The Alcuin AI literacy framework

A framework for teaching AI literacy

Give AI literacy a clear place in your curriculum. The Alcuin framework connects what students need to know about AI with the decisions they need to make when using it.

From broad principles to classroom expectations

Eight strands organize 37 standards across four stages, from kindergarten through graduation. Each standard describes something students can demonstrate, giving teachers a basis for planning lessons and discussing progress.

Use the strands to identify where AI literacy belongs in your curriculum. Use the grade-band expectations to decide what to teach and what students should be able to do independently.

Publication and source notes

The source comparison draws on OECD/EC AILit (2026), UNESCO's student framework (2024), Digital Promise (2024), Arizona (v26.01), and Utah (2026). The mapping is Alcuin's analysis and does not imply endorsement by those organizations. The standards have not been field-tested, and the Foundations mapping is incomplete.

Read the framework and standards

The Alcuin AI Literacy Framework — PDF The Alcuin AI Literacy Standards — PDF

Eight areas of learning

Each strand connects knowledge about AI with decisions students need to make.

Foundations

The knowledge and skills students need to be able to use without AI.

Thinking With AI

How AI use affects learning, effort, and judgment.

Truth and Evidence

Checking claims and recognizing unreliable or misleading output.

The Machine

How AI systems work: how they are trained, what they produce, and where they fall short.

Working With AI

Choosing tools, supplying context, prompting, and reviewing results.

Data and Ethics

Privacy, bias, consent, intellectual property, and responsibility.

AI and the World

AI's influence on work, information, power, and public life.

Shaping AI

Evaluating AI systems and deciding how they should be improved or used.

A standard in practice

Verify claims before relying on them

TE.2 · Truth and Evidence · Core

Check AI-generated claims against independent sources and justify accepting, revising, or rejecting them.

The code names the strand and the standard: TE.2 is the second standard in Truth and Evidence. Core standards are expected of every student. The expectations develop across four stages, from the early grades to graduation.

K–2 · Emerging — Suggests one way the class could check a claim in an AI answer.
3–5 · Guided — Compares an AI answer with a provided source and explains which account to trust.
6–8 · Independent — Checks a claim against two sources, including one located independently, and records the result.
9–12 · Anticipating — Includes a verification plan in the project proposal, carries it out, documents results, and resolves discrepancies.
How this standard maps to other frameworks

Alcuin's crosswalk maps TE.2 to AILit Engage 3 (p. 29), Digital Promise Practice 6 (p. 8), Arizona Goal 4 (p. 23), and Utah's review-before-use provision (p. 11). We have not identified a counterpart in UNESCO's student framework. Page references refer to the source documents. This mapping remains subject to review.

Classroom norms for AI use

These twelve norms give students a shared set of expectations. Teachers can use them to discuss choices students make while working with AI.

  1. Review the first answer.
  2. Make the work your own.
  3. Keep thinking throughout the task.
  4. Take responsibility for work with your name on it.
  5. Check confident answers.
  6. Consider another point of view.
  7. Keep a record of AI use.
  8. Follow the rules for the assignment.
  9. Learn how to use the available tools.
  10. Check what you learned.
  11. Protect personal information.
  12. Know when to work without AI.

Bring AI literacy into your curriculum

Talk with us about how these expectations could fit the work your school is doing.

Discuss your school's needs