New initiative, managed by a team of research, data and privacy experts, will fund AI infrastructure projects with the potential to deliver broad benefits to students and teachers
“By funding the creation of public goods, we will accelerate the development of AI products that reflect the needs of all learners, the power of learning science principles, and the rigor of education-specific AI applications,” said Jeremy Roschelle, Executive Director of Digital Promise’s Center for Learning Sciences Research. “We invite the public to shape our work by providing a brief comment in response to our Request for Information.”
Read the Request for Information (RFI)
Today, the promise of GenAI in K-12 learning is hampered by fundamental gaps: existing datasets lack critical educational context; models rarely account for learner variability; and current AI algorithms struggle to incorporate learning sciences principles that enable effective pedagogy. Better prompts cannot close this gap. By providing an infrastructure in formats that AI developers can use—open datasets, models and benchmarks—the program will provide essential tools for researchers, developers, and education institutions to build and employ safe, effective, and trustworthy AI tools.
To lead this work, the K-12 AI Infrastructure Program will engage a grantmaking team with deep learning sciences expertise and a long, public track record of leadership and targeted focus on designing, studying, and scaling powerful learning experiences for all K-12 students. Partner organizations bring world class expertise in open data science, AI architectures, responsible data governance, privacy and data security, and the edtech innovation ecosystem.
“Now more than ever, high influence communities in industry, higher education, philanthropy, and government must come together to identify best practices for the safe, secure, and ethical implementation of AI to solve persistent problems in world-wide education. Catalyst @ Penn GSE couldn’t be more proud to join this collective and advance this movement to promote student-centered learning through the power of AI,” said John Gamba, Entrepreneur in Residence and Director of Innovative Programs at Catalyst @ Penn GSE.
The K-12 AI Infrastructure Program is founded on two operational principles: ensuring the work enables fundamental advances in using AI for education and is responsibly governed. First, program grants will exclusively fund public goods—foundational infrastructural components that are broadly available without cost under a suitable open license.
The central aim of this work is to fund novel and needed education-specific datasets, algorithms, models, and benchmarks, focusing on universally important needs in education, which are those needs that impact all student groups. At the same time we will seek to concentrate on student groups with higher needs and/or growth opportunities. Furthermore, recognizing that high trust is essential for the future of AI in education, the program will only fund efforts that agree to and can confidently deliver on high standards for data safety and privacy.
In early 2026, the program’s grant-making process will launch with open applications. In addition to the public comments received through the Request for Information, the grant application will be guided by continuous collaboration with funding partners, edtech developers, researchers, and practitioners. Contributing funding organizations will also be announced in early 2026, at the same time as the request for proposals.
