EDTECH: How would you describe the connection between culture and technology at Highline Public Schools?
CHRISTIE: Our promise is to know every student by name, strength and need and to prepare them for the future they choose. We refer to our promise to get to the bottom line of whatever we’re trying to accomplish, whether that’s with AI or another digital tool. I’ve made it clear to my team that that’s our focus: keeping students at the center and supporting positive outcomes. Our project methodology includes asking questions: What impact will this decision have on the community? On marginalized students? On students with special needs? We also have a close relationship with our community, which means that we hear their voices and we ensure that we incorporate that.
EDTECH: Does your student body diversity pose challenges or other considerations as you determine which technologies to adapt?
CHRISTIE: I would flip the question to ask what opportunity technology gives us to support, for instance, a student who speaks two languages or is coming here from another country. If we look at this as a challenge, we frame it as a deficit, when we really want to focus on strengths-based language. That said, processes are just as important as technology, and my team works closely with people who are really good at understanding process. We also use data to determine our direction, although what’s most important is how we interpret the data and individualize it to the student. That ties back to our promise. If the expectation is to support every student, we don’t see that as a challenge. We see that as our purpose.
EDTECH: Which technology tools have served you well from a languages perspective?
CHRISTIE: We’ve invested in translation tools that use AI to support our conversations with non-English-speaking parents. As we’ve expanded our dual-language program for students, we realized that direct, word-for-word translation wasn’t working for us. We don’t want to just translate words and have choppy conversations. We want tools that translate meaning and intent, so we needed the ability to translate colloquial phrases, regional dialects and slang. We vetted these tools in our smaller pilots, and they worked very well.
EDTECH: Does AI literacy look different for a student learning English versus a native English speaker?
CHRISTIE: Not necessarily, because we have refined our thematic focus around AI — the knowledge, skills and attitudes that we want students to develop — and those concepts are translatable. That makes it easy for us to communicate to students and families what we’re doing with AI.
EDTECH: What is Highline’s vision for AI strategy?
CHRISTIE: We’ve been intentional about how long we’re taking to implement our AI strategy, vision and guidance. Our main focus is AI literacy, which starts with defining the technical knowledge, durable skills and attitudes that we need in order to understand what it means to be future-ready and to be able to talk deeply about AI’s risks and its promise.
AI literacy is not just about the use of AI, but also how to operate in a world that has specific narratives and arguments around AI. We’re preparing our students for this world because our diversity means there is a very good chance that we might not be included in the AI conversation. We want to build knowledge and understanding so that if we do get the opportunity to be part of the conversation, we can make sure AI happens around us and not to us. AI should be human-centered, and we want to enable students, family and staff to support human expertise in applying AI.
Highline Public Schools’ artificial intelligence implementation strategy combines student feedback and professional expertise.
EDTECH: What’s a project that you’re especially proud of?
CHRISTIE: I’m very proud of our data system, which is still going strong about 12 years after I established it. At that time, I had the district’s first Tableau license. We needed a system that could help us answer questions and turn data into action. Today, our system helps to influence and inform our actions and understand what’s happening for students. We’ve been intentional in providing context around data so that we understand what the data actually means. I’m also proud of our partnerships. There’s trust in our data work because we’ve tried to be intentional in expanding professional development, creating ways for people to get self-service support and rolling data tools into the ethos of what we want to create.
EDTECH: Five years from now, what aspect of Highline’s technology strategy would you want to be seen as an example of human-centered innovation?
CHRISTIE: I would say our AI implementation. Our cross-functional group of ambassadors has had rich conversations and achieved a level of collaboration and forward movement that goes beyond the urgency of “We have to do AI.” We ask questions, we look at our data comprehensively and we do everything we can to support students’ voice and agency. We have a lot of structures around listening to students, and we balance that with what we believe is best as professionals. That combination has led to some really positive outcomes for our students. We’re already on that track, so when I think about five years out, it’s just being able to sustain that and to have our community understand and support exactly what we’re trying to accomplish.
