In 2025-26, KIPP New Orleans used EnlightenAI in grades 3 to 12 to score network interims, run weekly history essays and prepare students for LEAP and AP exams. Its grades 3 to 8 ELA gain on LEAP was double the city's.
Source: New Orleans AI Education Fund, Year One Impact Report, 2025-26. A case study, not a controlled study: the results are KIPP's, and EnlightenAI supported the work.
KIPP New Orleans runs elementary, middle and high schools across the city, and writing sits at the center of how it prepares students for LEAP and AP exams. Scoring thousands of essays consistently, and fast enough for the feedback to matter, was the hard part. Norming sessions helped, but two teachers reading the same essay still scored it differently.
It started with one skeptical teacher. Emily Bisso, a National Board Certified history teacher, worried AI would take the humanity out of teaching. She trained EnlightenAI on her own rubrics, spot-checked its work, and showed her department what it could do. The network followed.
“I trained the feedback. I told Enlighten what I wanted it to give feedback on, what an exemplar would look like, and what a low-performing sample would look like. … I'm still doing all of the teachery things, but I'm just far more focused on moving them as opposed to figuring out what the trends are.”
Grade 3 to 8 ELA teachers graded each network interim in EnlightenAI using one AI trained for the whole network, so every class was scored against the same calibrated rubric, without separate norming sessions.
Teachers reviewed every score before it counted, and spent the time they saved on what the results meant for instruction.
At Frederick Douglass High School, history students wrote a document-based question every week. They checked their own work against the rubric on Thursday, their teacher ran the essays through EnlightenAI over the weekend, and on Friday they peer-reviewed and compared their scores with EnlightenAI's.
Emily Bisso, who led the work, found that 90 to 95% of her students' peer grades matched EnlightenAI's: a sign they had learned the rubric. Read Emily's story.
After each interim, trends and insights showed every class's strengths and growth areas, and teachers turned them into reteaching resources built from their own students' writing.
Students got their written feedback back to reflect on, not just a score.
KIPP built LEAP practice tasks in literary analysis, narrative and research writing, and AP history and government free-response practice, all scored on the official rubrics.
In spring 2026, Douglass history classes also tried EnlightenAI's live dashboard and instant feedback while students wrote. That year, Douglass recorded its best AP U.S. Government passing rate.
Source: New Orleans AI Education Fund, Year One Impact Report.
On Louisiana's LEAP test, KIPP New Orleans grew its share of grade 3 to 8 students at Mastery or above by about 4 points, double the citywide gain of about 2. Its high schools' U.S. History and Civics gains also ran ahead of the city.
This is a case study, not a controlled study. These results belong to KIPP New Orleans' teachers, leaders and students; EnlightenAI was proud to support their work, alongside other efforts like the Fund's early-literacy support at KIPP that year. The Fund and KIPP plan to compare tool use with results classroom by classroom. Read the Fund's report.
KIPP schools: Louisiana Department of Education LEAP results. New Orleans and Louisiana averages: New Orleans AI Education Fund.
One history teacher tries EnlightenAI with her AP classes, and grade 3 to 8 ELA coaches use it to score test-prep writing.
The New Orleans AI Education Fund makes KIPP New Orleans its first implementation grantee.
Rubrics are loaded in advance and teachers in high school history and grade 3 to 8 ELA are trained in person.
Network interims are graded in EnlightenAI, and high school history runs a DBQ every week.
Practice tasks on the official rubrics ahead of LEAP and AP exams.
EnlightenAI continues across the network.
“KIPP used AI-powered tools curated for their evidence base and research-backed approach.”
“Strong instructional leadership focused on a detailed implementation plan.”
“KIPP sought out support from partners, vendors, and funders to ensure they had the financial and technical capacity to succeed.”
From the New Orleans AI Education Fund's Year One Impact Report.
KIPP New Orleans' work with EnlightenAI was made possible by The New Orleans AI Education Fund, which named KIPP its first Implementation Grantee and backed the rollout with funding and support. We're grateful to the Fund, its anchor funders The Booth-Bricker Fund, New Schools for New Orleans and the Rosenthal Family Foundation, and its programmatic partner AI for Equity, for investing in New Orleans teachers and students.
Visit nolaed.aiWe'll help you plan the rubrics, training and first assessments, the way KIPP did.