You Can’t Prompt Your Way to a Curriculum

Houston ISD thought they could replace a curriculum with AI prompts. What they got was AI slop.

In their rush to "innovate," Houston ISD rolled out an AI-generated curriculum, filled with historical errors, gibberish slides, fake images of the Harlem Renaissance, and worksheets that kill curiosity faster than a standardized test. All this under the banner of “efficiency.”

Here’s the thing: AI, as-is, can help teachers. But AI, as-is, cannot replace curriculum. Because creating curriculum isn’t just sporadic content generation. It’s:

• Standards alignment

• Pedagogical design

• Scaffolding and progression

• Equity and cultural context

• Differentiation and personalization

• Assessment integration

• Real-world classroom vetting

Ask any publisher. One just told me they spent $300 million and five years of work, developing their K-8 math curriculum. You think that’s replaceable by simple prompt engineering?

HISD tried. They failed. Teachers are furious. Students deserve better.

What’s needed is not generic AI, but education-tamed AI:

• Tuned for standards and pedagogical rigor, not just fluency

• Built for accountability, not speed

• Mimics the essence of publisher workflows

• Includes excessive feedback loops

• Supervised by subject-matter experts

• Evolves and improves through data

That’s what we’re building at NovoDia. Not AI that cuts corners; AI that builds foundations. Because students aren’t beta testers. They’re the reason we build.

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