Francis Jim Tuscano

I am Assistant Principal for Academics of the Grade School Unit at Xavier School in San Juan, where I lead curriculum, instruction and assessment as part of the school’s leadership. I am also Lead Consultant of Collective Brilliance Consulting, where I help school leaders, mostly in Catholic and independent schools, plan for technology integration and curriculum development, and make the decisions that shape learning: what students should learn, how teaching should happen, how a school knows that learning has occurred, and how leaders guide teachers through change.

I also work with the Department of Education, which oversees the public school sector, and with ASEAN, UNESCO and SEAMEO.

Leading those decisions is a different job from making them. Most schools do not lack good ideas. They lack a way to move teachers and leaders from a policy on paper to consistent practice in classrooms. Much of my work is on that gap: setting direction, building teacher capacity through professional development, piloting before scaling, and checking what has actually changed in classrooms.

Strategic planning is where these threads meet. I work with leadership teams to set a direction for technology integration and curriculum development, sequence it over a realistic timeline, decide what to pilot first, and define how the school will know whether it is working. A plan that the teachers who must carry it out cannot sustain is not a plan, so the work covers teacher capacity as well as vision.

Technology is part of that work, but it is not the starting point. A tool earns its place when it serves a clear learning purpose, has been piloted before school-wide adoption, and operates within guardrails suited to the age and maturity of students.

AI makes these questions urgent across the academic program. In the curriculum it raises the question of what is worth teaching. In instruction it raises the question of how teachers and students should use it. In assessment it raises the question of what we ask students to show and how we know the work is theirs. I help schools answer these through policy and practice, with permissions staged by age and competence, not blanket bans or open access.

I came to this from the classroom. I taught Grade 6 values and religious education at Xavier, then chaired the Christian Life Education department and led the school’s EdTech work before moving into academic leadership. That path is why I treat technology as a leadership and curriculum question, not a purchasing decision. I have also served on the basic education advisory board of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines.

I give keynotes and workshops, consult with school leadership teams on strategic planning, curriculum, assessment and AI policy, and create professional development content. I also consult with learning publishers and technology companies. I host the empowerED Podcast, which features conversations with educators and school leaders, with particular attention to the Filipino teacher.

I also co-founded Tagpros Education, which offers professional development for teachers and an AI tool, and supports applied research on AI in education through its nonprofit arm, Tagpros Children International. I mention it so that schools I advise know about it.