Calling all Rural Educators- AI Strategy Lab Applications Are Open!

Rural schools and districts make up more than 40% of the U.S. education system, yet their perspectives are often missing from conversations about AI in education. That absence matters.

Rural communities bring deep local knowledge, community-driven design, and a long history of creative problem-solving. At the same time, many AI tools and implementation models are built for conditions that don’t always reflect rural realities—from connectivity and staffing to access and capacity.

As AI adoption accelerates, rural perspectives can’t be an afterthought. The Rural AI Strategy Lab is designed not only to learn alongside educators, but to turn that learning into practical models, tools, and resources that other rural communities can use to launch, strengthen, and scale their own AI work. 

Led by FullScale and All4Ed, the Rural AI Strategy Lab will bring 12–15 rural school and district teams together to deepen or advance AI-powered work in their local contexts.

Participants will identify a need, problem, or opportunity and design, pilot, and refine an AI-enabled approach to address it. Over the course of the strategy lab, teams will receive coaching, access to AI and innovation expertise and resources, and learn alongside a national network of rural educators as they engage stakeholders, define measures of success, and build an understanding of their impact over time.
 

Apply by February 13, 2026. 
 

Questions? 

Please contact Dr. Megan Benay at megan.benay@fullscalelearning.org