Integrating AI Skills for Career and Life Readiness

Our mission in the Oxford School District is to ensure every student is college, career, and life ready.

In the 21st century, this mission is changing faster than ever. As superintendent, two words come to mind when I consider how we must address rapid technological shifts like Artificial Intelligence (AI): responsible innovation.

We cannot prepare students for the future by clinging to the past. We must embrace AI not just as a tool, but as a new basic skill. This commitment is central to our equipping students with real tools for real life. For us here at Oxford School District, this means proactively integrating AI into our classrooms — ethically, responsibly, and with a clear focus on academic integrity.

We cannot prepare students for the future by clinging to the past. We must embrace AI not just as a tool, but as a new basic skill. This commitment is central to our equipping students with real tools for real life. 

From Vague Theory to Valuable Pathway

Our approach to AI is guided by the reality of the future workforce. Recent research shows a dramatic shift in educational sentiment: in 2023, only 6% of teachers thought AI was more positive than negative; however, by the 2025-2026 school year, 66% of teachers planned to increase their own AI use.

We cannot afford to leave students behind. That is why we moved quickly to establish a dedicated, cutting-edge Narrative Artificial Intelligence Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway, a course made possible through a vital partnership with Edge Theory, a local narrative intelligence business located right here in the Insight Park at The University of Mississippi.

This partnership is designed to move beyond theoretical concepts and equip students with skills that are readily applicable to the job force upon graduation. Our students, who represent every high school grade level, are not just users; they are creators and critical thinkers. They are already completing industry certifications, such as the student portion of the Anthropic AI training, putting them directly on a path to a professional certificate program being developed with our Edge Theory partners.

Multidimensional Skills for a Multifaceted World

Under the charge of CTE teacher Thomas Harrington, the course ensures students are dabbling in lots of different kinds of AI, reflecting its multifaceted nature:

• Generative AI: The creative side that most people interact with (e.g., creating images or content).
• Narrative AI: Using AI to process, understand, and critically evaluate different sources of information—a critical skill for citizenship and research in a post-truth world.
• Conversational AI: Teaching students how to create and utilize data to build interactive systems, like the chatbots they encounter online.
  

While the career opportunities are wide open, our responsibility is to anchor this innovation in ethics. We focus on using AI to help students understand what's right and what's real. The short cycles of improvement model we use across the district is critical here. This complex area changes quickly, meaning that our approach must be agile. We are being intentional about working in short cycles of improvement to establish clear district guidelines and best practices around the use of AI, ensuring both staff and students utilize it ethically and with academic integrity.

Literacy today means not only reading and writing but also understanding, leveraging, and ethically navigating artificial intelligence.

The Essential Truth About Real Skills

To prepare students for the workforce, we must constantly update our definition of literacy. Literacy today means not only reading and writing but also understanding, leveraging, and ethically navigating artificial intelligence.

By creating a clear path for students to master this new domain through the AI CTE pathway, we prove our commitment to preparing them for the careers that will develop in the near future.

How is your district ensuring that AI mastery is being taught with both integrity and innovation?

Weir, Richard. “AI and CTE Are Key to Preparing Students for Future Careers.” Savvas Learning Company. Accessed November 19, 2025.