A new statewide poll shows most K-12 students use artificial intelligence, but parents are divided about its use in the classroom and want more education around safety and digital literacy.
A report on the poll, released Wednesday by EdTrust in Massachusetts, declares that “AI is here to stay and is no longer a digital concept.”
According to the poll by MassINC Polling Group, 59% of parents say their children have already used AI for schoolwork, with older students using it more.
But many parents (37%) say their child’s school either lacks AI policies or they are unsure whether such policies exist.
Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, said sentiment is split on whether students’ AI use is positive or negative.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s parents on both sides of the issue. And not even both sides, but a lot of parents that just aren’t sure what to make of it yet,” said Koczela.
The poll shows a third of parents express positive views of AI in K-12 education, while another third hold negative views or are unsure. When it comes to AI’s impact on learning, nearly half (48%) think AI will positively influence student learning, while 42% expect negative consequences.
Attitudes vary by gender, age, income and educational backgrounds, but differences across racial groups are less pronounced. For instance, Black men are more optimistic about AI use than Black women.
Similar results were seen in Latino parents and Asian parents when asked whether AI will help their students be more prepared. About a third said they were more prepared, about a third said they were less prepared, and a third either don’t know or think it won’t make a difference.
Men are more likely than women to be optimistic when it comes to AI, and parents of multilingual learners are also generally more positive.
The MassINC poll mirrors findings from another survey released Wednesday. The American Association of Colleges and Universities found widespread concern among college faculty that students are becoming too dependent on artificial intelligence.
“They’re worried about students’ attention spans,” said Lee Rainie, who runs a digital research center at Elon University in North Carolina, and led the survey of more than a thousand professors. “And they’re worried about students basically deferring to these models and handing over their lives to these models.”
Rainie said those fears strike at the heart of higher education’s mission, and he says part of the problem is there’s still no clear consensus on when using AI is cheating, and when it’s a legitimate learning tool.
The MassINC poll found that most K-12 parents think digital literacy should be a graduation requirement.
Keri Rodrigues, founding president of the National Parents Union, was on a panel discussing the results of the poll today. Rodrigues has five children, and is part of a Teach AI Steering Committee.
She described the general attitudes toward the technology as a mix of “excitement, nervousness, a little confusion about AI, definitely seeing it as an opportunity, wanting our kids to be prepared, obviously, for what the jobs and economy of the future is going to look like.”
Parents also don’t agree how AI should be used in the classroom. More than 70% said they worry about biased evaluations of students’ work, as well as threats to student data privacy and unequal access to tools that give some students an unfair advantage.
Chelsea School Superintendent Dr. Almi G. Abeyta said educators need professional development, and time should be set aside for them to take courses through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Abeyta said students in her district are 87% Latino, and 57% are multilingual learners. She said the learning process must extend to the classroom.
“I don’t want my students to get left behind,” Abeyta said. “It is … an issue of equity for me. And I want my kids to have access.”
Rodrigues stressed that schools need guardrails, and should get parents’ consent before exposing students to these new technologies.
“Doing this without the consent of parents, without the knowledge of parents, leaves you really at risk at this moment, because you do have a duty to take care of these kids that are being exposed to these technologies in the classroom,” she said.
The poll results show a large majority of parents think using AI is sometimes cheating.
Andrea Cote, assistant director of EdTech at MA DESE, said the state has set up a task force to find ways to support schools and districts teaching about AI. That will include AI resources, professional development and policy support.
“Our vision for education and AI considerations cannot be separated. AI is not a standalone initiative,” Cote said. “It cuts across instruction and assessment, operations and communication. It changes how students engage with content, how teachers design learning, and how systems make decisions leading through AI.”
This newest statewide parent poll is the 12th in a series launched at the start of the pandemic to look at how AI reshapes learning, work and communication, and the opportunities and challenges facing students and schools. More than 1,300 Massachusetts parents with children in grades K-12 were surveyed last year in a three-week period between Oct. 21 and Nov. 12.
