Managing complex change: five bedrock principles

In this episode of ChatEDU (The AI-Ready District - Inside a Superintendent’s Strategic Plan), Matt is joined by Westport, CT Superintendent Tom Scarice, stepping in while Liz is away in Costa Rica. They open with a quick hit about an AI app that creates avatars of deceased loved ones, raising questions about ethics, grief, and whether some tools should even be built. From there, Matt and Tom dig into the biggest stories of the week and then take a deep dive into Westport’s bold new plan for AI in public education.

Story 1: Gemini’s Vibe Coding

Matt tests Google’s new vibe coding features in Gemini 3 to build a real-time tracker for Westport’s strategic plan and an app that recognizes facial emotion. Both tools are built in under five minutes. Tom reflects on how this lowers the barrier to coding and brings creative problem solving into the hands of every student and teacher.

Story 2: The Teacher Training Gap

A new EdWeek report finds that half of U.S. teachers have now received some AI training, but most sessions are still short and surface level. Matt and Tom compare experiences from Connecticut and beyond, highlighting the importance of embedded professional learning and why leadership modeling matters more than one-off exposure.

Story 3: Google’s Personalized Textbooks

Google’s Learn Your Way platform tailors textbook content to student interest and reading level. Matt and Tom explore whether this boosts student agency or simply repackages old formats. They discuss how AI can support personalization while still protecting instructional coherence and equity.

Story 4: Smarter AI Powered Reading Assessments

AI tools like Amira now provide real-time reading feedback using natural language processing. Tom explains why formative assessment matters and how systems that reveal student thinking can improve instruction. They also flag risks of outsourcing too much teacher judgment to automation.

Beneath the Surface: A Strategic Plan for the AI Era

Tom walks through Westport’s 92-page strategic plan, which integrates AI across ethics, personalization, instruction, leadership, and even drama class. With sections on algorithm audits, professional learning, and operational efficiency, the plan offers a blueprint for leading through complexity. Matt and Tom break down how the plan was built, what it prioritizes, and what other districts might take away.

Bright Byte

Google DeepMind’s SynthID now embeds invisible watermarks into AI-generated images, audio, video, and text. Matt calls this a seatbelt moment for AI safety and a promising tool for combating deepfakes and supporting academic integrity.

Links & References

AI App Creates Avatars Of Dead Relatives Sparks Backlash

https://tinyurl.com/mpjrm57c

Teacher AI Training Has a Long Way to Go

https://tinyurl.com/2att7m9s

Google Reinvents The School Textbook With AI

https://tinyurl.com/4uttcv74

AI-Powered Assessment

https://tinyurl.com/48yyc3ms

Meta is about to start grading workers on their AI skills

https://tinyurl.com/24sycbt4

SynthID: A Tool to Watermark and Identify Content Generated Through AI

https://deepmind.google/models/synthid/

Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday

ASCD (use code RADDAY30 for 30% off until December 5th): https://tinyurl.com/bde652nn

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77

Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/bdckf6zw

Announcements & Sponsors

Check out the new Student AI Course for middle and high school. Email Matt and Liz at ⁠chatedu@edadvance.org⁠

The Winter Micro-Credential is now open. Join us for the educator and school leader course starting in January - ⁠ ⁠⁠skills21.org/ai/micro⁠

The National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing. ⁠www.nextgenmfg.org⁠