Tennessee has been a national leader on instructional improvement. Now, like every state, Tennessee faces a newer question: where and how should AI fit in? Most of that burden still falls on districts that have to navigate a fast-moving, unproven marketplace of AI tools largely on their own. But at the same time, many states don’t have the capacity to do more.
This profile dives deep into how intermediary organizations can help states make up some of that capacity. The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), a Tennessee-based intermediary, plays three roles in helping the state navigate AI in schools:
- Shaping state-level sensemaking and strategy: Convening the cross-sector conversations and translating district-level lessons that shape decisions by Tennessee’s State Board of Education and Department of Education.
- Helping districts navigate an evolving marketplace of AI solutions: Vetting tools against evidence of impact so individual districts don’t have to.
- Using pilots and networks to build evidence and coherence: Co-funding AI tool pilots and connecting districts to structured learning networks like the Tennessee AI Ecosystem Project.
No single organization can guide state AI strategy alone. Read the profile to learn more about how SEAs, intermediaries, and philanthropies can better support the state-intermediary relationship to extend capacity, generate more evidence about what works, and support scaling system-wide approaches that work.
