The Wake County Public School System plans to announce a policy on generative artificial intelligence by August, pending a vote by the school board, and to train teachers on generative artificial intelligence later this year.
Tensions continue to rise over the impact of generative AI on learning and how schools are policing its appropriate use. This technology has inevitably found its way into some school studies, and educational leaders are still grappling with how to keep students intellectually honest while teaching them about generative AI.
The school board has been considering the policy for more than a year, but months have passed without any discussion. District leaders now hope the policy will be approved by the start of the next school year.
Some members of the school board’s policy committee said Tuesday they would like the policy to provide more specific guidance than the current draft, setting out how generative AI is expected to be used ethically and how generative AI’s use varies by grade level.
Some said they wanted students to have more insight into the technology, while others expressed concern that districts were encouraging the use of generative AI before understanding the broader societal implications of its use in academic settings.
“We understand this is a great tool for teachers, but for kids…they have to learn to do math first before the calculator,” said board member Cheryl Caulfield.
Superintendent Robert Taylor said the challenge is for new technologies to become necessary tools in industry and spread throughout society before people know how they will change things.
“What you’re talking about is the fundamental problem with rapid change through technology, but more specifically the problem we’re seeing with AI,” Taylor told Caulfield. “The challenge is always to be proactive and think about how to teach kids how to use it productively and effectively.”
Still, Caulfield worries that while teachers have made recent strides in overcoming the issue of cell phones in the classroom, they now have to deal with the use of artificial intelligence to complete school work.
Board members want details on proposed policy
School boards have not discussed the topic since October, and only a minority of North Carolina school boards have not implemented artificial intelligence policies.
Most school boards use the same two stock paragraphs recommended by the North Carolina School Boards Association. They outline that employees and students will be trained on the capabilities of generative AI, its limitations, and how to use it effectively and ethically. The language also states that district officials will adopt guidelines for its use, but those guidelines are not included in the policy.
These internal guidelines form the basis of the district’s approach to generative AI, but they are not publicly available.
Wake is attempting a more detailed policy that largely outlines a commitment to the same things, including generating AI literacy for staff and students, and safeguards for use and training. The school considers ethics, student access, student success and well-being, and placing people at the center of learning as its “guiding principles.”
The draft policy, which must be approved by the school board, does not include details about how the district’s approach to AI will be implemented, including what safeguards will be in place, when the use of AI is considered appropriate or inappropriate, and how inappropriate use of AI will be detected.
The policies of other school boards in central North Carolina are similarly vague.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has specifically shied away from policy because it believes the development of generative AI is too rapid for formal policy. Updates to the policy require extensive review and board discussion and approval.
But some Wake members suggest formalizing at least some things to increase consistency between teachers or schools.
Last month, student Eleanor DeCoster Canina started a petition asking the school board to create a generative AI policy that addresses appropriate and inappropriate means of detecting the use of generative AI. She said her teacher gave her a zero after running her essay through an AI detector (AI-powered software that attempts to distinguish between AI and human writing).
DPI does not recommend using these detectors to issue grades due to the high rate of false-positive and false-negative results.
In response to De Costa Canina’s concerns, the district told WRAL News earlier this month, “Teachers must be able to accurately assess student work in order to understand progress and adjust instruction as needed. At the same time, we have a duty to ensure student work is assessed fairly and consistently.”
The district’s internal guidelines encourage the use of AI detectors in determining grades, but board member Chris Heagerty said he only saw a reference to the internal guidelines on Tuesday, saying it is only specified in the internal guidelines and not public information.
Heagerty said that if students raised concerns about AI detectors being used to grade assignments, there would be no public policy to refer to regarding their concerns. He asked school district officials to send a link to the guidance to school board members so they can refer to it as the policy process progresses.
Internal guidance document
Heagerty also suggested that the board may move forward with a generative AI policy similar to the one presented Tuesday, distinguishing different policies for students and faculty and staff and adding them later. Heagerty said much of that work appears to have already been done in developing internal guidance.
WRAL News asked Wake for internal guidance. Although the district has not received such guidance, the district provided a list of approved AI tools for use in schools.
This means that students and staff are allowed to use Adobe Express, Canva, and Google Gemini. Gemini may only be used by students 13 years of age or older.
Adobe Express and Canva are design tools for graphics, PDFs, and other documents. Gemini is a chat-based AI tool that can be used to assist with research, writing, and summarizing.
Staff can use Notebook LM, MagicSchool, and Khanmigo Teacher, but students are not.
NotebookLM generates insights from your records and data. MagicSchool can be used to create lesson plans and generate assignments tailored to specific student needs. Khanmigo Teacher also creates lesson plans based on KhanAcademy tutoring tools.
