The Tech-Powered Instructional Core: A Vision, a Test, and What it Will Take to Activate it Across New York City

The K-12 education sector is at a crossroads. As generative AI and other emerging technologies transform what and how young people learn, they also hold promise to more deeply engage families as partners. But, fast-paced and unfamiliar, technological shifts in education also threaten to distance families – particularly those who have been historically marginalized by the education system – from their children’s school and learning experiences. 

To meet this moment, the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University over the last year convened 20+ New York City-based school system, school, and support organization leaders to design, test and measure new ways of activating the “tech-powered instructional core” – the interaction between educator, learner, family, and tech-infused instructional material that drives learning. 

Their vision, lessons learned, real world stories, and recommendations are captured in “The Tech-Powered Instructional Core: A Vision, a Test, and What it will take to Activate it Across New York City.” This playbook offers guidance for schools and systems to create an instructional core that simultaneously leverages technology and human connections to allow for ongoing and personalized learning and improvement at every level, an enhanced sense of belonging for students in academic spaces, and strengthened educator-family-community relationships.

To understand what this looks like in practice, consider the work of Springboard Collaborative. For years, the nonprofit organization has partnered with schools to build in-person literacy teams for each student. Comprised of a family member, a child, and a teacher, the teams implement a 10-week instructional plan while up-skilling families to coach their children at home using Science of Reading techniques. To further strengthen families’ support of students’ literacy development, and to increase accessibility, Springboard is now testing virtual synchronous and asynchronous versions of this model.

The GIANT Room builds the capacity of students, families, and educators to use AI in meaningful ways. Teachers receive professional development and students collaborate with creative tech instructors and researchers to design and create physical and AI-generated models of characters, settings, and plot lines for storybooks, which they will read and reflect upon together as a class and share with their families. 

“As the education landscape shifts, families unfamiliar with technology and how it is being used in schools can feel more distanced from their children’s learning, which works against everything research tells us about the importance of school-family partnerships,” said CPRL Executive Director Elizabeth Chu. “This is a critical moment to use technology to strengthen school-family connections and these dozens of organizations have unsurfaced a path forward.” 

Read the full playbook.