New AI Grading Tool Built for NZQA Assessment Standards Launches in New Zealand

A new AI grading platform built specifically around New Zealand's NZQA assessment framework is now live for secondary school teachers at markitgrader.com.
Most AI tools sold into schools were built overseas. They were trained on foreign curricula, adapted for the New Zealand context with surface-level changes, and pushed into classrooms that had no better option. They don't follow NZQA's marking methodology. They don't produce results teachers can defend. And they give no indication of how confident the system actually is in what it's produced.
Mark-It was built to address all three of those problems from scratch.
"A lot of AI products treat compliance as an afterthought," said Jagger Lissette, Mark-It's 15-year-old Wellington-based founder. "We treated it as a feature. Teachers are taking on professional risk every time they submit a grade. We wanted to reduce that risk, not add to it."
How the Grading Works
Every submission runs through five independent blind grading passes. Each pass grades the work without seeing what the others produced. A consensus grade is drawn from the results. When passes disagree significantly, a separate arbitration model resolves the split.
Four NZQA-specific reference documents are loaded into every model call - covering grading intelligence, marking protocols, and curriculum alignment. The grading logic follows a top-down holistic marking approach, the same method trained NZQA markers use. It reads the submission as a whole, not as a keyword matching exercise.
The final output includes the grade, a written justification, and a Grade Defensibility Score displayed as a 0-100% visual gauge. A high score means the system was consistent and confident. A lower score tells the teacher to look more carefully before confirming.
"Teachers need to be able to stand behind every result," said Lissette. "The defensibility score exists so they can see exactly where the AI is confident and where their own professional judgement needs to take over."
Built Around Teacher Workflow
Mark-It includes a Rubric Library for saving and reloading custom marking criteria, a HOD Dashboard for department-wide oversight, and Moderation Pack PDF exports for NZQA moderation processes. Google Classroom integration lets teachers sync courses and rosters directly without manual data entry.
Final-judgement confirmation is built into every workflow. The AI produces the analysis. The teacher confirms the result. That step is not optional - it is how the platform works.
The platform operates in full compliance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. DeepSeek models are excluded from the AI stack entirely on privacy grounds.
Mark-It is available now at markitgrader.com. The free plan includes 10 AI assessments per month. Pro and school-wide plans are available for higher volume.
Contact: Jagger Lissette, Founder - support@markitgrader.com - markitgrader.com

Mark-It
Wellington, New Zealand 6011
Press Contact: Jagger Lissette, Founder
Email: support@markitgrader.com
Website: markitgrader.com

Mark-It is an AI-powered grading platform built for New Zealand secondary school teachers and Heads of Department. It grades student work against NZQA assessment criteria, generates written feedback, and produces a Grade Defensibility Score so teachers can stand behind every result they submit.
The platform was founded by Jagger Lissette, a 15-year-old Year 11 student from Wellington, and co-founder Bryn Essery, a 16-year-old Year 12 student serving as CFO and COO. Built independently in under two months, Mark-It launched on 24 March 2026. Both founders participate in the Young Enterprise Scheme.
Mark-It operates in full compliance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and is available now at markitgrader.com.

This release was published on openPR.