How Big of A Problem Are ChatGPT Essays in Top Private Schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So typical.

?

When discussing bad behavior like cheating, bullying, vaping, etc., many posters on this forum say that it’s just typical of all ES/MS/HS kids, private and public. That the schools have no control and that’s just the way it is. When it comes to good behavior, private school students are sooo far above public school kids and their schools are magical places full of wonderful, tippy top students and faculty and staff, and of course, parents. And don’t you dare bring public school kids into the discussion.

Mmm hmm.

The relevant question isn't whether it's happening both in private and public, but whether [problem X] is more prevalent at one vs. the other.

This is a topic about private schools. Why even bring public schools into?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are adopting by getting handwritten assignments in class early so they can evaluate how the students write/their voice and then use prompts for papers that would be hard to generate via AI.

Generally speaking, in-class assignments will become more normal going forward.

What prompts are hard to generate by AI. Literally there is nothing…even if you ask the kid to write about something from their own life, you can feed some basic facts into AI and have it write it.

The best you can do is pick weird topics and then see if a kid submits an essay that is clearly factually wrong because AI made it up.

For example, an essay on New Orleans jazz in the early 1900s that lists Elvis from that era (true AI mistake).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So typical.

?

When discussing bad behavior like cheating, bullying, vaping, etc., many posters on this forum say that it’s just typical of all ES/MS/HS kids, private and public. That the schools have no control and that’s just the way it is. When it comes to good behavior, private school students are sooo far above public school kids and their schools are magical places full of wonderful, tippy top students and faculty and staff, and of course, parents. And don’t you dare bring public school kids into the discussion.

Mmm hmm.

The relevant question isn't whether it's happening both in private and public, but whether [problem X] is more prevalent at one vs. the other.

This is a topic about private schools. Why even bring public schools into?

The title of the thread is literally "How Big of a Problem..." Assessing how big of a problem requires a baseline. What would you propose that baseline be, if not public schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So typical.

?

When discussing bad behavior like cheating, bullying, vaping, etc., many posters on this forum say that it’s just typical of all ES/MS/HS kids, private and public. That the schools have no control and that’s just the way it is. When it comes to good behavior, private school students are sooo far above public school kids and their schools are magical places full of wonderful, tippy top students and faculty and staff, and of course, parents. And don’t you dare bring public school kids into the discussion.

Mmm hmm.

The relevant question isn't whether it's happening both in private and public, but whether [problem X] is more prevalent at one vs. the other.

This is a topic about private schools. Why even bring public schools into?

The title of the thread is literally "How Big of a Problem..." Assessing how big of a problem requires a baseline. What would you propose that baseline be, if not public schools?

“… in top private schools”

That’s what OP is asking about.

Yes, it’s an issue everywhere but this thread, in this forum is about…

Top private schools

Not a comparison, not an overview.

People here just like to drag public schools in when it suits their purpose.

[Anonymous]

You have no idea if it's a big or small problem without a baseline.

[Anonymous]

My kids are at a very low-tech private with a strict set of rules. Haven't seen any indication yet that they even know what AI is capable of, as far as cheating goes (and the only one allowed to use a computer does so in the living room, in full view, so I know he's not engaged in anything. Also, if he was, his prose would not be so awful.) To what extent this is actually an issue with other kids, ones who are more on the ball, but with laxer parents, I do not know for sure, but I haven't heard about it through the grapevine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at a very low-tech private with a strict set of rules. Haven't seen any indication yet that they even know what AI is capable of, as far as cheating goes (and the only one allowed to use a computer does so in the living room, in full view, so I know he's not engaged in anything. Also, if he was, his prose would not be so awful.) To what extent this is actually an issue with other kids, ones who are more on the ball, but with laxer parents, I do not know for sure, but I haven't heard about it through the grapevine.

I should add that it is not a "top private", so we avoid some of the social dysfunction.

[Anonymous]

Schools are working around this in several different ways. Some are requiring all writing to be done in class so the teacher can monitor device usage like they’ve always done. Some schools are requiring assignments to be submitted as one Google doc so that the teacher can review each draft and look for large chunks of text at once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools are working around this in several different ways. Some are requiring all writing to be done in class so the teacher can monitor device usage like they’ve always done. Some schools are requiring assignments to be submitted as one Google doc so that the teacher can review each draft and look for large chunks of text at once.

Can’t a kid have AI write the first draft, print it out and then retype into the Google doc, so that’s the first draft?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools are working around this in several different ways. Some are requiring all writing to be done in class so the teacher can monitor device usage like they’ve always done. Some schools are requiring assignments to be submitted as one Google doc so that the teacher can review each draft and look for large chunks of text at once.

Can’t a kid have AI write the first draft, print it out and then retype into the Google doc, so that’s the first draft?

No human being can write a perfect first draft without stopping, saving, and revising. Only machines do that (and not well sometimes).

So a doc with only one version saved is NOT the student's original work. Teachers can also demand to see the notes the students took from the sources cited.

It's a house of cards that falls quickly.

[Anonymous]

It’s honestly pretty easy to tell an essay that was written with help from an LLM. It is more of a problem in large classes when teachers don’t know students well. There has been a trend of more in class essays at our school as well.

Private schools honestly have a large advantage in dealing with this problem compared to public schools just because of numbers in classes.

[Anonymous]

My private school kids have had more in class essays, requirements to turn use Google docks for at home work (tracks all the changes you make), turn in marked up rough drafts, or add an explanation of why they wrote something the way they did, make sure they include parts of class discussion in their essay, than they used to. Also assignments to compare two not commonly compared literary works. I’m sure there might still be some chat gpt use going on, but with smaller class sizes teachers can be a little more on top of it through assigning multi-step/creative assignments.

[Anonymous]

Our school has addressed AI by incorporating it into curriculum to a degree. They've provided guidance and best practices. Much like the calculator ban we all experienced...it's not going away and yes it will always be accessible. Let's teach them proper use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My private school kids have had more in class essays, requirements to turn use Google docks for at home work (tracks all the changes you make), turn in marked up rough drafts, or add an explanation of why they wrote something the way they did, make sure they include parts of class discussion in their essay, than they used to. Also assignments to compare two not commonly compared literary works. I’m sure there might still be some chat gpt use going on, but with smaller class sizes teachers can be a little more on top of it through assigning multi-step/creative assignments.

Teachers at my child’s school check Google docs during the assignment period to confirm that students’ work is developing and changing as they draft, as opposed to assessing only a finished document.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My private school kids have had more in class essays, requirements to turn use Google docks for at home work (tracks all the changes you make), turn in marked up rough drafts, or add an explanation of why they wrote something the way they did, make sure they include parts of class discussion in their essay, than they used to. Also assignments to compare two not commonly compared literary works. I’m sure there might still be some chat gpt use going on, but with smaller class sizes teachers can be a little more on top of it through assigning multi-step/creative assignments.

Teachers at my child’s school check Google docs during the assignment period to confirm that students’ work is developing and changing as they draft, as opposed to assessing only a finished document.

Ours does this too, along with looking at draft history and using Turn It In.