Background
In the autumn of 2025, Gradr reached out to Johanna Lokeheim, principal at Birger Jarls Gymnasium, with a simple question: would the school be open to exploring how AI could support teacher workload — and improve the feedback students receive?
She said yes — and pointed toward two Swedish teachers curious enough to give it a real go.
That’s where it started. We partnered with Sara Salavati and Sadia Pearson Harnafi and set out to see what Gradr could do in their day-to-day.
Early Results
The results came almost immediately. From their very first sessions after onboarding, Sara and Sadia reported that they were saving time and giving students better feedback than before. It wasn’t a slow build of confidence — it was there from the start.
And from that point on, something shifted. The conversation was no longer about whether AI could play a role in their teaching. It was about how far this could actually go.
How It Spread
Word moved the way it usually does in a school — through the hallway, the subject team, the staff room. Over the following weeks, teachers in English, social science, economics, and law started trying it too.
Each one came with their own frustration:
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One teacher was spending 20–30 minutes per student just shaping written comments
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Another was juggling multiple classes with writing assignments piling up across weekends
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Sara Salavati was working through around 90 student essays per week
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Eric Monroy, a social science and sociology teacher, had calculated that grading was consuming a third of his total working time
The pattern became clear fast: teachers tried Gradr, and wanted to keep using it.
Eric Monroy had already given ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Copilot a fair shot for the same task — and walked away unconvinced. With Gradr, one session was enough.
“Jag kan verkligen se hur det här underlättar.” “I can really see how this makes things easier.”
— Eric Monroy, Social Science & Sociology Teacher
Sara and Sadia, the two Swedish teachers who’d started it all, weren’t quiet about it either:
“Vi är jätte för Gradr — vi har skrytit för våra kollegor om att ha Gradr.” “We’re thrilled about Gradr — we’ve been bragging to our colleagues about having Gradr.”
— Sara Salavati, Swedish Teacher
What They Found
The numbers came quickly. Sara Salavati measured it herself: what used to take her 20 minutes per student now took 10–12 minutes. In another session, she went from around an hour and a half of manual grading down to roughly 30 minutes for a whole class.
But the more important finding was that quality didn’t slip. Students experienced the comments as clearer and more actionable. Sara even had her class compare Gradr’s feedback side by side with her own — and asked students which version helped them more. The result was clear.
“Det är inte bedömningen i sig som tar tid — jag ser väldigt snabbt var en elev befinner sig. Men att sitta ner och skriva tydliga kommentarer, det är det som tar tid. Jag hade kunnat lägga ner den tiden på att utveckla mina lektioner istället.”
“The grading itself isn’t what takes time — I can see very quickly where a student stands. It’s sitting down and writing clear feedback that takes time. That’s time I could have spent developing my lessons instead.”
— Sara Salavati, Swedish Teacher
By December, Johanna Lokeheim had heard enough from enough people to know where this was heading.
From Conviction to Commitment
What started with two curious teachers had become a decision for the entire school — built gradually, on the steady accumulation of colleagues who’d tried it and didn’t want to go back.
