Project Profile

The rapidly evolving space of artificial intelligence (AI) is requiring school and district leaders to make sense of how emerging technology applications, including those that use generative AI (GenAI), are being integrated in schools and districts across the United States. Much uncertainty exists about what GenAI is, how it works, and what the implications are for students, families, educators, and the broader school community. School and district leaders have shared challenges that they are facing regarding the use of AI for teaching and learning, including concerns around issues of privacy, data security, and bias. They are also concerned about existing inequities in accessing digital technologies and tools, and that this disparity could present further structural barriers for students and communities. To address the need for policies, guidelines, and guardrails, this project will recruit and convene a GenAI Working Group made up of school and district leaders that represent diverse identities and district demographics.

The GenAI Working Group, in collaboration with a Digital Promise team and subject matter experts, will work to answer the following research questions: (1) What tensions do leaders experience when adapting acceptable use policies (AUPs) for emerging technologies such as GenAI? (2) What do acceptable use policies that are "ethical, responsible, and effective" look like? (3) How can districts develop policies that allow for learning to advance while protecting and centering human agency? This project will be both informative to the research field and have direct broad impacts via AUPs for districts and schools. The GenAI Working Group will: (1) write, adapt, and share a set of sample GenAI AUPs for a range of district contexts; (2) work with others at their districts to write and share their own district's AUPs for the responsible, ethical, and effective integration of GenAI; and (3) participate in a final public webinar where they will share what they learned about GenAI and their policies. This proposal was received in response to the Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): Rapidly Accelerating Research on Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education in Formal and Informal Settings (NSF 23-097) and funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.