Amity Regional High School AI grading error misread rubric, penalizing a student
A student reported that an AI grading tool at Amity Regional High School misread the rubric for an AP Psychology assignment, interpreting cat least oned as conly oned and receiving a failing grade entered into PowerSchool. The grade was corrected after an academic appeal, and public backlash followed, including a petition to Keep Amity Human; FOIA materials indicated the district spent more on AI tools than initially claimed.
AI misread the rubric, interpreting 'at least one' as 'only one' and penalizing the student.
Key facts
- What
- A student reported that an AI grading tool at Amity Regional High School misread the rubric for an AP Psychology assignment, interpreting cat least oned as conly oned and receiving a failing grade entered into PowerSchool.
- Incident date
- Mar 5, 2026
- Who
- Amity Regional High School (Woodbridge, CT)
- Failure mode
- Tool Misuse
- AI surface
- Chatbot
- Severity
- Medium
What happened
A student at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, CT, reported that an AI grading tool misread a rubric for an AP Psychology assignment. The tool treated the instruction to provide at least one piece of evidence as if only one piece were allowed, resulting in a failing score recorded in PowerSchool. The grade was corrected after the student filed an academic appeal, and public outcry followed, including a petition to Keep Amity Human. FOIA requests indicated the district spent more than initially claimed on AI tools.
What broke inside the model
- 01 · TriggerThe agent selects the correct tool.
- 02 · Model stepIt fills the call with the wrong arguments.
- 03 · Control gapNo validation checks the arguments first.
- 04 · FailureThe tool runs against the wrong target.
- 05 · ConsequenceThe wrong record, account, or system is hit.
At the tool call, the arguments point at the wrong target.
The model interpreted the rubric instruction to provide at least one piece of evidence as if only one piece existed, causing the penalty. The incorrect grade was then entered into PowerSchool and later corrected after an academic appeal.
What it cost
Sources
- PressMy school is grading me with AI. It got my grade wrong.ctmirror.org
- SocialKeep Amity Human: Cut funding for harmful AI-powered grading platformschange.org
Cite this entry
https://failureindex.ai/failures/amity-regional-high-school-grading-errorAI Failure Index. "Amity Regional High School AI grading error misread rubric, penalizing a student" (FI-0255). Realm Labs. https://failureindex.ai/failures/amity-regional-high-school-grading-error (indexed Jun 5, 2026).Data fields CC-BY 4.0, prose citation permitted. Incident ID FI-0255. Full dataset at /data.
Note from Realm Labs, the Index steward
How Realm would have caught this
- OmniGuard
- AgentRealm
Realm can inspect a tool call against the user's actual intent before it runs, and hold calls whose arguments or target do not match what was asked, so the wrong tool or the wrong arguments never reach the system of record.