TAGPROS
Talented and Gifted Professionals
Tagpros (Talented and Gifted Professionals) refers to a community of practitioner-researchers, educators, school leaders, and system-level stakeholders engaged in applied research and professional development focused on artificial intelligence in education. Grounded in public-school contexts, Tagpros advances AI research that examines how emerging technologies are actually used in instructional, planning, and governance settings, while supporting professional learning that builds evidence literacy, ethical awareness, and institutional readiness among school stakeholders.
The Tagpros approach is intentionally research-first and non-prescriptive, emphasizing task-level observability, reflective practice, and governance-informed professional development so that education systems can move from assumption and anecdote toward defensible, evidence-based decision-making around AI. Tagpros is a nonprofit organization focused on AI research and professional development for school stakeholders, legally registered as Tagpros Children International, a Virginia-registered 501(c)(3), with operations in Manila.
OUR FOUNDERS
Christian S. Manansala, M. Ed
Francis Jim Tuscano
Ernesto "Boogie" Boydon, MSCS
Christian Manansala, AI innovation practitioner and Executive Director of Tagpros Children International (TCI), co-founded the organization in 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside a multidisciplinary team of educators and technologists. The founding team included U.S.-based education technologist and social entrepreneur Christian Manansala, computer scientist and technology entrepreneur Ernesto Boydon, and Xavier School Technology Director and educator Francis Jim Tuscano.
TCI emerged from a shared recognition that the pandemic exposed deep structural gaps in how education systems understand, govern, and support the use of technology—particularly as digital and AI-enabled practices began to appear informally in classrooms and teacher workflows. Rather than focusing solely on content delivery or supplemental instruction, TCI oriented its work toward applied research and professional development, examining how emerging technologies—especially artificial intelligence—are actually used by educators and school systems. This research-first approach laid the foundation for TCI’s current mission: supporting evidence generation, institutional readiness, and governance-informed professional learning so that education systems can respond to technological change thoughtfully, responsibly, and with defensible evidence.
TAGPROS CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL
AI Research & Evidence for Education Systems
Virginia-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization
10250 Dale Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030
Tagpros Children International (TCI) is a nonprofit research organization focused on the study of artificial intelligence use in public education systems. Our work centers on generating credible, task-level evidence about how AI is actually being used in instructional and operational contexts—particularly in environments where AI adoption is non-mandated, informal, and uneven.
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Across many school systems, AI-related practices are emerging organically in classrooms and teacher workflows, often ahead of formal policy, guidance, or research infrastructure. As a result, research and governance teams are frequently asked to respond to questions about AI—its use, impact, and risks—without access to sufficiently granular or defensible evidence. TCI was established to help education systems address this gap by making AI use observable, researchable, and interpretable within existing educational frameworks.
VISION
To support evidence-informed AI governance in education by helping school systems observe, study, and understand AI use through research instrumentation aligned to curriculum, instructional practice, and operational realities.
MISSION
“To create practices, programs, and partnerships to foster an inspired learning environment for teachers, parents and children.”
HOW WE UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM
In practice, AI use in schools does not enter systems neatly. It often appears first at the level of teacher tasks—lesson planning, assessment preparation, material drafting, and administrative work—rather than as a formally adopted instructional intervention. These uses are rarely captured by traditional research tools, perception surveys, or policy analyses, leaving districts with limited visibility into what is actually occurring.
This creates a recurring tension for research and evaluation teams:
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AI use is happening, but unevenly
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Questions are being asked, but evidence is thin
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Decisions are expected, but defensibility is limited
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TCI’s work begins at this intersection—where practice precedes policy, and where evidence is needed before conclusions can responsibly be drawn.
WHAT WE DO (RESEARCH-FIRST)
TCI works with school district research and evaluation teams to design curriculum-aligned research instrumentation that allows AI-related practices to be studied without promoting, mandating, or intervening instructionally.
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Our work typically focuses on:
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Making AI use visible at the task and workflow level
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Surfacing aggregate usage patterns rather than individual behavior
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Identifying workload signals and points of friction that affect sustainability
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Supporting internal research, reporting, and governance decision-making
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This work is designed for internal use by districts and research offices. It complements—rather than replaces—existing research, accountability, and evaluation processes.
RESEARCH APPROACH
Our research approach is shaped by several guiding principles:
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Pre-mandate orientation: We study AI use as it naturally emerges, before formal policy or adoption decisions are made.
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Mixed-methods design: Quantitative signals are interpreted alongside qualitative context to avoid oversimplification.
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Non-mandated environments: Voluntary participation provides insight into real-world constraints and behaviors.
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Governance relevance: Findings are framed to support internal decision-making, not public claims or rankings.​
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Rather than evaluating “effectiveness” in isolation, our work focuses on observability, context, and readiness—questions that research and governance teams must address before policy can responsibly follow.
AREAS OF INQUIRY
Current areas of inquiry include:
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How AI is showing up in everyday instructional and preparatory tasks
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Where evidence gaps exist between classroom practice and system-level visibility
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Early signals related to teacher workload, disengagement, and operational constraints
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How research offices interpret and respond to AI-related questions in the absence of mandates
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What kinds of evidence are most useful for internal governance discussions
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These questions are intentionally exploratory and are refined in collaboration with district research teams.
EXPERIENCE & ENGAGEMENT
TCI’s work draws on applied research conducted across large-scale, non-mandated public school environments and contributes to ongoing practitioner-research dialogue in the United States and internationally. Emerging research questions and early findings are being examined in academic and practitioner forums, including:
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Virginia Innovative Teaching and Leadership Conference (VITAL)
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International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Washington DC
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South East Asian Conference on Arts & the Humanities (SEACAH), Singapore – February
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Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (SITE 2026, March)
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These engagements support cross-system understanding of how education institutions are grappling with AI visibility, evidence generation, and governance prior to formal policy development.
HOW WE WORK WITH DISTRICTS
TCI engages districts through a staged, district-driven process:
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Exploratory conversation with research or evaluation teams
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Identification of district-defined evidence gaps and priorities
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Optional small, time-bound exploratory research effort, if aligned
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Reflection on the usefulness of evidence for internal decision-making
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Scope, timing, and focus are defined by the district. TCI does not prescribe research questions or predetermined models.
WHAT WE ARE NOT
To avoid misalignment, it is important to clarify what TCI does not do:
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We are not an AI tool or platform provider
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We do not promote or mandate AI adoption
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We do not replace district research offices
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We do not publish district-specific findings without permission
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We do not position exploratory findings as causal claims