> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.learningcommons.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> Overview of Agent Skills: open, research-backed skills that help AI assistants produce standards-aligned K-12 teaching materials.

## What Agent Skills do

Agent Skills are open, ready-to-use skills that help AI assistants produce high-quality, standards-aligned K-12 teaching materials. They are grounded in learning science and leverage [Knowledge Graph](/knowledge-graph/understanding-knowledge-graph/introduction).

Each skill packages the instructions, references, and guardrails an agent needs to reliably complete a teacher workflow. With Agent Skills, the same task can produce consistent, classroom-ready results.

| Skill                                                                          | Description                                                                                                                                                          |
| :----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [K-12 Lesson Planning](/agent-skills/skills/k12-lesson-planning)               | Builds classroom-ready, standards-aligned lesson plans, optionally aligned to a teacher's curriculum.                                                                |
| [K-12 Lesson Differentiation](/agent-skills/skills/k12-lesson-differentiation) | Adapts an existing lesson into tiered versions (below, at, or above proficiency level) and for specific student needs, keeping core content consistent across tiers. |

## When to use Agent Skills

| Use case                            | Description                                                                                                                                                                            | Examples                                                                                                 |
| :---------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Plan standards-aligned lessons**  | Generate classroom-ready lesson plans with teacher-facing plans, student materials, and observation templates.                                                                         | A 3rd grade teacher needs a lesson on rounding to the nearest hundred for tomorrow.                      |
| **Differentiate existing lessons**  | Adapt a lesson into below / at / above proficiency tiers while preserving core content and grade-level demand.                                                                         | A 6th grade teacher wants tiered versions of a food webs lesson linked from an external curriculum site. |
| **Ground outputs in trusted data**  | Pair Agent Skills with [Knowledge Graph](/knowledge-graph/understanding-knowledge-graph/introduction) to resolve standards, learning components, progressions, and curriculum context. | Anchor a math lesson to state standards and Illustrative Mathematics structures.                         |
| **Benchmark instructional quality** | Score generated materials against published [eval rubrics](/agent-skills/skills/introduction#evaluators) using LLM-as-judge or human review.                                           | Validate that a lesson plan meets pedagogy, rigor, formatting, and model-scaffolding criteria.           |

## How to access Agent Skills

Agent Skills are cross-platform and model-agnostic. They can be used with any agent runtime that supports the [open Agent Skills format](https://agentskills.io/) ↗:

* Claude Code
* Cursor
* Codex

Check out the [GitHub repository](https://github.com/learning-commons-org/agent-skills?utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=agent-skills) ↗ to inspect skill instructions, reference files, scripts, and rubrics directly.

## Our approach

Our initial set of Agent Skills and evaluator rubrics was co-developed with [Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/) ↗.

These skills don't just generate plausible-looking materials — they're grounded in research-backed principles and refined with expert practitioners.

| Principle     | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| :------------ | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Pedagogy**  | Outputs reflect sound instructional design.<ul><li>Standards alignment</li><li>Prerequisite and forward connections</li><li>Appropriate instructional model</li><li>Discourse structures</li><li>Attention to student struggle</li><li>Visual and representational choices</li></ul> |
| **Rigor**     | Outputs maintain grade-level cognitive demand                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| **Usability** | Outputs are classroom-ready and default to universal design                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |