Remember to Investigate Policies

Your school’s AI policies, that is. Other than using a reliable AI detector and humanizer like AI Detector Pro, there is nothing as important as documenting your institution’s AI policy.  

Schools are Cracking down

Today, we’re reporting the case of a student from Hingham High School in Massachusetts. The educator awarded the student (who isn’t named) a lower grade despite the student only using AI during the note-taking and draft portion of the essay required for the class.

Ultimately, he got a C+ in the class even though he passed the AP exam with a 5. A 5 is the highest score you can get on an AP exam. As a result, the student’s high AP exam score versus their lower grade in the class is causing a discrepancy they must address on their college applications.

HERE’S WHAT WE WANT YOU TO KNOW

We are blogging about this story to discuss several important points.

First, we have strongly expressed that your first step in your academic journey begins with tracking down your educator’s AI policy. What is most troubling about this story is that the school didn’t have an AI policy in place during the time that the incidents led to disciplinary action took place. The reporter googled the words “artificial intelligence” in the 2023-2024 handbook and failed to find any mention of AI, let alone an AI policy. Given how early AI technology still is, we don’t fault the school district for NOT having AI policies in 2023, but we do think it’s unseemly to subject students to excessive discipline.

Second, the student followed up-to-date AI advice. The student only used ChatGPT to generate background research. They drafted an independent outline and a novel hypothesis and paper. The educator still failed the student. The school states that the school’s AI policy in 2023 was a PowerPoint presentation shown to students as part of an English class in the first week of school. At the time, the word Artificial Intelligence was missing from the handbook of policies on plagiarism and cheating (since updated).

Third, the student self-declared their use of AI, which didn’t work out to their benefit. Today, the school’s AI policy states that the school “encourages students to learn about artificial intelligence tools to ‘enhance rather than compromise or damage their developing abilities as writers, communicators, and critical thinkers.'” Step right up to random failings, folks. Can you tell us what that school’s AI policy does or doesn’t allow? How do you think it would apply to you?

Here’s what YOU can do.

  • You must research your school’s AI policy.
  • You must bring vague AI policies to the attention of all your educators. Identify whether the AI and cheating policy is phrased similarly to the one in this story.
  • You must ask the educator how they interpret the AI policy and what the AI policy means to THEM and how they run THEIR classroom.  
  • You must ask the educator what this the policy means to THEM – get into the weeds. Does the policy mean you can’t use AI for background research? Is there a specific way you need to sprinkle in citations?
  • You must ask about the consequences of not following their interpretation of the school’s AI policy.
  • You must type up your notes on this conversation and send them to them and ask whether you have accurately captured their interpretation of the school’s academic policies
  • Dig deep to get specifics but be polite about it: you still need the educator to be on your side  
  • You MUST get yourself a subscription to AI Detector Pro. Let’s be honest, schools have no idea how to handle AI but you’re the one who will face the consequences

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