Principals and AI: 7 in 10 Are Already In

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

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Ronn Nozoe from the National Principals Association and my Cool Cat Teacher Classroom Matters Newsletter subscribers answered some questions about how AI is being implemented in their schools and the results were interesting. Only 18% of principals said they feel “very confident” about leading AI this school year — but 7 in 10 are already immersed in figuring it out. There aren’t any experts in AI — yet. Plus it is changing so rapidly, but principals and teachers are working to figure it out. In today’s show, Ronn and I talk about the results and what schools that seem to be thriving in this environment are doing.

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One thing that is a resounding remark — the schools that are figuring it out are figuring it out together. The principals have teachers who are part of the conversations and many are piloting programs as well. We don’t really see anyone who says they have it all figured out but one thing is for sure, the schools that are making it are the ones who are making progress.

Ronn also has advice for teachers, and it is not what you would expect. He says go to your principal privately — not with your hand up in a faculty meeting — and say some version of, “I can help us get there in a more effective and efficient way if you just give me some space.” Then he said the line I keep thinking about: we were supposed to be good soldiers back then, and that soldier mentality is probably not the best analogy for schools.

Scroll down for a discussion guide and free resources to help your school make progress. I hope these resources help! I found some great resources from the National Principals Association (formerly NASSP.)

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Key Takeaways for Teachers from Ronn Nozoe

• Seven out of ten schools in the June Survey that NASSP and my newsletter readers completed are already immersed in AI. However, only 18% of leaders said they feel “very confident” leading it. Personally, with the pace of change, I don’t think that is a bad thing just because it is changing so fast, no one really considers themselves an expert.
• Principals want more time with teachers to tackle AI (40% of them completing the survey.) It is interesting they didn’t ask for another tool or funding. They want time to sit down with teachers and plan. As Ronn put it, “so many good things come out of really well-planned and well-resourced, dedicated time for planning and collaboration.”
• Ronn calls the confidence gap “self-imposed pressure.” His read is that principals are hard on themselves because good educators never believe they have arrived — meanwhile, people are using AI in every facet of school.
• Advice for making it happen. Ronn advises that if you have ideas for making progress with AI, talk to your principal privately (not in a faculty meeting)
• The schools making progress are the ones doing it together. When Ronn was a state deputy superintendent in Hawaii, he convened a teacher roundtable and a principal roundtable, and says plainly that they “solved so many problems in our system.” His conclusion: “when everybody’s at the table like that, the solution’s always better.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• National Principals Association — formerly NASSP; as of July 1, 2026 the organization serves PreK–12 school leaders under one national home.
• Ronn Nozoe’s page at the National Principals Association — his full background and current role.
• Principal of the Year — the recognition program whose honorees Ronn has sent to this show for years. I love interviewing the award winning principals and am always amazed at how teacher and student focused they are.
• NPA Leadership Networks — peer communities for new principals, assistant principals, rural leaders, middle-level leaders, and more. (A member benefit — you log in with NPA credentials.)
• National Honor Society — one of the student leadership programs Ronn describes as the pipeline to the next generation of teachers, alongside NJHS, the National Elementary Honor Society, and the National Association of Student Councils. All four are programs of the National Principals Association.
• Ellis — this week’s sponsor. A free tool from Children’s Health Council for thinking through a student situation you’re stuck on.

About Ronn Nozoe

Ronn Nozoe is a lifelong educator and CEO of the National Principals Association, an organization dedicated to advancing school leadership to transform education. Previously, he served as associate and interim executive director at ASCD and as deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, where he led initiatives in teacher quality, school safety, and rural, migrant, and Indigenous education.

In Hawaii, Nozoe served as deputy state superintendent from 2010–15, amplifying principals’ voices and leveraging state and federal funds to improve student outcomes. He has also served as a district superintendent, principal, vice principal, and teacher.

Nozoe holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.

Connect: principals.org | National Principals Association on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

A Discussion Guide

AI Policy and Planning Resources for Principals and Teachers

Ronn said the guidance principals were asking for “didn’t really materialize in the beginning,” so schools started building their own. That was true when we recorded. It is less true now — there is a real pile of free, well-made material out there, including some from Ronn’s own organization, and almost nobody knows it exists. Everything below is free, and I opened every one of these pages myself before I put it here.

One note before you start: use tools your school has approved, and run any policy language past whoever needs to see it before it goes anywhere. These are starting points for a conversation, not a policy you can adopt on Thursday.

STEP 1: Read What Your Own Association Already Published

This surprised me, and it is the first thing I would put in a principal’s hands.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage — Policy Brief (National Principals Association) — NPA’s official position on AI in schools, published March 2026 and updated in June. It is organized exactly the way a school leader needs it: Issue at a Glance, NPA’s position, then separate recommendations for policymakers, state leaders, district leaders, and school leaders. There is a downloadable PDF on the page. If you are trying to get your board or your district to take this seriously, this is the document that says your national association already has a position.
• All NPA Policy Issue Briefs — more than forty of them. Student Data Privacy, Digital Equity, and Online Learning are the ones that sit next to the AI conversation.

STEP 2: Start the Conversation Together

This is the step most schools skip. Ronn’s whole point was that the schools making progress put teachers in the room. Two free tools are built for exactly that.

• AI Guidance for Schools Toolkit (TeachAI) — free, editable, Creative Commons licensed. Seven principles to work from, sample guidance language, a ready-made presentation you can give your staff, and communication templates for parents, staff, and students. It has separate roadmaps inside for school administrators, for teachers, and for system leaders. Written by co-authors from Code.org, CoSN, Digital Promise, the European EdTech Alliance, and PACE. If you only open one link on this page, open this one.
• CoSN’s AI hub — where the planning tools live. Two worth your time: the K-12 Gen AI Maturity Tool (built with the Council of the Great City Schools — seven domains, each with emerging / developing / mature descriptions) and “Our AI Approach,” a one-page values graphic offered in Word, PDF, and JPG so you can add your own logo and post it. Both download free from that page. Worth knowing: the National Principals Association is a listed supporting sponsor of CoSN’s AI work.

STEP 3: Look at What Other States Already Wrote

You do not have to start from a blank page. TeachAI keeps a running collection of official guidance from thirty U.S. states — Georgia is on the list — plus national guidance from Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the U.S. Department of Education.

• TeachAI Policy and Guidance Resources — the full collection. Scroll to “Guidance from States in the U.S.” and find yours. The same page also carries sections on academic integrity, student privacy, ethical procurement, and how to cite AI use in APA, MLA, and Chicago style.

STEP 4: Vet the Tools Before They Land in Classrooms

• Common Sense Media’s AI hub — independent risk assessments of the tools students are actually using, each rated from Moderate to Unacceptable. ChatGPT 5, Claude, Grok, Google’s AI Overview, AI mental health apps, and AI toys all have published assessments. The same page carries free AI Literacy Lessons for grades 6–12 and a self-paced AI Basics for K–12 Teachers course.
• Emerging Technology Adoption Framework for PK-12 Education (Digital Promise / Educator CIRCLS, 2022) — a structured set of questions to ask at three stages: initial evaluation, adoption, and post-adoption, with separate questions for procurement decision makers, district leaders, educators, and families. Note that the CIRCLS site is archived and no longer updated, but the framework itself is solid and still downloadable.

Pro Tips For Better Results

Do not hand your staff the whole toolkit. Pick one page. The TeachAI presentation deck and the CoSN “Our AI Approach” graphic are both designed to be shown, not read, and either one will fill fifteen minutes of a faculty meeting productively.

And take Ronn seriously about the private conversation. If you are a teacher who wants to help, these give you something to walk in with — “our national principals association put out a position on this, want me to pull it up?” beats “we should have an AI policy.”

MORE Free Resources on AI Leadership and Planning

From my archive

• Leading With Love: Two National Principals of the Year on What Actually Works — two of the award-winning principals Ronn’s organization sent my way.
• How to Become a Better Principal: Award Winning Principals Speak
• Keeping the Teacher at the Center of Classroom AI
• Free Teacher-Facing AI for Behavior and Learning

Research worth reading

• Uneven Adoption of Artificial Intelligence Tools Among U.S. Teachers and Principals in the 2023–2024 School Year (Kaufman, Woo, Eagan, Lee, and Kassan — RAND, February 2025) — nationally representative, and the national picture behind what Ronn and I found. RAND reports that nearly 60% of principals used AI tools for their work, but only 18% said their school or district had provided any guidance on AI use.

Worth reading carefully: RAND’s 18% and our 18% are answers to two different questions. Theirs is about whether guidance exists. Ours is about whether principals feel very confident leading it. They happen to land on the same number — and put side by side, they raise a fair question about whether the confidence gap is really a guidance gap.

From the National Principals Association

• Leadership Networks — member communities for new principals, assistant principals, rural leaders, middle-level leaders, and more. (A member benefit; you log in with NPA credentials.)
• principals.org — the association’s new home. NASSP became the National Principals Association on July 1, 2026, and now serves PreK–12 school leaders.

Other Shows for Teachers and School Leaders

• How to Become a Better Principal: Award Winning Principals Speak — on Cool Cat Teacher Talk, leadership lessons from the award-winning principals Ronn’s organization has sent to this show.
• All 10 Minute Teacher episodes — browse the full archive by topic and grade level.

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If this episode gave you language for a conversation with your principal, share it with a teacher friend — and leave a review wherever you’re listening. It helps other teachers find the show.

Episode Transcript

This transcript was generated using AI and has been reviewed by humans for accuracy. Minor errors or artifacts may remain but I worked my best to find any issues with the transcript as I reviewed the show. – Vicki

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a sponsored episode and blog post. Ellis, a program of Children’s Health Council, has compensated me to share information about Ellis. However, all opinions expressed are my own. I have personally reviewed these resources and only recommend tools I believe offer genuine value to classroom teachers. My endorsement is limited to the educational products and services discussed in this episode. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” The sponsor has no impact on the editorial content of this show.

The post Principals and AI: 7 in 10 Are Already In appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

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