AI, Coherence, and Literacy at Scale: Dr. Christopher Blair on Leading Instructional Change

Host Jaclyn Brown Wright welcomes educational leadership expert Dr. Christopher Blair, a former superintendent and longtime English teacher now working in educational consulting, to discuss literacy at scale and how AI can support coherence from state policy to classrooms.

Blair says leaders’ AI use is often limited to basic tasks like polishing emails, and coherence is still emerging because effectiveness must be measured in student outcomes. He describes AI as a side-by-side companion that can build leaders’ and teachers’ capacity when they create and train agents aligned to district standards, evaluation tools, curricula, and observation protocols to synthesize data and support coaching.

They discuss fears, trust, hallucinations, privacy and FERPA, and the lack of district policy, emphasizing vetting tools and verifying outputs. Blair advises starting with a personal problem of practice to build confidence, noting AI is shifting from predictive to generative and will not go away.

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