Making the grade: Labor, desert and integrity in assessment

Smith, Bennett Lawton

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129275 Copy

Description

Title

Making the grade: Labor, desert and integrity in assessment

Author(s)

Smith, Bennett Lawton

Issue Date

2025-05-05

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Burbules, Nicholas C

Committee Member(s)

• Nelson, Jennifer L
• Tanchuk, Nicolas J
• Taylor, Rebecca M

Department of Study

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• desert
• artificial intelligence
• academic integrity

Abstract

As text-generating artificial intelligence tools grow in popularity, educators and educational institutions ask: how ought students use (or not) these tools, and why? This paper assesses the position taken by the International Baccalaureate Organization on these questions by using the organization’s relevant policy documents to assemble a set of analytical claims about the conceptual linkages underlying them. I suggest that the concept of “academic integrity,” when deployed to regulate the production of student work within the IB, draws implicitly or explicitly on at least three different conceptions of integrity. I identify each, compare their foundations, applications, and limits, and turn to focus on one in particular, which invokes moral desert. I contend that this conception is crucial to account for, at least within the specific policy context under review, because it is directly impacted by the way AI tools function in the production of academic work. Indeed, I show that these tools intervene in precisely the place that desert claims are rooted, and I draw implications for current and future policy responses.

Graduation Semester

2025-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129275

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2025 Bennett L. Smith

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