(tnnd) – According to a RAND report, more teachers and students are using artificial intelligence, but district policies regarding AI are lagging behind.
Rand investigated teachers, students and school officials and found that over half of both students and teachers use AI in their schools.
Surveys conducted primarily in winter and spring last year were not caught up in any particular use cases. However, Christopher Doss, the report's lead author, said students are using AI in their classrooms as part of their lesson plans and for homework.
And the use of AI is growing “quite rapidly,” Doss said.
AI use rose about 15 percentage points for students over the previous year, and teachers rose about 25 percentage points.
Doss said students and teachers at higher grade levels are more likely to use AI.
Approximately 40% of middle school students said they used AI, while over 60% of high school students used AI.
Much of its use appears to be self-directed given the lack of school policy on AI.
RAND researchers found that 26 states are providing AI guidance to K-12 schools. But under half of the principals, they say their schools and districts have AI use policies. Also, only about a third said there is a policy on AI usage that is inherent to academic integrity.
Half of the students surveyed said they were worried that they would be falsely accused of using AI and using cheats.
Doss said the lack of policy would result in a lot of ambiguity.
“So there's a lot of gray areas when it comes to things that students use AI,” he said. “For example, if they're writing an essay and ask the AI to criticize something they've written to themselves, is it cheating?
Over 60% of parents and over half of high school students said that more use of AI would undermine students' critical thinking skills.
“There's this approval for students who say not all AI in schools use it,” Doss said.
Only 22% of district leaders agreed that greater use of AI would undermine students' critical thinking skills.
Doss said it probably reflects district leaders as more focused on how AI knowledge is important to students who will be involved in the workforce over the coming years.
“This is why these policies are needed to actually guide their use, and they capture positivity, but try to avoid those negatives,” Doss said.
