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Indianapolis Public Schools has a new district-wide AI policy aimed at improving educator efficiency and addressing privacy and security concerns.
The policy unanimously approved by the School Board on Thursday applies only to teachers and staff and does not include guidance on student use of artificial intelligence technology. Here are some acceptable uses of AI. This includes generating quiz questions and practice materials under teacher supervision, enhancing educational materials, and drafting communications, but users will restrict them to district-approved AI tools.
“AI will not be an option in the end, and for now, it's a choice,” said Ashley Cowger, the district's chief system officer. “And what we want to do with IPS is to establish some clear guardrails about what we know now.”
The adoption of the policy follows the first phase of the pilot program, in which 20 staff members use district-approved AI tools throughout the year. The second phase of the pilot will be wider, but still only includes teachers and staff. According to Cowger, in the second phase, participants will spend Google Gemini at a cost of $122 per person.
Cowger said the Pilot Program results were used to develop a list of acceptable uses. This has discovered that AI can help staff save time on complex administrative tasks.
“We have one principal from a school who has his head on generative AI and has completely changed his master schedule in secondary school,” Cowger said. “It spent a lot of time on the team. We didn't have to find a way to do all the sections and courses for the school, using small magnetic tiles on the whiteboard.”
The new policy lists fairness and inclusion, transparency, privacy and data protection, human surveillance and accountability as guidelines for AI implementation.
To ensure security, teachers and staff are only permitted to use district-approved AI tools. As some people in the district already use free, generation AI tools on their own, Cowger warned that this could breach student data, including special education plans.
Staff must sign a responsible contract. This includes guidelines such as allowing students to load fully personalized education programs into generic AI tools.
Staff training is an important component of AI's district planning. Participants in the second phase of the pilot will take part in monthly professional development training on AI use and implementation, and there will be an online repository of professional development training that is always available to staff.
“We don't encourage people who are blindly using AI,” Cowger said. “It could be a slippery slope, so we've put a lot of effort into developing a specialized AI learning roadmap for pilot users next year.”
The new policy also calls for the creation of AI advisory boards to monitor AI usage trends and continue to develop best practices.
Samantha Camaia is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Please contact scamire@chalkbeat.org.
