Middle States Association

10/06/2026

Our own Amber Berry joined ABC News to talk about a question many schools are wrestling with right now: what do we do about AI and student trust?

As some schools weigh bans, Amber offered a different starting point. The more useful move is to help students learn to use AI well, with parents and teachers guiding the way instead of guessing from the sidelines.

"Model transparency and responsible use. It is all of our responsibility to be AI literate and AI fluent.... For parents and teachers, don't ask your children if they are using AI, ask them how did you use it, why might you use it, and for what reasons."

That shift from "if" to "how" is where trust starts to build.

It's also the thinking behind our work at Middle States Association. Educators don't need to have every answer about AI. They need a clear way to start the conversation with students, and with each other.

Watch the full conversation:

Amber Berry, vice president of AI and strategy for the Middle States Association, discusses how parents and teachers can help kids navigate AI responsibly, as schools weigh bans on the technology.

10/05/2026

At the Middle States Association, we love a good diagnostic. (In fact, we created one for the head of school-board chair partnership, which we shared with subscribers to 3 Things Weekly: https://mailchi.mp/msa-cess/msa-email-list)

The trick with diagnostics is that they are never about the score. A well designed diagnostic gives you:

1. A directional sense of where you are.
2. An idea of where you need to go.
3. The next thing you should be having a conversation about to get there.

Diagnosis is at the heart of our upcoming virtual workshop on October 6, 11 am ET, about the Head-Board Chair Partnership. Join facilitator Kate Paglia, board chair of Charles River School, and Julie Faulstich, founder and principal of Stony Creek Strategy, to learn how she and her head of school get on the same page, and stay there.

Join us: https://msa-cess-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/irhe8kGSTd6EAFqoGUmiMw #/registration

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: How Strong is Your Head of School-Board Chair Partnership? A Governance Mastery Diagnostic for Heads and Chairs. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

10/02/2026

"Independence doesn't have to mean isolation."

Jill Haskins, founder of Kainos Microschool in Fort Wayne, Indiana, shared this insight last week.

She's naming something many microschool founders know. Independence lets you build the school you imagined, around your own mission and model. It can also mean there's no superintendent to call and no administrative team to troubleshoot with.

Last year, Kainos earned accreditation through our accreditation pathway designed specifically for microschools.

Jill expected a credential and a close look at policy, wellness, assessment, and governance. She got both.

What she didn't expect was the community that followed.
She now serves on visiting teams for microschools across the country, and comes home from each one with fresh ideas for Kainos. When a legal or facilities question comes her way, she has trusted thought partners who are invested in her success. And she's reminded that other leaders wrestle with the same questions she does.

In Jill's words, accreditation hasn't pushed Kainos toward a traditional school. If anything, the opposite. Every school she visits and every conversation she has with another leader has made her more intentional about what makes Kainos unique.

That's the idea behind Middle States accreditation. A school stays independent. Its leader stops working alone.

If you lead a microschool, who do you call when you’re stuck? Shout them out below.

Read Jill's full story here:

Accreditation has given Kainos much more than a credential. It has opened doors to learn from other microschools, provided trusted support for the challenges of school leadership, created a community of peers, and helped us build bridges with educators and organizations who want to better understand

10/01/2026

Pinewood wanted to move from thinking about what students can do to how students choose to act. Agency.

They wrote it into a Declaration of Powerful Learning and a Portrait of a Graduate.

Then, in one of their action research sprints, a seventh grader showed them what it looks like.

See how Pinewood defined what it wanted students to become → https://www.msaevolutionlab.com/blog-full/what-is-purpose-without-identity-how-pinewood-american-international-school-stopped-asking-what-ai-could-do

09/30/2026

A few of us at Middle States have been heads of school, and we know from experience that it’s entirely possible for a head and a board Chair to trust each other deeply *and* still harbor different assumptions about vital things (eg, the preferred rate of change, the rank ordering of priorities, etc.).

We also have learned (mostly the hard way!) that *starting* with different assumptions is not the problem. It’s failing to name and unpack those assumptions that can slowly sabotage the head-chair partnership.

That is why we are running a workshop on this very topic on October 6, 11 am ET. Join facilitator Kate Paglia, the current board chair of Charles River School, to learn the right questions to ask, the right conversation to have, and the right practices to implement in that head-chair relationship.

If you want to move from assumptions to shared understanding with your most important governance partner, reserve your spot:

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: How Strong is Your Head of School-Board Chair Partnership? A Governance Mastery Diagnostic for Heads and Chairs. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

09/25/2026

Most schools we talk with this fall are asking some version of the same question:

What’s the role of AI in our community?

Marymount School of New York answered this systemically. Their new Technology with Purpose Guide brings together the school's philosophy, policies, curriculum, and age-appropriate expectations for all technology, including AI. The premise is simple: technology has a place at Marymount when it deepens learning and supports the human capacities the school seeks to develop.

Head of School Lorraine Riley set the bar far beyond fluency when she introduced it to her community:

"We are called to prepare students not merely to use AI, but to help lead its ethical and responsible use... the capacity to ask not only Can we? but also Should we? For whom? And toward what good?"

The Marymount team developed this guide through the Middle States Association Responsible AI in Learning (RAIL) program. The full guide is linked in the comments.

Curious what RAIL could unlock at your school? Learn more here: https://www.msaevolutionlab.com/rail

Space is still available in the January cohort.

The world’s only comprehensive implementation frameworks for AI in K12 schools and systems. RAIL EndorsementResources With RAIL—the Responsible AI in Learning endorsements pioneered by Middle States—you can safely navigate the complexities of AI in education, ensuring safety, ethical leadershi...

09/24/2026

Pinewood finished its first RAIL endorsement with a policy framework, a Gen AI framework for the high school, and a committee that believed in the work. What it did not have was the faculty.

No visible cohort of early adopters emerged to show the rest of the faculty it worked. Competing priorities were only part of the problem.

See what changed when Pinewood stopped asking what AI could do → https://www.msaevolutionlab.com/blog-full/what-is-purpose-without-identity-how-pinewood-american-international-school-stopped-asking-what-ai-could-do

09/23/2026

To our friends who are heads of school or board chairs: How strong is your head-chair partnership? Would the other person answer the same way?

On October 6, 11 am ET, the States Association is running a Governance Mastery workshop on the Head-Chair Partnership.

Guided by Paglia, the current board chair of River School, you will diagnose the state of your school’s single most important governance relationship.

Participants will also receive the Head-Chair Partnership Playbook, based on the article that Kate co-authored for NAIS’ Independent School Magazine.

If you want to strengthen that partnership, reserve your spot:

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: How Strong is Your Head of School-Board Chair Partnership? A Governance Mastery Diagnostic for Heads and Chairs. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

09/21/2026

Registration for Al-Maseira: The Journey Cairo closes tomorrow.

Three days, one cohort, one track: AI in Education, Change Leadership, or Flourishing Schools. You pick the room that matches the change you're trying to lead, and you stay with the same group the whole time, building a real plan instead of collecting slides.

October 8-10 in Cairo, hosted at the American International School of Egypt. Last call to reserve your seat.

https://www.msaevolutionlab.com/the-journey-cairo