Skip to main content

The ClassLens Blog

Practical strategies for grading smarter, not harder. Written by a teacher with 22 years in the classroom.

August 24, 2026
We moved our Advanced tier to Gemini 3.7 Flash. Here is the measurement that did it.

We benchmarked Gemini 3.7 Flash against human-scored essays before it graded anything: QWK 0.639, versus 0.29 to 0.43 for the model it replaced.

Read more
August 8, 2026
Google Classroom will write your rubric now. It still won't grade against it.

Gemini rubric generation landed in Google Classroom August 5, and Gemini opens to students of all ages August 10. Neither one scores submissions.

Read more
July 31, 2026
How to Choose the Most Secure AI Grading Tool for K-12

The independent verifications a K-12 AI grading tool should hold: Google OAuth, CASA Tier 2, SOC 2, plus the six questions to ask any vendor.

Read more
July 21, 2026
Google released Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite today. We tested it on grading the same day. We're not switching.

Same-day test of Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite for grading: human-rater agreement (QWK), grade reproducibility, and bias, versus the models ClassLens ran in July 2026.

Read more
July 14, 2026
Grading Audio and Video Assignments with AI: A Teacher's Guide

ClassLens grades audio and video submissions in Google Classroom, not just essays. A teacher's guide to grading spoken and recorded work with AI.

Read more
July 5, 2026
The Questions Are Worth More Than the Answers: Writing Rubric Prompts That Reveal What Students Know

AI can answer anything now, so the question is the instrument. How to write rubric questions that reveal what students understand, not what they memorized.

Read more
July 3, 2026
How to Grade Google Classroom Assignments With AI Without Uploading Anything

ClassLens pulls student work straight from Google Classroom and grades it with AI-assisted feedback. No file uploads, no pasting text. You approve every grade.

Read more
June 27, 2026
Can Gemini grade assignments in Google Classroom?

Gemini in Classroom drafts feedback one student at a time. It does not grade. What it does today, what it costs, and what fills the gap.

Read more
June 9, 2026
Why I built ClassLens

Two field trip days left me with 450 ungraded assignments. Every AI tool I tried only graded essays. So I built one that grades the rest of the pile too.

Read more
May 26, 2026
We tested our AI on 41,000 student submissions. Here's everything we found.

200+ experiments. 8 datasets. No demographic bias. We tested ClassLens against academic benchmarks and published everything, including what didn't work.

Read more
May 21, 2026
Why your last AI grading tool let you down (and it wasn't the AI's fault)

Most teachers tried ChatGPT for grading once, got something generic, and quit. The model wasn't what failed. Everything wrapped around it was.

Read more
May 16, 2026
The working teacher's guide to IB English Paper 1 marking criteria (2026 and 2027 exams)

A criterion-by-criterion guide to marking IB English A Paper 1 for the 2026 and 2027 exams. The criteria carry forward unchanged; here is how to apply them.

Read more
May 7, 2026
The working teacher's guide to IB English Paper 2 marking criteria (2026 and 2027 exams)

A criterion-by-criterion guide to marking IB English A Paper 2 under the revised criteria, first assessed in 2026 and still the standard for the 2027 exams.

Read more
May 1, 2026
Responsible AI Use in the Classroom: The Ethics of Using AI to Grade

A teacher's guide to using AI to grade responsibly. Two pillars: student privacy and human connection. Plus the assignments you should never hand to a machine.

Read more
April 23, 2026
What Is a Knowledge Gap Report? How AI Grading Reveals What Your Class Actually Misunderstood

Knowledge Gap Reports show teachers where their whole class is struggling after every assignment. How AI grading creates instructional intelligence.

Read more
April 10, 2026
In a World Where Answers Are Cheap, Questions Are What We Teach For

AI has the answers now. My washing machine says AI on it. So what do teachers teach? A 22-year veteran on why questions are the new curriculum.

Read more
March 10, 2026
Teachers Spend 10 Hours a Week Grading. Here's How to Cut That to 2.

Research shows teachers spend 9.9 hours per week grading. A 22-year classroom veteran shares the strategies and tools that cut his grading time by 80%.

Read more
March 10, 2026
AI Grading vs Manual Grading: What Teachers Actually Need to Know in 2026

A veteran teacher compares AI grading and manual grading on accuracy, feedback quality, and time. Where AI helps, and where it falls short.

Read more
March 10, 2026
Google Classroom Automatic Grading Features and Workflow

Google Classroom automatic grading features include Forms quizzes, rubrics, grade import, and AI feedback. See what still needs teacher review.

Read more