Committee advances Turnitin RFP to action; members discuss AI detection and student instruction

District staff asked the ECI committee to advance a recommendation to the board to award a plagiarism-software contract to the current vendor, Turnitin, and the committee approved moving the RFP award to the action meeting.

Presenters said Turnitin met district needs, provides teacher-level data and includes tools to detect content generated by artificial intelligence. A committee member described Turnitin's output in practical terms: it can estimate a percentage likelihood that a piece of writing was generated by AI and show similarity reports; another committee member who had used the tool at the college level described seeing a percentage "human" estimate.

Committee discussion emphasized that detection alone is not enough; members urged district-wide instruction on how students should use AI as a research and drafting tool rather than as a substitute for student-authored work. Dr. Hart and other administrators said departments such as humanities are already discussing guidelines and that district technology staff and teacher leaders have provided professional learning sessions; the presenters described plans to expand training and set common expectations for students before the fall term.

A motion to move the plagiarism-software RFP to the board action agenda was made, seconded and approved by voice vote.

The committee did not adopt specific policy language during the meeting; members directed staff to continue developing training and guidance for teachers and students and to place the Turnitin contract award on the upcoming board action docket.