.
How it started: At the time, AI wasn’t as widespread as it is today. Frontier models that could generate content and act as chatbots were just beginning to come online, though they were nowhere near as advanced as they are now.
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