East Tennessee State University and Kingsport City Schools have received a $50,000 grant from the State Collaborative on Reforming Education's inaugural AI Innovation Fund. The funding is part of a $450,000 statewide initiative supporting educator-led projects that test responsible, student-centered uses of AI in K-12 education.
The grant will expand a leadership-first AI capacity-building model developed by ETSU's Clemmer College of Education and Human Development and Kingsport City Schools. The program immerses assistant principals, instructional coaches, teacher leaders, and educator preparation faculty in hands-on training and guided professional learning.
At ETSU, Drs. Cynthia Chambers and Virginia Foley lead the work. Chambers is a professor and Clemmer's associate dean of educator preparation and academics; Foley is a professor and program coordinator for administrative endorsement. Christian Horner, KCS' coordinator of innovative learning, leads the work for Kingsport.
Building a network of school-based AI experts
The project focuses on equipping adults with practical AI fluency, agent building skills, and ethical use frameworks. The goal is a sustainable network of school-based experts who can model responsible AI integration and strengthen student learning across the district.
The announcement came during SCORE's statewide symposium, "AI in K-12 Education: Keeping Students at the Center." The event convened education leaders, policymakers, researchers, and business leaders to examine how Tennessee can responsibly use artificial intelligence in teaching and learning.
David Mansouri, president and CEO of SCORE, framed the initiative around student outcomes. "AI presents tremendous opportunity, and Tennessee has made some of its greatest progress in education when leaders have come together around a shared focus on students," he said. "The promise of this new technology will not be how quickly we adopt new tools but rather how thoughtfully we put it to work for students."
Nine projects, twelve months of testing
The AI Innovation Fund supports nine Tennessee organizations over the next 12 months. Recipients will test ideas spanning instruction, student advising and career pathway planning, AI literacy, and educator support. Each project addresses a specific need, with the aim of learning not only whether an approach works but what it takes to make it work well.
Other recipients include Metro Nashville Public Schools in partnership with AI for Education, Sullivan County Schools, tnAchieves, Promise Academy, and University High School in partnership with The University of Memphis. Horizon Academies, M3 Project, and PIVOT: School Improvement Leaders also received awards.
Recipients will receive strategic support from SCORE and opportunities to learn alongside peers across Tennessee. SCORE will share lessons, findings, and implementation insights from the projects to help educators understand where AI can meaningfully support students and what responsible implementation requires in practice.
For educators looking to build their own AI skills, resources like AI for Teachers and broader coverage of AI for Education offer practical starting points for professional learning.
Why this matters for educators
The ETSU-Kingsport model is notable for targeting school leaders and coaches rather than classroom teachers alone. By training assistant principals and instructional coaches first, the project aims to create internal capacity that outlasts the grant period. For educators in other districts, the takeaway is practical: sustainable AI adoption depends on building expertise among the people who evaluate, coach, and support teachers - not just on purchasing tools or running one-off workshops.
Your membership also unlocks:
