Use of Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Public Schools (K-12), It’s Not Elementary

By Orange County Grand Jury on June 21, 2024

SUMMARY

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has swiftly evolved into an integral part of society, particularly within the educational realm. The field of education has witnessed AI’s transformation from a scientific concept to readily available technology, ChatGPT being one of the most prominent applications today. Like the Internet, it is embraced by many educators and students alike. The potential of AI in revolutionizing education, from enhancing classroom instruction to facilitating data analysis, is immense. However, alongside its promise, AI presents significant disruptions, necessitating thoughtful considerations to avoid potential pitfalls. This Grand Jury report not only explores the benefits and concerns of AI in Orange County education but underscores the pressing need for school districts to take responsible action in response to student engagement with AI.

The 2023-2024 Orange County Grand Jury (OCGJ) undertook a review of AI utilization in Orange County’s public K-12 schools. Unveiling crucial insights from educators and IT professionals, this Grand Jury report highlights a glaring concern: the absence of consistent, standardized policies governing AI’s application in most of Orange County’s K- 12 school districts. This deficiency places students at risk of encountering disparate and inequitable learning environments due to the unchecked use of AI.

The Grand Jury’s findings underscore a critical junction in Orange County’s educational future, urging decisive action to direct the transformative potential of AI while mitigating its inherent challenges. Through the implementation of prudent policies, comprehensive training initiatives, and collaborative efforts, Orange County stands poised to lead the charge in fostering an ethically grounded and forward-thinking use of AI within an expanding educational frontier.

BACKGROUND

The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) was coined in the 1950s by a mathematician and computer scientist named John McCarthy (see Fig. 1). AI was basically a machine or computer that was able to mimic human intelligence. During the subsequent seven decades, AI has made enormous strides in development, including: in 1997, the computer Deep Blue defeated the world chess champion; in 2002, iRobot launched the first vacuum cleaner, “Roomba,” with an AI-powered navigation system; and in 2011, IBM’s Watson went up against two former Jeopardy! champions and won (see fig. 1).

In 2022, Open AI released ChatGPT to the public, a generative AI platform with the ability to generate text, images, and other media utilizing information it had “learned” from input by the developers and users (see fig. 1). This AI platform was an instant hit in education, from teachers using it to assist in lesson plans to students using the platform for help with schoolwork (and sometimes, unfortunately, to cheat).

Figure 1. Timeline of the development of Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence Development History Timeline, infoDiagram, accessed March 2024, https://www.infodiagram.com/diagrams/ai-diagrams- machine-learning-ppt-template/#slide_8.

Just about every time one uses a smartphone, a tablet, shopping websites, or news websites, AI is running in the background. Have you ever started typing a word in a text, e-mail, or chat and seen words being suggested for you? This is AI in motion. Have you ever shopped online, say for a new blouse, and then started to see pop-up ads for blouses and other similar apparel? This is AI in motion. Have you ever surfed the Internet, and a helpful little “chatbot” appears in the lower right corner of your screen, asking you if you need assistance? This is AI in motion.

Focusing on the use of AI in our public schools, students can (and do) utilize AI to research subject matter, write essays, generate full topic reports, and even write music and lyrics with a simple search using an AI platform. Whether or not the school has policies on the use of AI, a simple search on one’s smartphone can lead students to answers and data in just seconds.

Implementation and the use of AI is moving and evolving at a lightning pace. AI’s rapidly evolving capabilities and its ability to affect (even disrupt) our approach to education are profound. While AI is actively utilized by some educators and students in Orange County, many schools and districts have little or no policy in place. The OCGJ also determined that there is wide disparity when it comes to policies surrounding, or even acknowledging, the existence of, the use of AI technology in Orange County K-12 schools. While some schools and districts fully embrace this new technology, others have restricted, even banned, the use of AI in the classroom.

This is why you should care.

AI has the potential to revolutionize education by empowering teachers, enhancing student learning experiences, and promoting a more inclusive and efficient educational environment.

REASON FOR THE STUDY

It seems that, nearly every day, AI is in the news. Newspapers, podcasts, magazines, news feeds, TV shows—it is everywhere. On a global level, world leaders continue to discuss AI and its use in geopolitics, tackling human trafficking, military strategies, and education. On a national level, a memorandum was released in March 2024 by the Office of Management and Budget, providing new guidance on how federal agencies can and cannot use artificial intelligence (Shivaram 2024).

In California, the Office of the Governor issued an executive order to study the development, use, and risks of AI technology throughout the State and to develop a deliberate and responsible process for the evaluation and deployment of AI within the State government (Office of Governor, Gavin Newsom 2023).

Locally, one needs to go no further than Orange County news feeds and papers to see recent stories of local high school students nefariously utilizing AI to artificially create photographs of student faces over pictures of bodies in various stages of undress (Fry 2024), known in the AI world as “deepfakes.” On the other hand, AI is being used throughout several Orange County school districts in a positive manner, for example, by students using AI platforms to learn more about a topic of interest or overcome writer’s block. In one Orange County school district, music students can use an AI platform to help fulfill an assignment, such as writing a song complete with lyrics.

The OCGJ’s investigative objective was to attain a better understanding of the use of AI among students, teachers, and administrators in Orange County K-12 school districts and to discover how their administrations govern AI use in the classroom. While the current and future use of AI is widely discussed and scrutinized throughout various communities and in the media, the overall application and use of the technology in K-12 education in Orange County school districts is relatively unknown. The understanding and pace of AI use and implementation differ among school districts due to various considerations such as infrastructure, policies, and educational priorities.

Studying and preparing a report on the risks and benefits of integrating AI in K-12 education can highlight how to enhance learning, provide additional support for diverse learning styles, and help prepare students for a tech-driven future. This report sets out specific findings and recommendations to formalize plans and promote collaborative efforts to enhance the effective use of AI within Orange County school districts. These findings can also serve as an informational guide for public awareness, addressing the complexity of AI and the potential harm that could arise if misusing this readily available technology. AI is a multidimensional and complicated topic; it ties together the excitement of advancing our local education system while emphasizing the need for human oversight. AI will require enhanced security measures, data validation, and the absolute necessity for providing ethical use guidelines.