THE PREP PERIOD

Quick tips, tools & tricks you can take to the classroom on Monday

Student Written AI Policy | This week's tip comes from Aldeya​

Ninety-eight students from all fifty states spent a summer weekend in a replica Senate chamber in Boston drafting AI policy for K-12 schools.

And wouldn't you know it... what they wrote is pretty strict! More so than many adult-written policies I've reviewed.

• No AI on graded tests
• No AI for writing
• Editing, brainstorming, and studying allowed after eighth grade
• Students who use AI have to cite how they used it and prove they understand the material through discussion, handwritten work, or an oral defense.
• Any student flagged by detection software gets a human review before anything goes to admin.

One student from Mississippi named their concern thusly: "Everyone's gonna stop learning and start relying on AI. Instead of using it as a tool, they're gonna use it as a brain."

Students will set a higher bar than we expect when the bar belongs to them.

This article made me think back to my ed school training on Capturing Kids' Hearts (yeah, good ole Flip).

For those who may need a refresher, the CKH curriculum has educators and their students write a classroom Social Contract built on core foundational questions:

1. How do you want to be treated by the teacher?
2. How do you want to be treated by each other?
3. How do you think the teacher wants to be treated by you?
4. How do we want to treat each other when there is conflict?

The students answer the questions, and from their own answers establish the social contract (read: "rules") for their own classroom.

As this school year kicks into gear, consider building your class AI agreement in a similar way.

Empower the students to draft the contract.

Start with a basic conversation around what counts as their own thinking, what it takes from a classmate when someone turns in work they did not do, and what a fair consequence looks like the first time. Some guiding questions:

1. How do you want your teacher to use or not use AI?
2. How do you want your classmates to use or not use AI?
3. How do you think the teacher wants you to use or not use AI?
4. How do we resolve conflict or questions around AI use?

Write their answers in their words and have everyone sign it. Post the clear written AI policy in a prominent spot and be willing to amend it with your students as new questions and concerns arise.

SARAH'S PICK

The Wall Street Journal

​This School Was Priscilla Chan's Bold Education Experiment. It Just Closed. ​

More than $125 million and a decade of effort.

Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute said business leaders look at K-12 and think, "Man, how hard can it be to improve this thing?"

Yeah, it's pretty hard, bro.

I want to start by crediting what CZI built. The Primary School accepted students with disabilities and behavior challenges. Many private and charter schools wouldn't dare. It's hard to argue that your school gets straight As because of "greater autonomy and flexibility" when you don't have the kids who need you most "complicating" the numbers.

CZI served the children who most needed serving, but they were working at the bottom rung of a much larger problem.

When people review accountability data, point to a school, and say "hey, you're failing!", all they're really seeing is a small window into a much larger, much more insidious failure: an underserved community further penalized by their inability to tread water in an ocean of public deficits.

I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. "But, Sarah! My taxes are already so high!" Yes, they very likely are. But Zuck's aren't.

Underserved communities are being left behind by a structure where the wealthiest people pay a fraction of what working families pay.

ProPublica compared what the 25 richest Americans paid in federal income tax against what their fortunes gained from 2014 to 2018 and found they paid a true tax rate of 3.4%. Compare that to the roughly 14% in federal taxes paid by a household earning about $70,000.

Americans for Tax Fairness ran the same calculation for Mark Zuckerberg across 2013 to 2018: wealth growth of $49 billion, $536 million in federal income taxes, a true tax rate of 1.1%.

As the group's director put it, without taxing the growth in those fortunes, "many billionaires will continue to live largely tax-free lives."

Meanwhile, our schools, tiny windows into broader society, struggle to educate our youth against the gravest of challenges.

Those challenges are documentable. Researchers at Harvard's Chan School matched community water lead levels against 3rd through 8th grade test scores across Massachusetts districts and found lead levels tracking with lower math performance even after controlling for race, income, and urbanicity.

A study of Ontario schools found that where lead exceedances turned up in school drinking water, more students failed to meet standards in math, reading, and writing.

Food insecurity reduces a child's odds of finishing high school.

A school cannot replace the pipes. A school cannot stock a family's kitchen. Wraparound social services are contracting, and they will contract further under this administration.

We underfund the systems that meet children's basic physiological and safety needs. Then we look at the schools and ask why we have a Department of Education at all. (Mission accomplished?)

Unfortunately, philanthropy alone cannot solve problems that a fair, progressive tax system is meant to prevent. As well meaning as Priscilla Chan is, she can't either, not without paying her fair share.

LOUNGE READS

The AI headlines that matter for your classroom

Students made national news by writing their own AI framework before adults could agree on one. On the ground, teachers are moving ahead with AI whether or not their districts have caught up. And how to navigate safety and privacy concerns when an AI product seems too good to be true.

Government Technology

​Students Create National Framework for AI in Schools​

Nearly 100 high school students from all 50 states met last month to draft what they think a national policy for AI in K-12 education should look like.

"Students must be informed of any and all data collection from them, as well as what their data would be used for, and have the right to deny unnecessary data collection," the act stated, adding that, "schools are strictly prohibited from using AI tools to profile or categorize students based on their ethnicity, religion, appearance, beliefs, or values."

AEI

​Why Claude for Teachers Might Be a Student Privacy Trap for Educators​

Before you use Claude to write student feedback, read this warning about data and FERPA.

"We’re glad to see artificial intelligence’s potential being tapped to help teachers individualize instruction at a scale that wasn’t possible even a few years ago. We are also happy to see a major frontier lab with the resources and technical skills to do it. But public school systems don’t operate like the private companies and government agencies Anthropic is used to working with. Teachers face legal exposure around sharing student data that simply doesn’t exist in those sectors."

EdSurge

​Teachers Forge Ahead on Integrating AI​

Many teachers are using AI in class right now, with or without district guidance.

"Meanwhile, Needles wonders whether the best and brightest students are the most afraid to use AI because they’re afraid of appearing like they cheated - and yet they will need to know how to use it to participate in the workforce of the future."

A NOTE BEFORE YOU GO...

I'm glad you're here! If something resonated this week, hit reply and tell me. If you know a fellow educator who would find this useful, forward it their way. The village grows when educators share with other educators.

Never hesitate to send me an email if you're looking for some human-forward, AI thought partnership!