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At CPET, we don't treat AI as a separate domain with its own separate rules. We ask the same question we always ask: how does this serve the educators, students, and communities we are here to support? Because good teaching is fundamentally human work — and our core principles are the lens for everything, including this.

Read our response to the latest AI guidance for NYC schools

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Our Core Principles in Action

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Communities of Practice

Our work lives in relationship. AI can free up time and cognitive space so that the collaborative inquiry that happens when teachers wrestle with hard questions can go deeper — but we use it in service of our communities, never as a substitute for them.

Contextualized Practice

AI tools offer generalized responses; our coaches provide something no algorithm can — a response calibrated to the specific culture, history, and goals of the community in front of us. We treat its outputs as a starting point, never a substitute for expert judgment.

Critical Reflection

​We hold ourselves to a standard of honest self-examination, asking hard questions about AI — about bias, whose voices and experiences are centered in the data these tools are trained on, and whether a given use is actually improving practice or just making it feel more efficient.

Cultivating Strengths

We are grounded in the belief that growth happens when we start from what is already working. That means we will not use AI in ways that undermine irreplaceable educator expertise — we use it to amplify strengths, not to circumvent them.

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogy

We acknowledge that many AI tools reflect the biases embedded in the data used to build them, and we treat that not as a fixed limitation but as an ongoing site of interrogation — especially given the potential for harm to students and educators from historically marginalized communities.

Cycles of Inquiry

We are learners. We do not claim to have AI figured out, and we are skeptical of anyone who does. We are deliberately building our practice in this area, in community, and with humility — using AI as a mirror, not a driver in our work.

 

Our Commitments

We recognize that this landscape is evolving rapidly, with new tools, capabilities, and concerns emerging on a consistent basis. As such, our commitments will be revisited, examined, and refined in response to new technologies, research, and on-the-ground insights from educators and students.

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​We do not enter personally identifiable information into any AI tool.

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​The privacy of the educators, students, and schools we work with is not negotiable. We do not input names, identifying details, or any data that could be traced back to an individual into AI platforms, regardless of the tool or task.

We hold ourselves accountable to institutional frameworks for responsible AI use.

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CPET operates within the guidelines of Teachers College, Columbia University, and leverages TC-approved tools and policies on privacy, security, and academic integrity.
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We prioritize our own expertise and communities of practice above any technology.

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Our coaches, researchers, and educators bring decades of knowledge and lived experience to this work. Every use of AI at CPET is evaluated, and accountable to the professional judgment of our team and the communities we serve.

 

Our Work in the Field

We don't just think about AI in theory. Here's where our thinking meets practice, student voice, and real classrooms.

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Instruction and practice

Thinking with GenAI: From Automation to Augmentation
Reimagine generative AI as a partner in meaning-making rather than a shortcut to finished work.

Discerning Gen AI Use: The Help-Harm-Hope Framework
Move beyond allowed vs. forbidden with AI by cultivating a practice of personal and professional integrity. 

Teaching Writing in the Age of Generative AI
Anchor writing in what AI can’t replace: human thought, voice, and connection.

Writing is Thinking: From Reluctance to Discovery
In an age of instant answers, help students rediscover writing as a space for uncertainty and growth.

Let's Talk About ChatGPT: AI as a Tool for Learning
Our Teaching Today podcast separates the panic from the potential to examine what AI actually means for teaching.

ChatGPT & Writing in the Secondary ELA Classroom
Advanced AI has revolutionized writing, yes, but teachers don't need to fear being replicated or replaced.

Student experience and identity

Prioritizing Attention and Astonishment in Writing
A call to resist pulling the “magical string” of AI efficiency and return to writing as an act of attention, wonder, and genuine being.

Identity Building with GenAI
Use AI in ways that protect student identity, not erase it.

The Value of Student Voice and Choice
In an age of AI-generated text, turn writing tasks into mirrors where students see themselves.

The Importance of Audience and Feedback
How to guide students toward clearer, more purposeful communication — and what AI can't replicate in that process.

The SEL of AI: Humanity at the Heart of Teaching
From the real digital divide to why banning AI doesn't work, BOCES educators talk about navigating the AI revolution. 

Grappling with Being: AI and the Human Condition
We make the case for teaching discernment over rules, using writing itself as the tool for helping students understand their relationship with AI. 

Partner Spotlight: ConnectInk

What does it look like when AI is built to protect the writing process rather than shortcut it? Our partnership with ConnectINK — a team of educators, software engineers, and program managers — helped shape an AI writing coach built around a single principle: students do the thinking, always.

Partner with us

Inside ConnectINK: What Happens When AI Asks Questions Instead of Giving Answers
​Meet the design team behind ConnectINK — an AI writing coach that never writes for students, only asks them better questions. Listen on Spotify

Can AI act as a writing coach for reluctant writers? This Brooklyn educator is betting on it.
Read how Chalkbeat covered CPET's work with ConnectINK and what the pilot revealed about AI's role in student writing.