Ķvlog

Artificial Intelligence

The 93 Questions Schools Should Ask About AI

By Alyson Klein — October 17, 2023 2 min read
A close up of a laptop and hands overlaid with AI and techie icons.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Does your district have a dedicated point person on the role of artificial intelligence in K-12 education? Are you requiring vendors that use AI algorithms in their products to ensure they are free from bias? Do you have employees with the right skills to evaluate, procure, and operate generative AI?

Those are just three of the 93 questions Ķvlog should be asking themselves as they seek to craft policies around generative AI, the technology that powers tools like ChatGPT. The list of questions is featured in a report from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), which represents district tech leaders, and the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents urban district leaders.

(There's been) a lot of high-level vision statements, either it's 'the promised land' or it's 'the sky is falling,' but there's little practical guidance to help school system leaders think about what are the most important things they need to do.

The checklist was designed to help districts think about AI in a hands-on, actionable way, said Keith Krueger, the executive director of CoSN.

Since a sophisticated version of ChatGPT was released last year, schools have been hungry for specifics on AI policy. But the reality is that most states and districts have held off on providing that guidance.

Instead, there’s been a “lot of high-level vision statements, either it’s ‘the promised land’ or it’s ‘the sky is falling,’ but there’s little practical guidance to help school system leaders think about what are the most important things they need to do,” Krueger said. “Educators are clamoring for guidance around policy. So, the cavalry is coming.”

The list of questions is divided into half a dozen areas for different teams within a school district to consider. They include questions for superintendents or executive leaders and operations teams, and officials working with data, as well as questions around technical readiness, security, and risk management. The work was done in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National School Public Relations Association, and the State Educational Technology Directors Association.

Another resource called Teach AI, an initiative launched by a cadre of nonprofits to help schools think through AI guidance and policy, offered another piece of practical advice:

The toolkit recommends schools consider:

  • Purpose: How can AI help achieve educational goals?
  • Compliance: How does AI fit with existing policies?
  • Knowledge: How can schools advance AI Literacy?
  • Balance: What are the benefits and risks of AI?
  • Integrity: How does AI fit into policies on things like cheating?
  • Agency: How can humans stay in the loop on AI?
  • Evaluation: How can schools regularly assess the impact of AI?

The toolkit was developed by nonprofits , , , and , with help from school leaders, teachers, and tech organizations.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Teaching Webinar
Maximize Your MTSS to Drive Literacy Success
Learn how districts are strengthening MTSS to accelerate literacy growth and help every student reach grade-level reading success.
Content provided by 
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar How High Schools Can Prepare Students for College and Career
Explore how schools are reimagining high school with hands-on learning that prepares students for both college and career success.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
GoGuardian and Google: Proactive AI Safety in Schools
Learn how to safely adopt innovative AI tools while maintaining support for student well-being. 
Content provided by 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Artificial Intelligence Video These Students are Learning the Math That Makes AI Tick
Rather than study how to use AI, students in this machine learning class work with the math that makes the AI work.
1 min read
Student Nina Dong, second from left, helps classmates with a project examining the Titanic passenger dataset in Clay Dagler's machine learning class at Franklin High School in Elk Grove, Calif., on March 7, 2025.
Student Nina Dong, second from left, helps classmates with a project examining the Titanic passenger dataset in Clay Dagler's machine learning class at Franklin High School in Elk Grove, Calif., on March 7, 2025.
Max Whittaker for Education Week
Artificial Intelligence 5 Best Practices for Crafting a School or District AI Policy
Nearly half of Ķvlog say their school or district does not have an AI policy.
Illustration of woman teacher vetting artificial intelligence for classroom.
Weiyi Zhu/iStock/Getty
Artificial Intelligence Teachers Worry AI Will Impede Students' Critical Thinking Skills. Many Teens Aren't So Sure
A majority of Ķvlog fear students may become dependent on generative AI tools for basic tasks.
2 min read
Conceptual image of dice with question marks on them with A.I. faded in background.
Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock/Getty
Artificial Intelligence 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' Is Now Here: How a Teacher Used AI to Teach 'Macbeth'
An English teacher paired lessons on Shakespeare's classic play with instruction about AI.
3 min read
Floating data particles with an image of Shakespeare's face ascend from an open book, symbolizing technology-driven education, artificial intelligence, and information exchange.
iStock/Getty Images + Education Week