Quill.org joins $2.8 million effort to scrutinize AI literacy tools used in classrooms
Quill.org, the nonprofit behind AI-supported writing tools used by millions of students, is partnering with Leanlab Education and Learning Commons on a $2.8 million effort to assess whether AI-generated literacy content meets research-backed classroom standards.
The initiative follows comments shared on LinkedIn by Quill’s CEO, who pointed to inconsistent quality across AI tools currently marketed to schools.
Quill.org provides free literacy and writing tools used by educators to support student practice and feedback at scale. Leanlab Education works with schools to test education technology in real classroom settings, while Learning Commons is a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative-backed organization building open infrastructure to connect learning science and AI development.
CEO points to uneven quality across AI classroom tools
In a post shared on LinkedIn, Peter Gault, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Quill.org, frames the partnership as a response to persistent gaps between what AI tools promise and what they deliver in practice: “Quill.org is partnering with Leanlab Education and CZI's Learning Commons as part of a $2.8 million initiative to improve AI-powered learning tools.”
He added that while AI has the potential to reduce workload and increase feedback frequency, current tools vary widely in rigor and usefulness for teachers and students: “AI-powered tools can support teachers in providing more frequent and detailed feedback, but only if those tools are rigorously evaluated against high-quality standards.”
Focus on public datasets and evaluation infrastructure
The funding supports three related projects focused on building shared evaluation tools for AI literacy products. According to Learning Commons, the work will center on creating public datasets, assessment protocols, and evaluators that measure AI-generated feedback and reading materials against trusted educational rubrics.
Sandra Liu Huang, President of Learning Commons, says: “Teachers deserve trustworthy classroom tools that provide high-quality, rigorous content. Tools should deliver content at the right grade level, tailored to each student’s needs, and based on solid learning science to help students grow.”
The grants are intended to address long-standing classroom challenges, including the time required to provide detailed writing feedback and the difficulty of matching reading materials to students’ developmental levels. The organizations involved argue that AI tools often produce generic or repetitive outputs that fall short of instructional needs.
Classroom testing and literacy standards at the center
As part of the initiative, Quill and Leanlab Education will develop a research protocol and a large, open dataset of anonymized student writing, annotated by researchers to reflect effective feedback practices. The dataset is designed to help developers test whether AI tools align with evidence-based writing instruction.
Katie Boody Adorno, Founder and CEO of Leanlab Education, says: “Our proximity to schools, students, and educators, paired with a rigorous R&D approach, allows us to ensure that tools of the future are being designed in partnership with school communities.”
A third grant will extend text complexity evaluators developed with Student Achievement Partners, enabling AI tools to assess whether generated reading passages meet qualitative and quantitative expectations for grades three through twelve.
Joy Delizo-Osborne, President and CEO of Student Achievement Partners, says: “This work turns the full qualitative text complexity rubric into a transparent, machine-scorable yardstick, so AI tools can be evaluated against research-backed expectations and teachers can trust that the passages and recommendations they receive will actually strengthen comprehension.”
All datasets, protocols, and evaluation tools produced through the initiative will be made publicly available.
ETIH Innovation Awards 2026
The ETIH Innovation Awards 2026 recognize evidence-led innovation across K–12, higher education, and lifelong learning. Open to organizations and institutions in the UK, Europe, North America, and beyond, entries are assessed on demonstrable impact, scalability, and responsible use of technology in education.
