Mike Taubman is a teacher, program director, and AI innovation lead at Uncommon Schools, working at North Star Academy Washington Park High School in Newark, New Jersey. He joined North Star in 2005 as a founding English teacher and has spent two decades building the school’s approach to purpose, identity, and career exploration, most visibly through Summit, the two-year course he launched in 2020 for juniors and seniors.
In spring 2026, Mike and colleague Scott Kern built an AI literacy pilot at North Star that reframed AI as something students learn to drive responsibly rather than simply adopt. The work was featured on the front page of The New York Times and on The Daily podcast, where students shared their own reflections on AI in their own words. Mike writes about AI and education every Thursday on his Substack, AI Waypoints, always free to subscribers.