Willard Daggett, Ed.D.

When introduced properly, AI can be a powerful tool that positively impacts a school system, from the classroom to the boardroom. In this presentation, Dr. Willard Daggett will share how some of the nation’s most rapidly improving school districts have leveraged the power of AI to operate more efficiently and effectively, which has given teachers, staff, and administrators more of their time back on nights and weekends. He will share how AI can assist teachers in connecting with students who are increasingly disengaged in class. While AI has the potential to make many aspects of a school district run more efficiently, it can also be a major challenge if the district has not established appropriate policies and practices. Dr. Daggett will provide guidance on some important considerations when planning, disseminating, and implementing AI policy and procedures throughout a school system.

Dr. Daggett will also share the explosive impact that AI is having on the modern workplace and society. Fundamental changes in how businesses operate are leading to a major shift in the skills, knowledge, and attributes employees will increasingly need to have to thrive in their jobs. Students, too, will need to develop these same skill sets to be prepared for success in all aspects of life, work, and society after graduation. Dr. Daggett will explain how many cutting-edge districts are using AI and other modern tools and strategies to build capacity from classroom to boardroom so that students are prepared to succeed in the jobs and society they will be entering after they graduate.

Rapid advancements in technology are fundamentally redefining what students need to know and be able to do to succeed in today’s workplace and society. Many of the nation’s most successful school systems are responding by redesigning their instructional programs to adopt an emerging set of “New Basics” to engage and educate their students. In this session, Dr. Willard Daggett will share the innovative practices and strategies these cutting-edge districts are implementing to address—and even embrace—the growing influence of technology in all aspects of work and life.

These pacesetting districts recognized early on that AI, advanced sensors, manufacturing, 3-D printing, biotechnology, gene editing, etc., would require transforming the instructional programs to develop students’ skills, knowledge, and abilities so they may thrive in today’s high-tech global society. These changes are needed because AI is fast becoming as ubiquitous as electricity or the Internet, forming the foundation of modern life. The difference is the explosive rate of change in the evolution of AI and the other modern technologies mentioned.

Soon, we won’t actively “use” AI in the traditional sense. Instead, we will experience a world where AI makes things work smarter, faster, and more intuitively. It will be seamlessly woven into the fabric of our existence, enabling innovation across every sector.

Research by McKinsey & Company and Deloitte has clearly defined the skills and dispositions a working citizen needs to thrive in modern society. For example, critical thinking, creativity, adaptability, and the ability to collaborate effectively with intelligent systems will be essential. Unfortunately, many of these skills and abilities are not a priority within traditional education systems. While many 20th-century skills are still necessary, they are no longer adequate.

This session will showcase the processes, instructional framework, and strategies some of the nation’s most successful and innovative districts have implemented to redesign and reshape their instructional designs, instructional practices, support services, and assessments to prepare students for success in the changing workplace and society.

The rapidly expanding power of AI and other advanced technologies has redefined what the average person will need to know and be able to do to succeed in the workplace and society of the future. These new skills and abilities no longer align with the focus of traditional instructional programs, which prioritized the skills and knowledge that state assessments measured. Many school systems are unaware of this misalignment, many more are aware but don’t know how to shift their focus, and only a few have successfully transformed their instructional practices to properly prepare students for the jobs and society of the future.

McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, and the World Economic Forum have independently released studies reporting the increasing frustration among business leaders with a labor market that is highly deficient in workers who have the skills and aptitudes to do the jobs that the modern workplace requires. AI and other advanced technologies can do many tasks that humans traditionally have done. The role of humans in today’s workplace is that of facilitator, collaborator, and developer, which, as these recent studies document, requires high school seniors to graduate with a blend of higher-level cognitive, interpersonal, self-leadership, and digital skills and abilities. These competencies transcend traditional academic knowledge, emphasizing problem-solving, decision-making, creativity, communication, teamwork, and adaptability.

Not only is the world changing, but so are the kids. Students today have grown up in a screen-based environment that has caused their brains to develop differently from previous generations. By necessity, older generations had to communicate differently as kids, not having grown up with smartphones. For younger people, text messages and emojis have been the primary mode of communication, which removes the face-to-face interactions that bolster a sense of belonging and collaboration.

Academic content is still important, but the gap between traditional skill development (the “basics”) and the broader, new set of interpersonal, self-leadership, and digital skills is widening constantly. With the multiple challenges schools face, including staff who are physically and emotionally drained, implementing transformative instructional change will seem impossible. In this session, Dr. Willard Daggett will provide specific examples of HOW the nation’s most successful and innovative districts have created a culture that supports change while alleviating the stress felt by all. He will share specific examples of instructional designs and strategies (including how AI can help get back more personal time), student assessments, and student support services that lead to greater achievement in school and success in the workplace and the society they will be entering.

Many districts nationwide have developed, or soon will be, new Strategic Plans. Some others have created Portraits of a Graduate. Both typically provide a list of skills, knowledge, and attributes that differ from what their existing instructional programs and assessments are designed to do. Too often, these Plans and Portraits end up as a poster on the wall. In most cases, these Strategic Plans and Portraits are consistent with some of the world’s biggest consulting firms and organizations, such as McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, and the World Economic Forum, have produced similar reports about the skills, knowledge, and attributes that students will need in the immediate future to thrive in jobs and a society increasingly reliant on technology and information. Their implementation requires districts to break out of the confines of traditional classrooms, instructional designs, instructional resources, instructional strategies, and student assessments, which can be problematic and easily put off.

How, from the classroom teacher to the district superintendent—and everyone in between—can the necessary changes be made when their days are filled with more tasks and distractions than there are hours to tend to them? How can anyone find the time, energy, and resources to implement the most valuable, innovative practices the nation’s most rapidly improving schools are modeling for us? How can you take your vision and break it down into focused, actionable steps?

In this session, Dr. Willard Daggett will guide you through a series of action steps that the nation’s pacesetting districts have taken that enable them to implement change in their classrooms, schools, and central office to better prepare students for success in the world in which they will work and live. Participants will leave the session with an action plan tailored to their DNA that outlines the steps they can take to implement it.

Today’s workforce is in the midst of fundamental structural changes that are a result of varying circumstances, including how:

• Students in school today have grown up in a screen-based environment, transforming how students think and learn. As such, their attitudes and skills present challenges that our existing instructional programs and support services were not designed to address.
• There is a shortage of workers in the country that will continue to worsen in the next few years, resulting in career-ready graduates being increasingly in demand.
• AI is progressing from a tool used to assist with specific tasks to becoming a foundation upon which nearly everything we do will rest, much like the internet and electricity did for society.
• There is a growing concern over colleges’ low graduation rates, the cost of attending, graduates not possessing the skills the workplace increasingly demands, and challenges to their overall focus.

The collective impact of these trends has created a growing interest for schools to focus more on producing career-ready graduates. One logical and effective strategy is to encourage more participation in CTE programs, but that is only a partial solution. Cutting-edge districts recognize that the first step in making a real impact is to carefully define what a career-ready graduate is. They referred to the research studies by McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, and Jobs of the Future, which have identified and defined the skills, knowledge, and attributes that workers will need to thrive in the changing workplace of the future. The successful districts realized that their instructional programs were not designed to develop those skills and attributes in students.

All students need to learn the core basics, and some will need job- or industry-specific skills, which CTE can offer. In many districts, CTE is becoming a capstone experience for some students, much like the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs were the capstone experience for college-ready graduates. Districts that focus on the future have transformed their instructional programs and support services so that ALL students develop career-ready skills through more Problem-Based Learning in Pre k-12 and the basic skill development needed to be both career- and college-ready.

Dr. Willard Daggett will share how these districts have successfully transformed their instructional program. He will describe instructional designs and practices that any district can adopt so that they can move immediately to ensure that every student leaves school with the foundational skills to be both career and college ready.