Run an essay contest whose ranking survives a parent email
Argument strength, evidence and reasoning, structure, persuasive force — the same four criteria applied identically to every essay, each with a written rationale you can forward without editing.
No credit card • 30 students • 2 free contests every month
Instead of
- two colleagues judging to two different rubrics
- “why didn’t my child win?” arriving on a Saturday
- no way to tell what a student actually wrote
You can have
- one rubric applied the same way to every essay
- a written rationale you can send back the same day
- an AI-use signal on every submission
How it works with MeritBoard
- 1
Create a Persuasive Writing contest
Set the prompt, the length, the deadline, and the entry policy on AI tools. Add your own criteria if the sponsor requires them.
- 2
Collect entries by link
Students submit typed essays or photographs of handwritten ones. No student accounts. Grade divisions if the field spans a wide range.
- 3
The computer scores and reasons
Argument strength, evidence and reasoning, structure, persuasive force — with a short written rationale per essay.
- 4
You verify the winner
Reorder if you disagree, then Confirm & Publish. The certificate and award page are ready to send to the sponsor.
Before you start
Who is the judge of record?
You are. The computer produces a first-pass ranking with reasoning; a teacher reviews and must click Confirm & Publish before anything is shared.
Is student writing used to train AI models?
Never. Essays go to our providers only to score that contest and are never used to train or improve any model.
Our district needs an AI-use policy before we can use this.
Our free District AI Policy Kit has ready-to-adapt template language written for exactly that conversation.
Can we run it across the whole department?
Yes — a group contest collects entries from multiple teachers into one field with one rubric and one podium.
Score this year’s essay contest in an afternoon
Free for 30 students and two contests a month.
Get started free