How the AI Forms a Grading Suggestion
When a student submits work in Schoology, Assess reads three things together: the assignment prompt, any rubric or grading criteria you have set, and the student’s submitted work. It then compares the work against those expectations and proposes a score along with a draft feedback comment. That proposal appears in the Evaluation panel for you to review.
The AI never sends a grade to the Schoology gradebook on its own. A grade reaches the gradebook only when you click Approve or Approve with Edit.
What the Confidence Bar Means
The Evaluation panel shows a Confidence bar ranging from 0 to 100 percent. This number is the AI’s own estimate of how certain it is about the score it proposed. A higher number means the AI found clear evidence in the work. A lower number means it was less sure.
Confidence does not change the grade automatically. It is a signal for you. When confidence is low, read the student’s work more carefully before deciding.
Current Pilot: Overall Quality Scoring
During the current pilot, the AI evaluates the overall quality of the work rather than scoring each rubric criterion separately. Richer per-criterion scoring is still being rolled out. You may see a single overall criterion in the breakdown. Always read the student’s work yourself before approving any grade.
Where the AI Struggles
The AI can be wrong. It is especially likely to make mistakes in these situations:
- Handwriting and photos — scanned or photographed work may be misread.
- Math and symbols — equations, formulas, and special notation are hard for the AI to parse reliably.
- Very short answers — one- or two-word responses give the AI little to work from.
- Creative or unconventional responses — the AI may not recognize valid approaches that differ from what it expects.
- Work outside the assignment’s scope — if a student writes about something unrelated, the AI may still attempt a score.
The Golden Rule
You review every grade. The AI’s suggestion is a starting point, not a decision. Use Approve when the suggestion is correct, Approve with Edit to adjust the score or feedback before it goes to the gradebook, and Reject to discard the suggestion and grade the work yourself.
Using Re-run
If a submission’s result looks clearly wrong or the grading failed, click Re-run. The AI will process that submission again from scratch. Re-run does not guarantee a different result, but it can help when a processing error occurred.