Six educators selected for the ISTE+ASCD Voices of Change Fellowship will publish first-person essays and multimedia stories during the 2026-27 academic year, focusing on how schools adapt to AI, equity, and responsible technology use.
By the time Tambra Clark checks the latest classroom needs. AI literacy isn’t a distant policy debate—it’s a daily teaching challenge. Clark. a technology integration facilitator in Birmingham City Schools (AL). is one of six educators chosen for the ISTE+ASCD Voices of Change Fellowship for the 2026-27 academic year.
The fellowship is built around the people closest to instruction. During the 2026-27 cohort, fellows will share first-person essays and multimedia stories about what’s changing inside K-12 classrooms as technology reshapes teaching and learning.
Clark’s focus runs through AI literacy and STEM equity, grounded in both district leadership and research. She’s joined in this year’s cohort by educators taking on the same pressure point—how to keep learning humane and equitable—while classrooms adjust to an AI-driven world.
Nathan Kraai. director of Innovation and Design Thinking at The Fenn School (MA). is reimagining learning by centering curiosity. creativity. and human-centered design. Pattie Morales. an instructional technology specialist at Indian Community School (WI). is working on equitable access to AI and digital learning across schools and communities. Court Shuller. a middle school ELA teacher at Gloucester Township Public School (NJ). is bridging research and practice in literacy through innovative. accessible professional learning.
The list also includes Monika Vereb. principal of Herndon Elementary School (VA). who is driving a school turnaround through instructional coherence and systems-level improvement. and Beth Yirga. assistant head of school at Freire Charter School Wilmington (DE). leading with a focus on educational equity and environmental justice to support whole-child success.
Their work will be published across the 2026-27 academic year as a series of first-person essays, articles, and videos. The guiding questions for the fellowship point to the issues many districts are struggling to balance right now: whether technology or AI tools are being used to support educator and student well-being—and what practices ensure those tools are used responsibly and equitably; how data. learning science. or AI-driven insights can shape instructional strategies and assessments for diverse learners; and how students and educators are supported in building digital citizenship and media literacy skills to engage critically and responsibly with AI and emerging technologies.
The selection of this sixth cohort also reflects what the program learned from the previous year. ISTE+ASCD is thanking its 2025-26 Voices of Change Fellows—April Jackson. Dan Clark. Melinda Medina. Nikita Khetan. Patrice Wade. and Sofia Gonzalez—for stories on mental health. engagement. and changing school dynamics. Their reporting. the program notes. underscored a central idea: teaching has to evolve alongside how students learn in the age of AI.
The program’s new dispatches will be published primarily through EdSurge. described as the digital news site of ISTE+ASCD. and will appear across the outlet’s publications. The fellowship has been made possible in part by a grant from Learning Commons. an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
ISTE+ASCD Voices of Change Fellowship 2026-27 Fellows EdSurge AI literacy educational equity digital citizenship K-12 educators instructional technology
So are they gonna teach kids to use AI or just talk about it forever?
I don’t get why they need a “fellowship” for this. Teachers been adapting since forever. Sounds like another program name for the same training.
Tambra Clark in Alabama and AI literacy?? next thing you know they’re replacing teachers with chatbots like my cousin said. Also “equity” just means more bias training right?
This is actually kinda cool that they’re focusing on humane learning and not just “tech for tech’s sake,” but I feel like it’ll still turn into dashboards and screen time. Gloucester Township and STEM equity… I hope it doesn’t mean students have to do everything on devices now. And what counts as responsible use anyway, like can they still write by hand?