Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Technology topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Westborough schools present draft AI principles and teacher supports; district to pilot implementation plan
Summary
An AI committee presented draft guiding principles, a stoplight framework for allowed/conditional/prohibited uses, and a rollout plan that includes a KOSEN workshop to produce a draft implementation roadmap; DESE guidance and teacher professional development needs were central to discussion.
The School Committee received a report from the district’s AI committee on Jan. 7 outlining draft guidance for generative-AI use in classrooms and the district’s plan for implementation.
Committee chair Matt summarized three committee products developed over the past year: guiding principles for generative AI, a student-use guidance document (version 2), and a stoplight matrix categorizing practices as permitted, conditional or prohibited. He described professional development already delivered for grades 7–12 and a scheduled two‑day KOSEN workshop in January that will help produce an initial draft AI implementation plan for the district.
Matt said the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) has counseled against issuing a formal school‑committee policy at this time; instead the district is focusing on practice and professional development. The district identified DESE webinars and guidance as useful inputs and plans to iterate the implementation roadmap with teachers, principals and department leaders over the winter and spring.
Committee members and parents raised concerns about over-restricting student writing practices, the risk of disadvantaging slower students if all writing is moved into class, and whether detection or punitive approaches would harm student–teacher trust. Several members advocated for capacity-building supports for teachers — such as an instructional coach skilled in new tools — rather than a primarily punitive enforcement regime.
The committee discussed technology access and privacy. Matt said district student devices no longer allow access to ChatGPT because of privacy concerns, but school-enabled Google products remain available where they meet privacy requirements. The district will pursue additional training for teachers and convene a summit team to draft version 1 of an implementation roadmap, with broader community feedback to follow.
