Last July, the Peninsula School District in Washington state was among the first school systems in the country to put out guidance on using artificial intelligence in the classroom.
Since then, the district鈥檚 website has become a busy corner of the internet, with its 鈥済arnering more than 600 hits a month. That鈥檚 likely because the document has been shared by nonprofit organizations鈥攕uch as and the 鈥攕eeking to highlight AI guidance models for other districts.
Kris Hagel, the executive director for digital learning for the Peninsula district, who has been making the rounds on webinars and forums for using AI in K-12 schools, doesn鈥檛 hide that he had an unusual co-author on the AI guidance: ChatGPT.
The AI tool helped develop Peninsula鈥檚 first draft, using data Hagel provided. Then Hagel and his team edited and improved on the document鈥攁 writing process Hagel thinks could become more common as generative AI takes hold.
Peninsula, which released its guidance last July, is unusual. Nearly 80 percent of educators say their district has not crafted clear policies on using AI in the classroom, according to a survey of 924 educators conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in November and December.
Hagel believes that school districts need to learn to use the technology themselves鈥攁nd get their students and teachers to use it, too. Peninsula鈥檚 guidance embraces AI鈥檚 potential to help educators with routine tasks and cater to students鈥� individual learning needs by helping to present information in different formats. It also acknowledges AI鈥檚 flaws鈥攊ncluding algorithmic bias鈥攁nd says humans must have ultimate authority over any decisions informed by AI tools. And it recommends teaching students to use AI appropriately.
Education Week spoke with Hagel over Zoom about setting expectations around the use of AI.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Why did your district release an official policy on AI so far ahead of everyone else?
Teachers [using AI with students] asked for it, so that they were not the ones sticking their necks out. They said 鈥渢he district needs to tell us something so that then I have cover if a parent complains or a student doesn鈥檛 want to do it, or my principal is evaluating me, and they don鈥檛 like what I鈥檓 doing.鈥�
It鈥檚 easier for teachers to move forward if the district says this is something that we believe in and we embrace.
How did you go about crafting guidance on AI?
Right about the time that [teachers] asked for guidance, the U.S. Department of Ed came out with a document around teaching and learning with artificial intelligence. And so that was one document that I took to base our guidance on.
I highlighted [ED鈥檚] 75-page PDF with everything that I thought was important. And then I took all of those highlights, and another couple of documents that were out at the time around generative AI in education, and I dumped them all into ChatGPT and said, 鈥淕ive me a rough draft of a principles and beliefs document.鈥�
Then I took four pieces of my own writing and had ChatGPT analyze those and then rewrite it in my voice and tone.
That became the first draft. Then we took it to the teaching and learning staff and had them look it over and give feedback. And then I took it to our teachers that have been working with AI and had them provide feedback. And at that point, we just [released] it, saying, 鈥淭his is what we think we鈥檙e going to do. If you care, let us know.鈥�
What鈥檚 your advice to other districts looking to craft their own AI guidance?
The first thing I tell people, is to just steal ours. [Laughs.]
Honestly, I tell them not to spend a ton of time thinking this through. There鈥檚 a ton of examples out there. You can take ours. You can take the . There are six states now that have guidance out.
One of the things that鈥檚 really hard with AI right now: you don鈥檛 know what it鈥檚 gonna be next year, you don鈥檛 know what it鈥檚 gonna be next week. Every day, any big tech company could come out with some amazing new AI thing. And then you鈥檙e like, 鈥渙h, wow, that throws everything up [in the air] that we鈥檝e already been talking about.鈥�
So, I tell people to just get started. Historically, in education, everyone wants to set policy and set guidelines, and then set professional development, make adoptions, and buy programs. And we鈥檙e kind of doing it backwards.
Let鈥檚 try it. And then we鈥檒l figure out what works. And then we鈥檒l write rules around it. And a lot of people are really hesitant about that.
There are a lot of superintendents who I鈥檝e talked to that say 鈥淚 want standards, I want guidelines, I want the state to tell me what to do. And then I鈥檓 going to do that in my district.鈥�
I think the problem with doing that with AI is you have the possibility of falling so far behind. You鈥檙e gonna have that whole class of 12th graders that never got anything around AI. They鈥檙e gonna leave your system. As you continue to wait, because you鈥檙e not ready, there are kids who are going to leave your system that you could have done something with.
Where are you in your adoption of AI in the classroom?
Have you seen the where you have your early adopters, and then your fast followers, then most everybody else? And your laggards at the end? We鈥檙e in the second [fast followers] phase of that now.
Our early adopters have latched onto AI. And now we鈥檙e trying to figure out how do we get the bulk of our teaching staff to embrace it? We have about 10 percent of our staff that鈥檚 pretty comfortable utilizing AI in the classroom now.
I just met with a bunch of our teachers yesterday, and they鈥檙e expanding and growing what they鈥檙e doing. They鈥檙e starting to change the way that they鈥檙e teaching in class. We had a high school chemistry and astronomy teacher talk about how he鈥檚 expecting every single student to use AI. And he鈥檚 suspicious if, when they submit work, they don鈥檛 also include the link to their ChatGPT conversations [for reference].
We embrace AI as a district. Our board embraces us moving forward with AI. We鈥檝e set basic beliefs around AI. We have essentially the right foundation, and now it鈥檚 trying to figure out how to expand and grow this.
