Are schools communicating their AI policies to students well enough?

Dive Brief:

A majority of teens — 70% — have used at least one kind of generative artificial intelligence tool, according to a survey released Wednesday by Common Sense Media. Teens between the ages of 13 and 18 reported being most likely to use AI for homework help (53%), “to stave off boredom” (42%) and to translate something into another language (41%).
Among those tapping into generative AI for school assignments, 46% of teens said they used generative AI without their teacher’s permission, compared to 41% of teens who said they did get permission and 12% who said they weren’t sure, Common Sense Media found.
As schools continue to develop AI guidance for students and staff, 37% of teens said they were unsure if their schools have established rules on AI, according to the survey. Meanwhile, 35% said their school has set AI use guidelines, and 27% reported their school has no AI rules.

Dive Insight:

The survey’s findings suggest that schools and teachers “may not have clearly communicated about or implemented rules for generative AI,” said Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that advocates for a safe and equitable digital world for children. The organization also rates and reviews entertainment and technology for families.

Common Sense Media partnered with market research company Ipsos Public Affairs to conduct a nationally representative survey in the spring, which included 1,045 paired responses from parents and their teens.

The lack of clear communication among schools regarding AI use policies comes as other research signals that many K-12 leaders are still in the process of developing that guidance for students and staff.

An August report released by Digital Promise, a nonprofit that advocates for innovation in education, found just a quarter of 31 school districts surveyed earlier this year had established specific guidelines for using the technology. However, 61% of districts said guidance development is underway.

As of June, 15 states had developed AI guidance for K-12 schools, the U.S. Department of Education found. However, advocates for the equitable implementation of AI in schools have called out state guidance for being inconsistent and disjointed.

With a large portion of students experimenting with AI tools, some research indicates teachers may not be as up to speed with them. For instance, by fall 2023, just 18% of teachers said they have used generative AI in their classrooms, according to a report by Rand Corp. and the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

Navigating student discipline guidance over AI use has posed some challenges for teachers, too.

During the 2023-24 school year, only about a third of teachers said they had received guidance on actions they should take when they suspect a student uses AI in a way that violates school policy, the Center for Democracy & Technology found. The number of students who faced disciplinary action due to AI-related plagiarism suspicions rose between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, according to CDT.

Racial disparities are also beginning to emerge as teachers use AI detection tools to identify students’ use of the technology in plagiarized work. Common Sense Media found in its most recent survey that Black teens were twice as likely to have their schoolwork incorrectly flagged for relying on AI tools compared to their White and Latino peers.

“This suggests that software to detect AI, as well as teachers' use of it, may be exacerbating existing discipline disparities among historically marginalized groups, particularly Black students,” the report said.