Tricia Friedman

MUSH Tension Dashboard

MUSH Tension Dashboard

Score the tension in your Map · Upskill · Spark · Harness questions — both your own and what you predict your team would say — then get targeted reading from 5 landmark reports.

What is tension? In the MUSH framework, tension is not a problem to solve — it is information about where your school or organization sits on a particular question. A question that creates tension is one where the answer does not come easily, where there is a gap between where you are and where you sense you need to be. That discomfort is a signal worth following.

Two scores per question. For each of the 8 MUSH questions, you give two ratings on a 1–5 scale:

👤 Your personal tension — how much tension you feel sitting with this question right now.

👥 Predicted team tension — how much tension you think your team or school community would express if asked the same question.

The scale. 1–2 = Low tension (you feel relatively settled here). 3 = Moderate (some unresolved uncertainty). 4–5 = High tension (this question creates real discomfort or urgency).

Why both scores matter. The gap between your personal score and your predicted team score is often where the most important insight lives. A large gap suggests a perception disconnect — either you are carrying tension the team does not see, or the team is struggling with something you have not fully registered. These gaps are productive starting points for conversation.

How readings are prescribed. The dashboard uses the higher of your two scores (personal or team) to determine the tension band for each question, then maps that band to specific sections of 5 landmark policy and research reports. High tension questions get readings that address urgency and risk. Moderate tension gets frameworks for structured progress. Low tension gets readings that help you build on stability and anticipate what is coming.

The 5 reports and why they were chosen. These are not random selections. Each represents a distinct lens on AI in education, and together they cover the full terrain a school leader needs to navigate:

Brookings — A New Direction for Students in an AI World (2026)
A year-long global study across 50+ countries concluding that AI risks in education currently outweigh benefits. Its Prosper/Prepare/Protect framework is the most comprehensive action model available for schools.

Stanford SCALE — The Evidence Base on AI in K-12 (2026)
A rigorous review of 800+ academic papers that found only 20 causal studies. Essential for separating what we actually know from what we assume about AI in classrooms.

Ireland Dept of Education — Guidance on AI in Schools (2025)
The most practical of the five — detailed use cases for teachers, students, and school leaders with ready-to-adapt frameworks like the RASE prompt model and the 4P school-level roadmap.

EU Commission — Ethical Guidelines on AI for Educators (2026)
Updated post-EU AI Act, this gives educators 7 ethical requirements and a matrix of guiding questions organized by who uses AI and when — the strongest ethical scaffold of the five.

UNESCO/Thomson Reuters — Responsible AI in Practice (2025)
Data from 3,000 companies showing the gap between AI governance rhetoric and operational reality. Included because schools face the same accountability gap — and this report names it with evidence.

What to do with your results. Start with the questions that scored highest — those are your roughest trail conditions. Read the prescribed report sections. Then look at your largest personal-vs-team gaps — those are your best conversation starters. The radar chart gives you a visual profile of your overall tension landscape.

What tension is NOT

Not resistance. Feeling tension does not mean you are stuck or fighting something — it means you are paying attention.

Not failure. A high score is not a bad grade. It is a signal that a question matters to you.

Not a problem to eliminate. The goal is not zero tension — it is knowing where yours lives so you can work with it instead of around it.

Not the same as urgency. Tension can be slow, quiet, and still worth following. The quiet ones are often the ones that reshape everything.

Not private. That is why you score your team too. Naming a tension out loud is how you stop carrying it alone.

Question 1 of 8 0%

Your Tension Profile

Personal
Team (predicted)

Personal vs. Team Gap Analysis

Larger gaps suggest areas where your perception diverges from what you think your team experiences. These are often the most productive places to start a conversation.

How We Picked Your “Start Here” Report