Evidence reviews and scorecards · Complete web edition

Phase One Evidence Review

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Project, Research, Analysis, Editorial by Patrick Russell; assisted by ChatGPT (OpenAI).

Published as a web edition September 13, 2026

California Education and AI Evidence Review

Phase One Thomas Aquinas College and Mother of Divine Grace School

Responsible person	____________________________________________
Organization or role	____________________________________________
Review date	____________________________________________

Preliminary finding

Both institutions place the formation of judgment above vocational training or technological novelty. Thomas Aquinas College has also developed a visible public perspective on artificial intelligence through a podcast series and a 2026 symposium. Mother of Divine Grace School has a detailed K-12 method for forming reason, imagination, communication, and independent judgment within a parent-led education.

The public sources reviewed do not disclose a comprehensive generative-AI policy, an approved-tool framework, a required AI-literacy curriculum, or measured evidence showing how AI affects learning, integrity, attention, relationships, or wellness at either institution. These are evidence gaps, not proof that no internal policy or practice exists.

Review method

The review separates institutional claims from documented practices, measured results, and unresolved gaps. “Strong” means several current public sources support the assessment. “Some” means the record supports a limited finding. “Limited” means the evidence is indirect or incomplete. “Not found publicly” means the reviewed public sources did not disclose the item.

Institutional claim A stated educational aim, policy position, or institutional judgment.
Implemented practice A documented curriculum, rule, program, procedure, or recurring activity.
Measured result A reported outcome tied to a defined measure and comparison.
Unresolved gap A material question that the public record does not answer.

Thomas Aquinas College

Educational formation

The College offers one integrated four-year curriculum centered on original works in theology, philosophy, natural science, mathematics, language, music, and seminar. Students repeatedly defend their reasoning in discussion and writing. The senior thesis requires an independently framed question, sustained analysis, and a public oral defense. These practices directly support the project’s definition of a well-formed mind: the ability to pursue truth, test claims, reason from first principles, and account for one’s conclusions.

Institutional perspective on artificial intelligence

Thomas Aquinas College now has a clear public intellectual position on AI. Its ten-part Mind and the Machine podcast asks whether AI can think and reason. Its August 2026 symposium brought together optimistic and skeptical speakers to examine AI, work, education, human dignity, and human flourishing. College speakers emphasized that machines should remain tools, that human teachers are irreplaceable in cultivating love of truth and wisdom, and that fluent machine output should not be confused with human intelligence.

This is meaningful institutional engagement, but the sources describe inquiry and public discussion rather than a required academic program in AI. The public record reviewed did not identify an AI course in the common curriculum, rules for acceptable generative-AI assistance, required disclosure, approved products, or procedures for protecting student work and personal data when AI services are used.

Attention community and mental fitness

The College’s technology rules are unusually relevant to mental fitness. Internet access is restricted to designated locations; cellular devices are generally excluded from classrooms, the library, common meals, and the academic quadrangle during their principal uses; and entertainment technology is limited. The College explains these rules as protections for quiet, contemplation, intellectual life, friendship, and direct human presence. This is strong evidence of an implemented environment designed to protect attention and relationships. It is not, by itself, measured evidence of better mental health or wellness.

COVID experience

The College moved the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year to Zoom and Slack after the campuses closed. Faculty helped adapt the discussion method and received technical training and support. The College later reported that students and tutors struggled to engage online. It returned to in-person instruction in fall 2020 because leaders judged residence, shared study, and seminar-table discussion essential to the program. This provides a concrete institutional lesson: emergency online continuity can preserve instruction, but it did not fully preserve the community and interaction on which this educational model depends.

Review dimension	Public evidence	Basis for preliminary assessment
Well-formed mind	Strong	Integrated Great Books curriculum, discussion, compositions, and a defended senior thesis.
AI perspective	Strong	Ten-part AI podcast and a 2026 symposium explicitly address reason, dignity, education, and human flourishing.
AI in curriculum	Limited	AI is publicly examined, but no required AI course or institution-wide student AI-literacy sequence was found.
AI governance	Not found publicly	No comprehensive public rules for permitted use, disclosure, approved tools, privacy, or review of AI-assisted work were located.
Attention and community	Strong	Device and Internet limits, residential life, and direct discussion are established practices.
Mental fitness outcomes	Limited	The model protects attention and relationships, but no defined wellness measures or comparative results were found.
COVID learning	Some	The College documented the emergency online transition, engagement difficulty, and the reason for returning in person.
Measured results	Limited	The curriculum produces observable student work, but public evidence tying the model or AI rules to defined outcomes remains limited.

Questions that remain

Does the College have current written rules for student or faculty use of generative AI?
How do tutors distinguish permitted assistance from substitution for reading, reasoning, composition, or translation?
Did the podcast or symposium lead to curriculum changes, faculty guidance, student discussion, or governance decisions?
What evidence could test whether the technology limits improve attention, friendship, learning, integrity, or wellness?

Mother of Divine Grace School

Educational formation

Mother of Divine Grace School explicitly defines education as learning how to think and learning the art of learning. Its curriculum follows developmental stages: early reading, writing, arithmetic, observation, memory, and imagination; later analysis and argument; and finally communication, judgment, and persuasive writing. The program orders these skills toward wisdom and toward knowledge of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

The method is implemented through detailed lesson plans, parent instruction, educational consultants, grading rubrics, quarterly review, small online classes, teacher services, and individualized modifications. Parents remain primary educators rather than passive recipients of a school’s curriculum. This provides a strong model for parental responsibility, transparency, and adaptation to the child.

Institutional perspective on artificial intelligence

The public sources reviewed did not reveal a formal MODG position on generative AI, an AI-literacy sequence, approved AI tools, or rules governing AI-assisted student work. AI does not appear as a stated component of the published educational program. Technology instead serves delivery, tutoring, communication, grading, and student support through online syllabi, Zoom classes, forums, and family systems.

That distinction matters. MODG has a strong framework for judging whether a tool supports or displaces memory, observation, analysis, argument, and communication, but the public record does not show that this framework has been applied to generative AI. A complete model would state when AI may assist learning, when unaided work is required, how use must be disclosed, and how minor students’ data are protected.

Family support community and mental fitness

Several practices may protect mental fitness: individualized pacing, sustained parental involvement, flexible schedules, small classes, consultant support, moderated student discussion, homeroom accountability, and services for learning, behavioral, and emotional difficulties. MODG also describes group discussion and camaraderie as benefits of its online classes. These are concrete supports, but the reviewed sources do not provide standardized measures of loneliness, attention, anxiety, family strain, or broader wellness.

COVID experience

MODG entered the pandemic with an established distance-learning structure, trained teachers, prepared syllabi, consultants, and family routines. A May 2020 MODG article sharply distinguished planned homeschooling from emergency crisis schooling. It identified disrupted family life, fear of illness, loss of friendships and activities, technical difficulty, and unprepared instruction as part of the COVID experience. The article supports the project’s distinction between students with stable educational and family structures and those whose existing vulnerabilities were intensified by closure. It is an institutional perspective and personal account, not a comparative outcome study.

Review dimension	Public evidence	Basis for preliminary assessment
Well-formed mind	Strong	A developmental K-12 method explicitly forms memory, imagination, analysis, argument, communication, and judgment.
Parent role	Strong	Parents participate in educational planning and implementation with recurring consultant and teacher support.
AI perspective	Not found publicly	No specific institutional statement on generative AI was located in the public sources reviewed.
AI in curriculum	Not found publicly	No published AI-literacy course, required sequence, or described classroom integration was found.
AI governance	Not found publicly	No public rules for acceptable use, disclosure, approved tools, data protection, or AI-assisted assessment were located.
Student support	Strong	Consultants, small classes, homeroom accountability, moderated forums, and special services are documented practices.
Mental fitness outcomes	Limited	The structure supports family connection and individualized needs, but defined wellness measures were not found.
COVID learning	Some	The school documented why prepared distance education differed from emergency closure, including family and social stress.
Measured results	Some	The school reports test, scholarship, and college-admission results, but these do not isolate the program’s causal effect.

Questions that remain

What rules govern student, parent, consultant, and teacher use of generative AI?
Which assignments require unaided memory, reading, analysis, calculation, translation, or composition?
Which online services process student work, and what privacy, retention, age, consent, and model-training limits apply?
How should families recognize when AI assistance weakens independence, judgment, confidence, or the parent-child teaching relationship?

Comparison and implications

The two institutions offer different but complementary models. Thomas Aquinas College protects adult liberal education through common texts, direct discussion, disciplined writing, residential community, and deliberate limits on digital distraction. Mother of Divine Grace builds the earlier stages of intellectual formation through parent-led instruction, developmental sequencing, individualized plans, and supported distance learning.

Review dimension	Public evidence	Basis for preliminary assessment
Educational aim	Both strong	Both explicitly order education toward judgment and wisdom rather than narrow technical proficiency.
Formation method	Complementary	MODG develops age-appropriate tools of learning; TAC requires mature engagement with original works and first principles.
AI public engagement	TAC stronger	TAC has a podcast and symposium. No comparable MODG statement or program was found.
AI operational rules	Both incomplete publicly	Neither public record disclosed a comprehensive generative-AI governance framework.
Technology posture	Different	TAC restricts access to protect contemplation; MODG uses online systems as necessary delivery and support infrastructure.
Human relationships	Both strong structurally	TAC centers residential discussion and friendship; MODG centers family instruction, consultants, and small classes.
COVID lesson	Different settings	TAC found emergency remote engagement inadequate for its residential model; MODG showed the advantage of prepared distance education.
Outcome evidence	Incomplete	Both describe practices and some results, but neither public record measures AI’s effect on learning or mental fitness.

Preliminary judgment

Thomas Aquinas College and Mother of Divine Grace should remain central comparison institutions in the broader California investigation. They provide unusually explicit accounts of what education is for and how intellectual habits develop. Their value is strongest as formation models. Before either can be presented as a complete model for education in the AI era, the investigation needs evidence of formal AI governance, student and educator practice, privacy safeguards, assessment design, and measured effects.

Next research action

Apply the same evidence standard to the remaining California institutions, beginning with a paired public-private university comparison and then a paired K-12 comparison. The resulting matrix should preserve these two cases as formation anchors while testing whether larger institutions provide stronger AI governance, implementation data, and measured outcomes.