Overview
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we teach, learn, work, and live. For community colleges, this emerging technology presents both unprecedented opportunities and serious risks. Without a clear strategy, institutions may fall behind — and leave their students behind with them.
Achieving the Dream’s AI for All Task Force brings together higher education leaders, AI experts, and industry partners to help community colleges meet this moment with purpose, ethics, and equity. The task force’s report outlines a strategic framework that colleges can use to integrate AI across teaching, operations, and workforce partnerships in ways that center students and uphold community college values.
Why It Matters
AI’s influence is accelerating across every sector — but institutional adoption is lagging behind. Students are already using AI tools to study, write, and explore careers. Employers are already seeking workers who can collaborate with AI and use it responsibly. Colleges need to act now to ensure students are prepared for this AI-driven reality.
The framework urges colleges to move beyond basic AI literacy and toward AI agility — the ability to continually adapt alongside rapidly evolving technologies. That means preparing students to use AI effectively and ethically, redesigning curricula, supporting faculty and staff, and embedding AI into the day-to-day operations of the college.
A Blueprint for Ethical, Equitable Adoption
The report outlines eight key areas of action to help colleges integrate AI in ways that improve outcomes, advance equity, and boost institutional effectiveness:
- Strategic leadership and planning
- Ethical governance and policy development
- Impact measurement and assessment
- Workforce-aligned curriculum redesign
- Faculty and staff capacity-building
- AI-supported student advising and engagement
- Operational efficiency and automation
- Student-centered, AI-powered learning tools
This is not about chasing trends. It’s about preparing students — degree-seeking and workforce learners alike — to thrive in a future shaped by AI.
The Role of ATD
Achieving the Dream is committed to helping colleges implement this framework with integrity and intention. That includes expanding professional learning, building communities of practice, and continuing to surface research, case studies, and tools that support colleges in their AI journeys.
The Path Forward
The stakes are high. When used ethically and equitably, AI can extend the reach of overburdened institutions, personalize the learning experience, and support economic mobility for students and communities. But without thoughtful integration, AI could deepen existing inequities and erode trust.
The AI for All Task Force provides a path forward — one grounded in community college values and designed to ensure every student can succeed in an AI-enabled world.
Thinking & Advocacy
News & Updates
