From Guidelines to Governance: A Study of AI Policies in Education
It addresses the problem of inadequate AI governance in education for administrators, highlighting an incremental gap in policy development.
This study surveyed 102 high school principals and higher education provosts to assess AI policy gaps in education, finding that most institutions lack specialized guidelines for tools like ChatGPT, with high schools being less proactive than higher education institutions.
Emerging technologies like generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, are increasingly utilized in educational settings, offering innovative approaches to learning while simultaneously posing new challenges. This study employs a survey methodology to examine the policy landscape concerning these technologies, drawing insights from 102 high school principals and higher education provosts. Our results reveal a prominent policy gap: the majority of institutions lack specialized guide-lines for the ethical deployment of AI tools such as ChatGPT. Moreover,we observed that high schools are less inclined to work on policies than higher educational institutions. Where such policies do exist, they often overlook crucial issues, including student privacy and algorithmic transparency. Administrators overwhelmingly recognize the necessity of these policies, primarily to safeguard student safety and mitigate plagiarism risks. Our findings underscore the urgent need for flexible and iterative policy frameworks in educational contexts.