NEPC Review: A New Direction For Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, Protect

Oct 15, 2026

NEPC Review evaluates a Brookings Institution report synthesizing a year-long study of generative AI in education. It weighs benefits and threats to young people’s learning and development, arguing the harms outweigh the benefits. The review summarizes three action areas: evidence-informed pedagogies, holistic AI literacy, and trustworthy AI tool design, governance, and safety, privacy, and healthy-development guidelines. It also critiques the report’s lack of systematic evidence weighting and limited guidance on which stakeholders should implement its recommendations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Summary

Introduction

Spread of generative AI in education

Adoption and investment trends

NEPC Review: A New Direction For Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, Protect (Brookings Institution, January 2026) Reviewed by: William R. Penuel University of Colorado Boulder March 2026 National Education Policy Center School of Education University of Colorado Boulder [nepc.colorado.edu](nepc.colorado.edu) Acknowledgements NEPC Staff Faith Boninger Publications Manager Paul Thomas Academic Editor Elaine Duggan Production Design Alex Molnar NEPC Director Kevin Welner NEPC Director Suggested Citation: Penuel, W.R. (2026) . NEPC Review: A new direction for students in an AI world: Prosper, prepare, protect. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from [https://nepc.colorado.edu/review/generative-ai](https://nepc.colorado.edu/review/generative-ai) Funding: This review was made possible in part by funding from the Great Lakes Center for Educational Research and Practice. GREAT LAKES CENTER For Education Research & Practice This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This publication is provided free of cost to NEPC’s readers, who may make non-commercial use of it as long as NEPC and its author(s) are credited as the source. For inquiries about commercial use, please [contact NEPC at](contact NEPC at nepc@colorado.edu)[ nepc@colorado.edu](contact NEPC at nepc@colorado.edu). The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, sponsors research, produces policy briefs, and publishes expert third-party reviews of think tank reports. NEPC publications are written in accessible language and are intended for a broad audience that includes academic experts, policymakers, the media, and the general public. Our mission is to provide high-quality information in support of democratic deliberation about education policy. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence and support a multiracial society that is inclusive, kind, and just. Visit us at: [http://nepc.colorado.edu](http://nepc.colorado.edu) [http://nepc.colorado.edu/review/generative-ai](http://nepc.colorado.edu/review/generative-ai) 2 of 13 NEPC Review: A New Direction For Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, Protect (Brookings Institution, January 2026) Reviewed by: William R. Penuel University of Colorado Boulder March 2026 Summary A recent Brookings Institution report presents a synthesis of a year-long study of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education. It outlines benefits and threats generative AI poses to young people’s learning and development, concluding that its potential harms outweigh its benefits. The report describes three focus areas for action to reverse that conclusion: promoting AI tools that support evidence-informed pedagogies; developing holistic AI literacy; and promoting trustworthy AI tool design, governance, and guidelines for safety, privacy, and healthy development. A strength of the report is the breadth of perspectives and research studies it includes. A weakness is that it offers no systematic weighting of evidence based on quality or type of evidence. One result of this weakness is not problematic: Readers who are AI skeptics will find passages to support their beliefs, as well readers who are AI advocates—regardless of the report’s overall conclusions. Another result is more troubling: It provides decision makers with a wide range of ideas, yet little help in selecting and evaluating options for ensuring that AI is used to benefit rather than harm young people’s well-being. In addition, the report notes that all interest holders are important decision makers, but it does not say which interest holders should implement each of its 12 recommendations. Ultimately, the report provides a useful resource for

FAQs

What is the Brookings Institution report’s overall conclusion about generative AI in education?

It concludes that the potential harms of generative AI outweigh its benefits for young people’s learning and development.

What three focus areas does the report propose for action?

Promote AI tools that support evidence-informed pedagogies, develop holistic AI literacy, and promote trustworthy AI tool design, governance, and guidelines for safety, privacy, and healthy development.

What are the main limitations NEPC identifies in the Brookings report?

It offers no systematic weighting of evidence by quality or type, provides limited help for decision makers in evaluating options, and does not specify which stakeholders should implement its 12 recommendations.

Oct 15, 2026

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