When Students Lead, Innovation Follows: AI and Literacy at Ridgewood Local Schools

What if students weren’t just learners — but problem-solvers?

At Ridgewood Local Schools, a group of senior honors students identified a growing literacy challenge and decided to do something about it. The result: an AI-powered platform that allows students to generate their own stories, read at their level, and build stronger engagement with reading.

In this episode of Leading the Way, host Scott Gerfen talks with the students behind the project and their teacher, Lester McCurdy, about how the idea came to life and why it’s gaining national attention.

You’ll hear:

• How the project started from a real classroom need.

• What makes student-created storytelling so effective.

• How the platform supports both students and teachers.

• Why equity and multilingual access were built in from the start.

• What students gained from leading the work.

• Lessons for districts looking to empower student innovation.

The team’s work has already taken them to Washington, D.C., where they met with leaders from government and major tech companies.

This conversation offers a fresh perspective on AI in schools — not as a shortcut, but as a tool for deeper learning, creativity and ownership.

For more resources, training and advocacy updates from the Ohio School Boards Association, visit ohioschoolboards.org.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The following program is a presentation of the Ohio School Boards Association. Welcome to the Leading the Way podcast where we bring you the voices shaping public education across Ohio. Hey everyone, it's Scott Gurfin. We hear a lot right now about literacy gaps and a lot about artificial intelligence. At Ridgewood Local Schools, those two things came together in a really powerful way. A group of senior honors students didn't just study a problem, they built a solution. They created an AI-powered platform that helps students generate their own stories, read at their level, and stay engaged while giving teachers better insight into progress. And this wasn't just theoretical, it was built around real-world challenges in their school, shaped by conversations with educators, and now it's getting national attention. So today we're going to talk about how it started and what it could mean for schools everywhere. So Lester McCurdy is the teacher there at Ridgewood Local Schools. And these are the students and the honor students who took part in this. And I just wanted you all to introduce yourselves. Maybe we can go from the left of the screen and just tell us who you are.

SPEAKER_08 1:18

Hi, my name is Sophia Blood. My name is Kenzie Bice. My name is Kira Schrock. My name is Autumn Joyce. I'm Bridget Coble. My name is Sophie Pa. I'm Addison Lawmers.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

And obviously that's Lester McCurdy there in the background.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

So Lester McCurdy in the background.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah. So how did this idea get started?

SPEAKER_06 1:41

So the idea originally came from McCurdy's wife, is a fourth grade English teacher at our middle school. And she was talking about how a lot of students in her grade are reading improvement plans. And we really just wanted to make a difference and help kids better understand reading so their comprehension skills can improve.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

And and when did you guys all realize that this could be something uh bigger?

SPEAKER_03 2:05

I mean, uh, we had a conversation at first about what this could be, and we were joking, like, oh, it can't be that much. And McCurry's like, uh, I don't know about that. It might be more. And we might go to DC and we were laughing, and then now we actually just got back from DC. So it's just like, wow, this actually turned out to be bigger than we thought.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah, and and I want to talk about that trip to DC here in a minute, but um, let's get to the problem. And Lester, maybe you can address this. Is what were you seeing with literacy in your school?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

The reading improvement plan level at our school, the fourth grade level, um, they had about 50 kids that were on reading improvement plans out of about a hundred students, so about half. And uh that was beginning to be a big problem because it takes a half hour out of their class time to go do individual groups, and so we kind of just came up with an idea of maybe we get them to read on their own.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

So uh why did it matter too that this was going to be a student-led program?

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Because I had general ideas, the ideas that they brought to the table in this project uh blew away any expectations that I had from from it from the beginning. The one day we literally sat there and they asked me asked me, will this work? And I go, I don't know. You guys have put stuff in here that I didn't think was gonna work the first time.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

So well let's talk about then the platform and just just tell our our viewers, our listeners, uh, what does it actually do?

SPEAKER_06 3:45

So Reading Reimagine is a website. So you're gonna log in and you're either gonna be a student or a teacher account. And when on a student account, you're gonna have multiple different tabs on the side that say home page, my stories, or level one through ten. As well at the bottom, there's a phonetics level and a um play builder. So as soon as you join, you can take an assessment test if you so choose, and it'll tell you on based on how you answer those questions, what level it suggests you should start at. And whenever you go to that level, there will be input boxes for vocabulary, um, character names, setting, and story, and like setting and plot ideas, and it'll generate a story for you right then and there. And then as the story continues, you're gonna make different choices along the story. And then at the end of the story, it's gonna ask you comprehension questions, and there's also another feature called R2, which you can read to it as so you can get a fluency assessment, and the computer will grade how well you're reading out loud and if you're skipping over words and the speed. So that's basically what it is, but there's also a whole lot of different features that you can use to further improve your different reading skills.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

So so why is student uh created storytelling so impactful?

SPEAKER_04 5:06

Um, I think it really gives like students like creative freedom and then makes them want to read more. So when they're like making stories like they can make stories with their friends, so it's making them like more engaged, and I think that's a really important issue because a lot of kids don't like to read, so they're not gonna want to learn to read.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Uh you know, when we look at the real world use now, uh what did you uh learn from talking with teachers?

SPEAKER_07 5:36

From talking with all the teachers, we really got the insight of all of the creliquirium, curriculum for each of the grade levels. So then we put that into the website. So not only does each grade level have the knowledge of what they should have, it's on the state level of what they should know.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Yeah. And uh can you can you kind of you you talked a little bit, but can you kind of like just tell us a little bit how it actually works in the classroom then?

SPEAKER_03 6:09

Yeah, so originally we would go around to teachers and help them set up their accounts, but teachers are able to input students like in their classroom. So like the kids could just get on their computers on their individual time and start building stories.

SPEAKER_04 6:23

Or if a teacher wants to do it as like an assignment in their classroom, they can pull it up on their smart board and it can be like a group thing.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Yeah, we had a teacher that emailed us and told us how she used it to like create stories with the class, but they had to have different like guidelines to it could be part of an assignment.

SPEAKER_06 6:39

And from the teacher dashboard, you can view everything the student does and you can assign them work and tell them and it censors things and it shows you exactly how well the student is reading, what reading level they're at, and like shows you performance graphs over time.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

So uh it's my understanding too that this program has uh multilingual access. And uh why was that important?

SPEAKER_05 7:04

Um, so my mom is actually a second grade teacher at uh a different district that's close to here. Um, and she has a student who just came from Yemen who only speaks Arabic, and so she wanted to have like an option, and we wanted to put in an option that includes a lot of kids, and that and since that kid's so local, we want to have a part that would be accessible to him. And Spanish is another demographic that we see around here a lot. So we wanted to include every kid.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Lester, I want I got a question for you. Uh what did students gain uh from building this?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

From the students here that gained team building was a big aspect leadership. These are seven very strong-willed individuals, yeah, and they kind of melded themselves in, found roles. Um, the confidence level of these young ladies is amazing from the beginning of the year to seeing them doing stuff now. Um, it's it's been a complete joy as a teacher to experience it.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Uh and and finally, uh, what surprised you most, if anything?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

How easy it became to work together, because I know with uh strong-willed individuals it can be a lot of conflict, but they've really just jumped in. And I think it's be because it's a project that they have ownership in. And when you have ownership in it in the partnership with it, um things make it a lot easier than setting just a school project. This is something that they're looking at impacting people's lives.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

So I know this is getting a lot of attention right now. You guys uh just returned from Washington, D.C. where and you were at the White House, is that correct? Can you talk about your trip?

SPEAKER_03 8:54

So we had multiple different meetings with multiple different companies. We were at the White House. Um, well, technically an executive branch office. It's like the EEOB. We had a meeting there with a person from the AI Education Task Force. Um, and then we had a general tour of the White House, which is awesome because we got access from somebody we were working with. Um we had meetings with Intel and NVIDIA and like higher-ups there at those companies, yes. And then we had meetings with uh like senators and representatives from our state. So we had a meeting with Senator John Husted, and then we had another meeting with representative of our area, Troy Balderson, but then we had photo ops with Bernie Moreno and Representative Jim Jordan. So it was just awesome to be able to do all those things, explore the city, get a tour of the we also got a tour of the U.S. Capitol, we got to go on to like a restricted access kind of area to take pictures on Speaker Mike Johnson's uh like balcony. So that was pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Oh wow, yeah. You guys got to see a lot then when you were there. Yeah, we did a lot. What's next then for this venture you guys have created?

SPEAKER_05 9:58

So um we actually took when we started this, we wanted to make this website for an AI presidential challenge. And so I think we're just still waiting for the results of how well we're gonna do in that. If we go win state, we go regional, and we do we um answer questions to a panel of judges, and then if we win that, we go back to DC. So hopefully we get to do that.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Uh Lester, this question is for you and and I guess the entire team. But if a district wants to try something like this, where where do you start?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Try to win what we did and replicate.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Well, uh not replicating the same thing, but maybe just getting something like this off the ground, this type of uh an initiative.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

You've got to be have a group that's adaptable, willing to take risks. Um get in contact with AIL. That's how we ended up starting it. Um, and then uh, but really it's it's kind of having the leadership, giving you the freedom to take the chances that we did and trying to create something new. And I think this is the right way to go about with AI.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Well, anything else any of you want to add?

SPEAKER_04 11:11

Um, nothing besides this project, has been like such a great experience for all of us.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

And yeah. Yeah, a lot of lessons learned and public speaking, knowledge gained, and stuff you can take like outside of just like tech and AI.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

It's a lot of like life skills I've learned throughout this.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

And we've learned a lot about AI. We can learn, I just learned like at the beginning of this class, I thought AI was just bad because that's all I've seen. But I've learned that AI can be so helpful when it's used as a tool, and it just it's extremely helpful. It is like not bad. You have to look at the strengths. If you just look at the weaknesses, you're only seeing the bad stuff. But if you use it as a tool and you use it to help, it is just such a it's an amazing experience.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, and this is definitely an example of where it is a very positive use out of AI. Lester, uh, one final thing I did want to ask you is it, you know, you guys obviously trusted the students to solve a real problem. And uh what happens if more schools start doing that?

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Well, they wouldn't need a lot of vendors to try to take care of uh some problems that they can do on their own. Um, we've already developed a couple two or three other projects that we're in the process of refining along with this one. Um, and one was just like last week. We started tinkering around with uh essay feedback where we put guardrails on AI so that it's not doing all the work for them, just providing feedback for essays. And that just comes from a discussion and something that they they see a need for, a use for, and that's why bringing the students into the uh process of creating this stuff is important because they see some of the things that as a teacher I may miss or over gloss, and having their input is is huge.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Well, Esther, uh I thank you and and I thank the team. Thank you all uh for coming on the Leading the Way podcast, and uh good luck moving forward with this project.

SPEAKER_05 13:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Thanks, thanks a lot, and uh we will see you on the next episode of OSBA's Leading the Way.