Digital Promise announced the first grant recipients of a new $26 million K-12 AI Infrastructure Program designed to imp
Digital Promise, alongside core partners Learning Data Insights, DrivenData, the Massive Data Institute at Georgetown University, and Catalyst @ Penn GSE, announced the first grant recipients of the K-12 AI Infrastructure Program on June 29, 2026. This new $26 million multi-year initiative aims to improve how artificial intelligence is designed and used in K-12 classrooms.
The program addresses a fundamental challenge: while AI is rapidly entering schools, many tools are not yet designed in ways that reflect how students actually learn or how teachers assess understanding in real time. As a result, educators often struggle to trust or effectively use these tools.
Jean-Claude Brizard, president and CEO of Digital Promise, stated: "Without the right foundation, AI will become another barrier to educational progress. Through this work, we're building the shared resources developers need to create AI tools that give teachers better insight into student learning and help students get the right support at the right time."
The first grant cycle focuses on strengthening formative assessment, the everyday practices teachers use to understand what students know while learning is happening, such as classroom discussions, written work, or problem-solving activities. While formative assessment is one of the most effective ways to improve student outcomes, it can be difficult to implement consistently at scale.
The K-12 AI Infrastructure Program aims to make this easier by supporting the development of openly available datasets, benchmarks, and models that help AI tools better interpret student thinking and provide meaningful feedback. By making these resources public, the program lowers barriers for developers while also raising expectations for quality, accuracy, and fairness.
Rebecca Griffiths, program design director at Digital Promise, emphasized that educators have been central to the work: "A cornerstone of this work has been engagement with educators and community organizations to ensure our investments reflect their goals and concerns for AI in education. Educators want AI that understands context and empowers teachers to do their best work — and they've been clear that student privacy and agency must remain central to how these tools are designed and used."
Following a competitive review process, Digital Promise and its partners selected four organizations to receive grants for projects lasting six to 12 months. All outputs will be openly licensed and freely available for use across the education field. The Digital Promise team expects to make approximately 30 grants in total over the life of the program, with additional grants coming in the coming months and years.
John Whitmer, senior researcher and founder of Learning Data Insights, noted: "The projects chosen for funding are applying advanced data science approaches, often proven in other fields, in education contexts. It was a difficult selection given the depth and breadth of responses that we received, and I look forward to seeing the public goods emerge from these projects for the field."
The initiative is supported by Learning Commons, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Gates Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, Valhalla Foundation, and Walton Family Foundation. Each project is designed with a focus on students and communities who have been historically underserved. Over four years, the program will continue to fund the development of these shared public goods to improve quality, relevance, and trustworthiness of AI in education.