AI for Staff

Brookline supports teachers and staff in their exploration of the potential educational benefits of Generative AI tools. The District strongly recommends that staff help students understand the proper use, ethical concerns and limitations of Generative Ai tools.

Brookline has identified a set of recommended AI tools based on our Student Data Privacy Agreements. Google's Gemini and Notebook LM are two of the most powerful tools. You can learn about others in the section below.

Staff can use AI tools for:

Content Development and Enhancement for Differentiation: AI can assist educators by differentiating curricula, suggesting lesson plans, generating diagrams and charts, and customizing independent practice based on student needs and proficiency levels.

Assessment Design and Analysis: In addition to enhancing assessment design by creating questions and providing standardized feedback on common mistakes, AI can conduct diagnostic assessments to identify gaps in knowledge or skills and enable rich performance assessments. Teachers will ultimately be responsible for evaluation, feedback, and grading, including determining and assessing the usefulness of AI in supporting their grading work. AI should not be solely responsible for grading.
Research and Resource Compilation: AI can help educators by recommending books or articles relevant to a lesson and updating teachers on teaching techniques, research, and methods.

Guidelines for Safe and Ethical Use of AI Tools

Implementing AI tools in your classroom effectively requires a strong commitment to safe and ethical practices. These guidelines will help you navigate the potential challenges and ensure that AI enhances, rather than compromises, your educational environment.

1. Prioritize Privacy and Data Security

Use Gemini for Education : Google Workspace for Education's Gemini offerings are designed with enterprise-grade data protection. This means that data entered into these core services is generally not human-reviewed or used to train AI models. This is a significant safeguard compared to general-purpose AI tools such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot.
Never Input Personally Identifiable Student Information: Even with robust protections, as a best practice, avoid inputting sensitive or personally identifiable student information (e.g., names, student IDs, specific grades tied to names) into any AI tool, even those protected by a Student Data Privacy Agreement.
Educate Students on Privacy: Teach students about the importance of not sharing personal information with AI tools, and explain why certain data should never be entered into public-facing AI models.

2. Foster Healthy Skepticism Toward Automated Outputs

AI is a Tool, Not an Authority: Reinforce the idea that AI is a powerful tool, but it lacks human understanding, empathy, and critical reasoning. It does not "know" or "think" in the human sense.
Avoid Over-Reliance: Guard against becoming overly dependent on AI for tasks that require deep human thought, creativity, or ethical judgment. Encourage students to use AI to amplify their learning, not to bypass it.
Promote Human Oversight: Emphasize that human oversight is always necessary. You, as the teacher, are the ultimate arbiter of quality, accuracy, and appropriateness in your classroom.

3. Be Aware of Bias and Strive for Accuracy

Treat AI as a Starting Point: Use AI outputs as a draft, a brainstorming aid, or a source of ideas, but always apply your own expertise, judgment, and knowledge to refine, correct, and verify the content before using it in your classroom or with students.
Critical Evaluation is Key: Never accept AI-generated content at face value. Always critically evaluate the output for:
- Factual Accuracy: Fact-check any information, especially for academic content.
- Bias: Look for language or perspectives that might be biased, stereotypical, or exclusionary. Generative AI models are trained on vast datasets, which can inherently contain societal biases present in the real world. This means AI outputs might inadvertently reflect or perpetuate stereotypes, prejudices, or inaccuracies.
- Completeness: AI might provide a partial answer or miss important nuances.

4. Be Transparent

Follow the same expectations that are set students: Staff members should reveal when Generative AI tools are used to produce documents or lessons.
Teachers should follow the same citation policies set for students.

5. Maintain Academic Integrity and Promote AI Literacy

- Adhere to Brookline Policies: Teachers should be familiar with Brookline Policies including the BHS Academic Honesty Policy
- Teach AI Literacy: Dedicate time to teaching students about AI—what it is, how it works, its capabilities, and its limitations.
- Design AI-Resistant Assignments: Create assignments that emphasize process, critical thinking, original thought, and personal reflection, making it difficult or unproductive for students to simply rely on AI for completion. Examples include: requiring students to explain their reasoning, show their work, conduct interviews, or present their findings orally.

Set Clear Expectations: Establish clear guidelines for students on when and how they can use AI in their assignments. Be explicit about what constitutes acceptable use (e.g., brainstorming, outlining) and what is considered academic dishonesty (e.g., submitting AI-generated work as their own without proper citation). Promote the use of the AI Assessment Scale .