This study builds on emerging high school capstone models with direct implications for high school redesign by creating an innovative, practical measure of AI‑era digital literacy skills. At a moment when AI has not yet been formally established as a mobility driver but is already reshaping higher education, the labor market, and K–12 teaching and learning, having a measure of students’ readiness to interact with it will be key in future years, regardless of their pathway. This project will design and validate a suite of authentic performance tasks that assess high school seniors’ digital reasoning, responsible decisionmaking, and collaboration in real work contexts, including a focused cohort of Latino students supported with linguistically responsive, near‑peer validation. These short, district‑deployable tasks (AI fact‑check and traceability; data‑to‑decision; collaboration‑in‑the‑open; prompt‑and‑revise) will generate scored artifacts, rubrics, calibration tools, practitioner dashboards, and open manuals for psychometric validation and fairness auditing, enabling schools to link verified skills to upward mobility indicators such as internships, Free Application for Federal Student Aid completion, and entry into career‑advancing programs. Developed through a collaboration between a neuroscientist and an educational organization with established school partnerships, the work aims to provide the field with practical tools for preparing students to graduate into an AI‑enabled economy.

Data Sources 

• Data: AI interaction data from performance tasks in Illinois high schools and administrative data
• Early Mobility Outcomes: Quality internship/apprenticeship offers, and acceptance or enrollment in mobility-boosting postsecondary programs through National Student Clearinghouse postsecondary records