Microsoft just proved what educators already knew

What the 2026 AI in Education Report means for your teachers, your leaders, and your community

Author

Merissa Sadler-Holder
June 29, 2026

Microsoft just released their 2026 AI in Education Report, and if you've been feeling like schools are flying blind with AI, the data confirms it.

88% of educators are already using AI for school-related purposes.
But 53% have never received any formal training on how to use it.

That's not an AI problem. That's a support problem.

92% of students and education leaders have used AI for school.

78% of leaders say their usage has increased over the past year.

AI is already in your school. It's already in your classroom.

The debate is over. Now it's about making sure you and your staff actually have what they need.

Microsoft identified three priorities for schools right now:

  1. Move from experimentation to full, intentional adoption

  2. Close the skills gap with recurring, role-based training (not a one-time PD day)

  3. Give teachers practical guardrails so students understand when and how to use AI responsibly

Sound familiar? It should. Because this is exactly what the AI Coherence Cycle is built for.

The AI Coherence Cycle isn't a tool recommendation or a one-day workshop. It's a framework that guides leadership teams through educator-led inquiry cycles aligned to your local goals, instructional challenges, and student and family needs. It helps schools:

✔️ Diagnose root challenges using real data
✔️ Strengthen shared leadership and teacher agency
✔️ Strategically train and use AI to enhance planning, analysis, and communication
✔️ Build community trust with AI literacy for families
✔️ Align with federal funding streams

Because here's what Microsoft's report gets right but doesn't fully solve: AI literacy and fluency aren't just teacher needs. They're learning community needs. Administrators, staff, families. Everyone.

Without that foundation, new tools just create new chaos. Tool adoption without training is just a more expensive version of the same problem

If your school is sitting in the gap between "we're using AI" and "we actually know what we're doing with it," that's exactly where this work begins. Reply to this email or book a coffee chat and let's talk about what the AI Coherence Cycle could look like for your team this fall.

We got this.

Love, M.

Need meaningful AI professional development through the Teaching with Machines Learning Journeys for your staff and teachers?

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I love reading your feedback, it helps me design effective solutions for others. I respond to all my emails. Just hit reply to this email. Rooting for you and your students! Love, M.

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