Hi everyone —
There's a version of "AI in schools" that tries to replace the teacher.
That's not the future I'm building.
The work of teaching is deeply human: noticing, interpreting, encouraging, challenging, believing in students before they believe in themselves. The tragedy is that so much of a teacher's time gets swallowed by the mechanics around learning — especially the slow, repetitive parts of grading and feedback.
So here's a small but important bet:
What if we used AI to give time back to the most human parts of the job?
The core idea
NaviGrade Autograder is a rubric-based grading + feedback workflow designed to compress time-to-feedback while keeping scoring transparent, explainable, and teacher-owned.
Why this matters
Students don't just need feedback — they need feedback while the thinking is still warm.
When feedback comes back days later, learning becomes archaeology: "What was I even doing here?" When it comes back quickly, it becomes momentum: "I see it. I can fix it. I can grow."
Speed isn't about efficiency. It's about belief — the belief that growth is possible right now, not next week.
Rubric-first, always
This is not "AI vibes." The rubric is the truth. The system grades against explicit criteria so expectations stay clear and defensible.
Teacher calibration (control stays with the professionals)
Teachers can score a small set of responses first, and the system mirrors that scoring pattern. The goal is consistency with the teacher, not replacing the teacher.
Feedback that creates capacity
The output isn't just a number — it's actionable feedback students can use immediately, plus a clean record of what was evaluated and why.
Built for real classrooms
Mixed response types, quick checks for understanding, and the reality that everything needs to be explainable to colleagues, families, and leadership.
Where this fits best
Teams working to standardize rubric scoring across classrooms
Leaders trying to shorten reteach cycles
MTSS/intervention workflows where you need fast signals + artifacts
Departments running common assessments and wanting consistency without extra meetings
If you watch the Loom, you'll see the workflow end-to-end and how "teacher-in-control" calibration works in practice.
More soon — this is one of those tools that gets better every time it touches a real classroom.
— Dan