Every K-12 Student Needs to Learn About AI. Here’s What We Should Teach Them.

By Jeff Pitcher, McGraw Hill, and Andreas Tsouchlaris, Binary Logic

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here, and it’s here to stay. When ChatGPT initially made its debut, the reaction from schools was mixed: Many educators were justifiably wary of its impact on education — the potential for it to stifle student creativity, enable cheating, and, of course, data security. But with time, we’ve seen educators learn to leverage the potential of AI, using it to create efficiencies in their workdays, to assist in differentiating instruction, and to get creative with lesson planning. Some have even begun to integrate it into their instruction, creating hands-on opportunities for students to use it directly.

Educators understand that generative AI is already an integral part of students’ lives. Preparing students for change is essential, even though the impact of AI on their education and careers is still uncertain.

Students deserve the opportunity to learn about AI — what it is, how it works, and when it matters most in their education.

What to Teach: Evolving Standards

The ways in which students will use and interact with AI are flexible, ever-changing, and sometimes unpredictable. That’s why they need a comprehensive, conceptual education on what it is and how to use it, often referred to as AI Literacy. While the idea of AI literacy is relatively new in the K-12 space, experts are already beginning to create frameworks to outline what it means for a student to be AI literate.

Created by the European Commission and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and supported by Code.org, the AI Literacy Framework was created for primary and secondary education. The creators consider the May 2025 version of the framework a draft and are seeking feedback from educators and other stakeholders.

The framework emphasizes that it is vital for students to understand, evaluate, and shape AI’s influence on their lives, both ethically and effectively.

The framework defines AI literacy as: “The technical knowledge, durable skills, and future-ready attitudes required to thrive in a world influenced by AI. It enables learners to engage, create with, manage, and design AI, while critically evaluating its benefits, risks, and ethical implications.”

The framework outlines four domains of AI literacy:

• Engaging with AI, or “using AI as a tool to access new content, information, or recommendations.”
• Creating AI, or “collaborating with an AI system in a creative or problem-solving process.”
• Managing AI, or “intentionally choosing how AI can support and enhance human work.”
• Designing AI, which “empowers learners to understand how AI works and connect it to its social and ethical impacts by shaping how AI systems function.”

Across these domains, students develop proficiencies in 22 competencies, spanning knowledge, skills, and attitudes, designed to support learning from elementary through secondary education. The framework emphasizes understanding AI’s limitations, its impact on society, and its nature — for example, how it reflects human choices and perspectives. Students should learn how to evaluate AI-generated content, to collaborate with AI to create and refine ideas, to explain how AI is used, and much more. The framework takes a whole child approach to AI literacy, asserting that certain attitudes and demeanors are just as important for students to develop to use AI effectively and ethically — such as being responsible, curious, and empathetic.

When to Teach it: Start Early, Go Deeper

Elementary school isn’t too early to start teaching students about AI, particularly as we witness its increasing prevalence in their daily lives and can expect that prevalence to continue expanding. The need for AI literacy is worldwide, and several countries have already taken steps to integrate AI into their national curricula through a well-structured approach.

Students as young as nine or ten can begin to explore what AI is or can be and engage in early examinations of its impact on their world. They can begin using AI, discussing the quality and accuracy of its outputs, and even consider how AI could be used to solve real-world problems. By middle and high school, students should be given plenty of deeper opportunities to explore AI ethics and biases, real-world use cases, and even experiment with their own designing and prototyping. Like language literacy, AI literacy should begin with foundational understandings and progress toward more nuanced and challenging applications of key skills.

How to Teach It: Spiraled Instruction

While there of course isn’t a single “correct” approach to teaching AI literacy, we recommend educators consider a spiraled instructional approach, or one that revisits practice on a particular topic over the course of the school year — and even multiple school years — giving students the chance to interact with the content again and again, leaving gaps in between review.

A spiraled computing curriculum will enable teachers to easily support students with spaced practice, or interleaving, which has been proven to help students better retain information over time. AI concepts should be revisited and built upon throughout the year and across a student’s K-12 career.

Spiraled curricula also naturally situate AI alongside other technologies. To be meaningful, AI must be presented within the broader context of computing and other emerging technologies. Computer science and digital literacy skills are foundational for students to understand AI, effectively use AI tools, and ultimately design and implement AI technologies. Without these, AI risks being abstract or disconnected; with them, students can see how AI integrates with programming, data, design, and critical thinking. This approach helps them see AI not as a stand-alone topic, but as a tool that both depends on and strengthens other essential technology skills.

Who Can Teach It: Anyone!

This is important: AI is relatively new to nearly all of us, not just our students — and it’s evolving every day. Whether AI literacy will be integrated into your elementary school day’s computing curriculum for a few minutes a day or offered as an elective at the high school level, there’s a chance it could be placed in the hands of a teacher who doesn’t feel like an expert in its complexities. That shouldn’t stop them from embracing it. They simply deserve a turn-key curriculum with plenty of supports in place that make it simple to implement and understand — perhaps they can even learn alongside their students!

We are proud to share that Level Up Through Digital Discoveries, a computing program for grades K-12, is already aligned to the 2025 version of the AI Literacy Framework. The program is designed for any teacher, regardless of experience, to implement with fidelity, designed with spiraled instruction to progressively build students’ computing skills and knowledge over the course of their academic careers.

For more on Level Up Through Digital Discoveries, click the image below:

Jeff Pitcher is the Director of Product Management for Career and Technical Education (CTE) at McGraw Hill. With over 20 years in educational technology, Jeff has led the development of innovative, standards-aligned learning experiences that support student success. His expertise spans instructional design, digital product development, and content strategy, with a strong focus on career-connected learning. At McGraw Hill, Jeff’s team of talented professionals creates print and digital products that prepare students for careers and support educators in delivering high-quality instruction through engaging, research-based teaching strategies.

Andreas Tsouchlaris is Academic Director at Binary Logic, where he leads the development of K–12 computing and AI literacy curricula worldwide. With over three decades of experience in educational publishing and technology, he focuses on preparing students and teachers for a future shaped by AI, next-generation digital skills, and emerging technologies.