As Fairfax County Public Schools students prepare for their first day of school next Monday (Aug. 24), the Fairfax County School Board is making its own back-to-school to-do list. Near the top of the agenda: an updated digital literacy curriculum.
A work session on Tuesday (Aug. 18) provided a glimpse of the tasks ahead for the school board this year, and staff’s efforts over the summer to implement high-profile mandates around the curriculum, including updates related to artificial intelligence literacy.
New this year: schools will provide grade-level digital literacy lessons, one per quarter over the course of the school year. Principals will monitor implementation and certify that the required material has been taught.
“We think it’s really important that students have instruction on understanding how AI works and the risks associated with using it and how to use it in ethical ways,” Sloan Presidio, FCPS chief academic officer, told board members. “So, we’ve developed some new AI literacy lessons that will be part of this curriculum as well.”
The school board had directed staff in June to enhance digital literacy instruction across all grade levels and offer professional development for staff, in consultation and collaboration with the new Educational Technology Review Committee.
The Virginia Department of Education already requires schools to have a digital literacy curriculum in place; currently, those requirements are usually integrated into existing courses.
With the updated lessons, the goal will be for students “to learn to protect their privacy, online safety, and well-being in digital learning environments,” Presidio said. “They’re going to learn to evaluate information, recognize the purpose and credibility of digital content, and communicate online responsibly. And then the lessons on AI literacy are going to include a focus on recognizing AI-generated content.”
The updates follow the school board’s approval in July of some restrictions on students’ use of AI, including a ban at the elementary level. While students will not use AI, social media or digital technology during the lessons, that won’t prevent a teacher from demonstrating a response to a prompt, for example, Presidio said.
Under the digital literacy curriculum, subject matters will vary by grade level: for instance, a second-grade class might discuss how tech can be distracting and affect sleep, or talk about situations where they need to give their full attention and put devices away.
School board members’ reactions to the presentation were varied.
Mason District Representative Ricardy Anderson said staff had created a “really strong foundation” and added that scripted lessons are important to ensure a consistent experience.
She also suggested that parents should have the ability to opt their kids out of the lessons.
“We have parents who have very strict rules about what they want their children to have access to, and we see this all the time when we have parents who want to homeschool their kids,” she said. “They have all kinds of reasons. This is another place where we can give some control back to what they want to … have their kids be exposed to.”
Hunter Mill Representative Melanie Meren said she thought Superintendent Michelle Reid was getting “ahead of the board policy,” suggesting the school board should take greater initiative around what students learn and how those lessons are delivered, such as if Google Slides are used.
Seema Dixit, who represents Sully District, said it’s important to teach students “the ethical use of AI and the guardrails around it,” in order to prepare students to operate without school-enforced guardrails at the college level.
Other board members wondered whether it will be possible for students to learn about tools that they can’t actually use.
“How can you really teach how to evaluate AI, generative AI without letting them utilize generative AI?” asked Robyn Lady, the board’s Dranesville District representative.
“You’ve kind of uncovered the dilemma that we have, a little bit, in terms of the development of a board policy and trying to figure out how these things can move forward in the absence of that,” Presidio replied.
The curriculum is intended to develop and change over time in response to feedback after the first iteration.
Tweaks to device policies
The work session grew more tense when the discussion turned to potential exceptions to the school board’s newly implemented policy around digital devices for the youngest learners. In July, the board passed a resolution stating that pre-K and kindergarten students would no longer be issued laptops or tablets.
The ban on issued devices doesn’t apply to students who use them for Individualized Education Programs, 504 plans, translation purposes, or multilingual education support.
However, Reid told the school board she intends to allow the use of the literacy program Lexia during a kindergarten reading and intervention block that spans up to 1.5 hours per week in order to meet state requirements.
While Reid said she thought the exception — which affects over 30% of FCPS students — fits within the existing carve-out, a couple school board members appeared extremely displeased.
“Now we’re in the position where we are being told that we are going to roll back a board action on July 16th, taking away iPads from kindergartners, because of this problem that was identified in [the Educational Technology Review Committee],” said Kyle McDaniel, vice chairman and member-at-large.
Staff suggested the exception because of Virginia Literacy Act requirements. Students are entitled to 2.5 hours of additional reading support that can be delivered either through a teacher or Lexia, a program endorsed by the Virginia Department of Education.
FCPS already allows teacher instruction for approximately half that time.
“When we had the ability to do additional analysis and figure out what the impact of not using Lexia would be, we found that with 30% of our students needing reading plans, we would need additional staff time if we were to provide all of that through teacher-directed instruction,” Presidio explained. “We would probably need at least 20 additional [full-time equivalent positions] across the school division to be able to do that.
“That was not something that was passed in the budget,” he added.
Staff didn’t enter the meeting prepared to give an in-depth analysis of what would happen if Lexia was discontinued, he said.
Ricardy Anderson said that, while she appreciated the narrow scope of the exception, she wanted to see other options on the table.
“This is not the only way to offer comprehension intervention, or reading intervention,” she said. “It’s just more expedient because we’re able to just get them through.”
More than one school board member noted that FCPS is already experiencing significant strain on staffing levels this year, and adding an additional responsibility may not be feasible.
“I’m already getting letters about class sizes, and school hasn’t even started,” Franconia District Representative Marcia St. John-Cunning said. “And then we’re talking about class sizes in some instances for kindergarteners that are very active. There’s a lot going on.
“The issue that what we’re up against right now is complying with what our state law is requiring us to do, and being able to implement it this year versus alternatives that involve additional staff, additional training, additional expense, and additional time.”
