+20%
5.05 → 6.04
Average ACT writing score across the district, spring 2025 to spring 2026
At a glance
ACT writing average
Up 20% in one year, from 5.05 to 6.04
Students scoring 7+ on ACT writing
From 15% of test takers to 38%, more than double
The one school that skipped CoGrader
Stayed flat while every CoGrader school rose, and lost its spot as the district’s top performer
Joshua Robertson, Director of Secondary Curriculum & Instruction
“CoGrader has allowed us to do more writing, with feedback that makes the writing better. Without it, I think we would have been in the same boat.”
A big county, a small central office
Houston County Schools wraps around Dothan in the southeast corner of Alabama: 6,907 students, 16 schools, and five high schools spread across a mostly rural county. Joshua Robertson runs curriculum and instruction for grades 7 through 12. Before that, he was the principal at Wicksburg High School, so he knows what a teacher’s week looks like from the inside.
The central office runs lean and hands-on. Two instructional coaches support the middle grades, and at the high schools Joshua works directly with the principals. He sets the expectation, they help him hold the line, and about two days a week he’s out in classrooms seeing it for himself.
“My job is to set the expectation and make sure our principals know it. Then I rely on them to help measure that it’s being met, and I get out in the schools to see it.”
Writing becomes a district priority
Going into 2025-26, the district made writing a priority and set clear goals. Every school knew the goals before the year started: raise achievement on the ACT in English Language Arts, and lift the middle grades, where Joshua most wanted to see growth in writing.
“We placed an emphasis on writing. We set district goals, and everybody knew those goals going into the school year.”
The starting point made the case for change. The district’s ACT writing average sat at 5.20 in 2024 and slipped to 5.05 in 2025.
Everybody knew the answer was more writing, with great feedback on it. The question was who would carry it. English teachers were already bearing the burden for writing, and every new essay meant another round of feedback to write.
“We want more writing in every classroom, and we want to help bear the burden our English teachers are carrying.”
Set the expectation, then make it doable
So in 2025-26, the district set a simple expectation for its secondary English teachers: write more. CoGrader made that possible. It drafts rubric-aligned feedback on every essay, and the teacher reviews it, adjusts it, and sends it. The teacher’s judgment stays in charge; CoGrader does the first draft.
Teachers ran their daily writing and their big essays through it, tied each one to a rubric they already used or built their own, and most pushed the work out through Google Classroom. Adoption was the part Joshua worried about most. It turned out to be the easy part.
“Once we showed teachers what CoGrader can do, it sold itself.”
The scores came back in July
The district’s average ACT writing score rose 20% in a single year, from 5.05 to 6.04, after two flat years. Every one of the four writing domains went up, by 0.8 to 1.2 points. The share of students scoring 7 or higher on the 2 to 12 scale more than doubled, from 15% to 38%.
15.0 to 17.5
ACT ELA average, up 2.5 points, meeting the district’s ACT goal
5.3 to 6.8
8th grade ACAP writing, up 1.5 points in one year
5.2 to 6.0
7th grade ACAP writing, up 0.8 points in one year
The only school that didn’t improve didn’t use CoGrader
Joshua credits CoGrader with much of the change, and one school makes the point for him. The only high school that didn’t adopt CoGrader saw its ACT writing average hold flat, at about 5.5. It had been the district’s top performer. In 2026, schools that used CoGrader passed it.
“The one school that didn’t use it, their writing average on the ACT didn’t change at all. And they’re typically our highest-achieving school.”
Measured against the goals the district set, the year delivered. It met its ACT achievement goal in English Language Arts, and both middle grades outgained the state on ACAP writing.
Ask Joshua which result he’s proudest of, and he goes straight to the middle grades. On the writing section of ACAP, Alabama’s state test, the district’s 8th graders went from 5.3 to 6.8 out of 10, and its 7th graders from 5.2 to 6.0. Both grades outgained the state, and both widened their lead over the Alabama average.
“Our 7th and 8th grade writing went from the bottom of our district to the top. To me, that was the big one.”
A bonus for teachers: time back
On top of the scores, English teachers got something back: time. Feedback that used to eat a weekend now starts from a solid draft, which is what made the extra writing doable. Teachers put the hours they got back into one-on-one support for the students who needed it, and into more writing. The new grammar and spelling check has gone over well too.
“Most of our English teachers have raved about how efficient it is and how much time it gives them back.”
Year two: spreading the load
This year, the district is spreading the load. Social studies teachers have four ACT-style writing prompts per semester built into their curriculum, and the ask is at least two. Joshua’s team took CoGrader to the kickoff meetings and showed it to every one of them. The message was plain: you don’t have to be a writing expert. CoGrader drafts rubric-aligned feedback, and you review it and send it.
“We’re not asking you to be a writing expert. We’re asking you to make time for writing.”
The district has introduced CoGrader to its elementary reading coaches, and a few math teachers have started building and grading quizzes with it. As for the ACT, Joshua isn’t sitting on a 6. The district is pushing for 7 or better this year.
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