The decision stays yours: grades, placements and consequences
Lesson 3 of 6 · Student data and the line you cannot cross
1 · Learn the move · Constraints + negative instructions
A model will give you a grade if you ask for one. It will give you a placement recommendation, a consequence for an incident, and a reading of whether a family is being difficult. All of it will sound reasoned. None of it is yours, and the law in a growing number of states is explicit that a person makes those calls [S]. The rule on this door is a constraint you write into every prompt: the model drafts the rationale, the rubric feedback, the options with what each costs, and where the call sits it writes [YOUR CALL: what you are deciding]. The negative instruction matters as much: never state a grade, a placement or a consequence as a conclusion. A model that produces 'this earns a C' has made your decision and put your name on it. A model that produces 'the rubric row for evidence reads at the second band; [YOUR CALL: the grade]' has done its job and left yours alone.
Here is an assignment, my rubric, and a student's work with every identifier taken out: [paste]. Draft feedback in the rubric's own rows, quoting the work where the row applies. Constraints: never state a grade, a score or a level as a conclusion; where the grade would go, write [YOUR CALL: the grade] with the two rubric rows that pull in different directions. Never recommend a placement, an intervention tier or a consequence. The decision stays yours; your job is the rationale I can check against the work.
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
A high-school chemistry teacher at Ridgeway High has 94 lab reports to return by Friday. She wants the model to grade them. She has read the district's new policy, which says a person assigns every grade. So she asks for something else: feedback in the rubric's rows with the sentence from the report that earned it, and a [YOUR CALL: the grade] line where two rows disagree. The first pass takes her eleven seconds a report to confirm or change. The grades are hers. The time is the model's.
Write the prompt for this scenario as given, or swap in a real one from your own work. The score works the same either way.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.