Collaborative research: CER developing teacher AI literacy scales to support competency development (details)

The National Science Foundation Division of Computing and Communication Foundations awarded the Institute For Advancing Computing Education $238,506 on July 15, 2026, under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070) to develop and validate measurement scales assessing artificial intelligence literacy among middle school teachers.

The project develops high-quality instruments measuring three dimensions of teacher AI literacy — knowledge, skills, and attitudes — guided by the TeachAI framework. The work comprises three stages: a stakeholder survey identifying educator needs and potential uses for AI literacy measures; expert review panels and cognitive interviews with teachers to refine survey items; and a large national survey of middle school teachers generating evidence of reliability and validity for the measurement scales. By establishing reliable tools to measure teacher AI competency, the project supports improved STEM education and prepares students for workforce demands shaped by artificial intelligence technologies.

Work is performed in Peoria, Illinois, with a period of performance from July 15, 2026, through June 30, 2029. The Institute For Advancing Computing Education, a nonprofit organization based in Illinois, specializes in computer science education research and curriculum development.

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies are rapidly influencing how people work, learn, and solve problems. Helping students understand, use, and evaluate these technologies requires teachers who understand AI technologies and are prepared to introduce them in the classroom. However, reliable, high-quality tools to measure teachers? Knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to AI have not yet been developed. Without such tools, IT is difficult to identify teachers? Learning needs, evaluate professional development programs, or track progress in preparing educators to use and teach about AI. This project develops a new set of high-quality instruments to measure AI literacy among middle school teachers. The instruments focus on knowledge of, skills with, and attitudes related to AI. By improving how teacher AI literacy is measured, the project supports stronger science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and helps prepare students for a workforce increasingly shaped by AI technologies. To advance the national priorities of bolstering educator capacity to integrate AI into classrooms and engage students in AI infused instruction, this project develops and evaluates measurement scales designed to assess AI literacy among middle school teachers. The work is guided by the teachai framework, which describes AI literacy as comprising three dimensions: knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The research includes three stages. The first stage is a survey of education stakeholders identifies educator needs and potential uses for AI literacy measures. In the second stage, expert review panels and cognitive interviews with teachers refine and improve survey items. The third stage conducts a large national survey of middle school teachers to generate evidence of reliability and validity of the measurement scales. The project will generate new evidence about the latent structure of AI literacy components (e.g., knowledge, skills, and attitudes) and how these measures function across teacher populations. The resulting tools will support research on AI education, inform teacher professional learning programs, and provide educators and policymakers with better information about how teachers develop the capacity to integrate AI concepts into classroom instruction. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.