Agency: The New Literacy
Guest Research Wednesday by Jessyca Lucero-Flores
When we talk about preparing students for the future, we often focus on what they should know. But the most powerful shift in education today isn’t just about knowledge, it’s about agency: the ability to act with purpose, reflection, and confidence in a changing world.
A recent Forbes article by Dan Fitzpatrick, titled “Why Agency Is the New Literacy (Schools Can’t Ignore),” captures this shift beautifully: “In a world where AI can generate content, human agency–the ability to choose, critique, and direct– is what separates passive consumers from active creators.”
That statement sent me down the rabbit hole of research. The OECD Learning Compass 2030 defines agency as the capacity to “act intentionally and responsibly to shape one’s life and world.” Yet, according to Gallup’s 2024 Student Poll, fewer than half of U.S. students feel they have any real control over their learning.
Research from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and NCEIA shows that classrooms embedding goal setting, reflection, and meaningful choice lead to measurable gains in persistence and motivation. Meanwhile, the RAND Corporation (2022) found that while structured curricula can improve equity, they risk suppressing both teacher and student creativity when implemented too rigidly.
This is where balance matters. As Linda Darling-Hammond and colleagues remind us, equity and excellence require professional agency, where teachers adapt curriculum responsively to student needs. The curriculum provides what to teach; teachers bring the why and the how. The pacing guide offers structure; students’ thinking determines the rhythm.
When teachers model professional agency, they show students how to navigate systems with creativity and confidence. Agency doesn’t mean abandoning structure, it means bringing it to life.
Dr. Sabba Quidwai calls this evolution “the new literacy.” If the last century was about decoding words, this one is about decoding systems and designing them to make the world better. In her work with Designing Schools, she introduces a powerful framework to guide how student and educators cultivate agency in an AI driven world. SPARK (the framework) helps students and teachers frame their questions with reflection before engaging with AI or any complex task.
“The future belongs to those who can design it,” she says. “AI isn’t just a tool, it’s your teammate.”
If literacy once gave students access to information, agency now gives them access to transformation. Agency is not an abstract ideal, instead, like literacy, it opens the door to possibility.
To explore further, you can access the full article Why Agency Is the New Literacy and listen to the accompanying podcast by Dan Fitzpatrick AI For Educators with Dan Fitzpatrick, as well as find Dr. Sabba Quidwai’s work at Designing Schools.
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