New EdWeek Research Center data just dropped, and the numbers are remarkable: nearly 80% of high school students are now receiving AI literacy instruction. Seventy-three percent of middle schoolers too.

But here's what caught my attention — only 8% of pre-K through 3rd graders are getting any AI literacy at all. And fewer than half of teachers have had formal AI training themselves.

The adoption is real. The quality gap is the new frontier.

I unpacked the data and introduced a concept I'm calling the "Readiness Illusion" — the dangerous gap between impressive adoption numbers and actual instructional quality. When schools check the AI literacy box without investing in teacher training or age-appropriate progression, we get compliance without fluency.

The question isn't whether schools are teaching AI anymore. It's whether they're teaching it well.

Dive deeper: https://www.harvestkernel.com/ai-literacy-schools-edweek-data/

What are you seeing in your school or district? Are AI literacy efforts substantive, or are they more checkbox compliance? I'd love to hear what the reality looks like from your seat.