Opening the Book: A Rubric to Support Effective Transparency for EdTech Products That Incorporate AI

Transparency about edtech products that incorporate AI can help school administrators select systems that will provide them with the functionality they need; ensure that those systems are suited for their contexts; identify potential risks and ways to mitigate them; and push the field at large toward improved development practices, outcomes, equity, and more. To better assess the current state of transparency in edtech products in the K–12 context that incorporate AI, the Center for Democracy & Technology has developed a rubric of eight key elements of transparency that contribute to a full picture of an edtech product and can be used to inform decisions such as whether to procure the product and how to use it:

1. Use and Context Limitations
2. Underlying AI Models
3. Training Data and Methodologies
4. Domain Adaptation
5. Testing and Evaluation
6. Data Governance
7. Governance Structures
8. Information Accessibility