Head of School Articles

By: Dr. Olaf Jorgenson, ACDS Head of School

As society and schools shift from their emphasis on knowledge acquisition and IQ toward a relationship economy supported by EQ, our school is well-positioned for the transition. For 44 years, ACDS has devoted academic time to building relationship skills, conflict resolution, agency, curiosity, and confidence. We remain deeply committed to these outcomes alongside academics, character development, and joyful learning. 

AI will not change our mission, philosophy, identity, or culture; in time, ACDS  will leverage AI to do a better job of what we are already doing really well. Great schools are always becoming.

While uncertainty around AI is natural, parents can rest assured that ACDS will continue to provide a safe, balanced, and enriched learning environment focused on the wellness of your children—integrating technology judiciously.

Technology Implementation at ACDS

ACDS is historically conservative in our approach to technology and screen time. We view technology—including AI—as a tool used only when it meaningfully enhances learning, as we view and use math manipulatives, wall maps, popsicle sticks, or beakers. And at the center of all technology use on campus is student safety.Our implementation of any technology is guided by four essential questions that form our technology mindset:

• How can technology enhance learning and engagement?
• How can technology increase equity and access to curriculum?
• How can ACDS help students use technology ethically?
• How can technology prepare students for high school and beyond?

Preserving Authentic Learning

The same mindset guides our current position on AI. While it is our responsibility to prepare ACDS students for an AI-powered world, we are committed to preserving the productive struggle inherent in meaningful learning, which AI can undermine. 

Even as we investigate AI’s potential to extend learning, ACDS will continue to protect foundational skill-building (e.g. problem-solving, hands-on investigations, social-emotional learning, civics, public speaking, handwriting and cursive writing, and more) essential to a child’s intellectual and social growth, resilience, and curiosity.

AI has potential to be a powerful learning partner,but it can also become a tempting shortcut, blurring truth, effort, agency and authorship.

Consequently, we are phasing in AI slowly and deliberately in the middle school, with close teacher supervision, prioritizing student wellness and aligned with our instructional values so AI, used sparingly and only when it extends learning, will not subvert essential academic and social skills.

Task Force & Strategic Planning

Over the past 15 months, a task force of ACDS teachers and administrators has researched classroom AI applications in use at schools across the U.S., attended AI workshops and webinar training, networked with educators using AI nationwide, and developed draft AI guidelines for faculty:

• Monitoring Best Practices: We are tracking evolving best practices in schools already implementing AI, as we move more gradually and learn from their experiences.
• Digital Citizenship: We are building and implementing a developmentally appropriate digital citizenship curriculum this year, including programming from Common Sense Media in the middle school,  adjusted to each grade level’s age and stage.
• Safety Guardrails: We have identified guardrails—such as using only closed AI systems and applications designed for school use that protect student information—and established clear parameters for appropriate classroom use.
• Administrative Review: Teachers will not introduce an AI-enabled activity without first vetting it with administration.

Simultaneously, a subset of our Board of Trustees is leveraging their technology industry experience to examine long-term strategic implications for ACDS and education more broadly, which will inform our gradual assimilation of AI tools while helping us remain relevant and aligned with the academic and social needs of the children and families we serve.

Core Goals for Integration

Our preparations over the past 15 months have reinforced the following goals for limited AI integration at ACDS, which apply for the foreseeable future only to middle school students:

• Upholding Academic Integrity: We will reinforce expectations for originality and clarify appropriate versus inappropriate uses of AI.
• Supervised Use: We will offer guided opportunities to explore AI creatively and cognitively, while coming to understand its limits and risks.
• Ethical Understanding: We will teach students to evaluate authenticity, integrity, ownership, and accuracy of AI practices and products.
• Digital & Prompt Literacy: We will help students build skills to assess AI output, cite AI use properly, and recognize bias or inaccuracies in AI content.
• Authentic Learning: We will help students use AI to enhance—not replace—student academic, social, and emotional growth, including the “friction” of learning that leads to student growth.

These goals are intended to keep student learning and wellness at the center of incremental AI implementation at ACDS.

(For more on AI and the future of education, please see this LinkedIn post.)