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$28,841 left to reach the funding goal.
Hidden Measures is a proposed qualitative study of how U.S. public high-school educators judge learner understanding after AI-assisted work. SilverFox Research LLC, a for-profit Illinois research organization, seeks restricted support for a public-benefit study using fictional student responses and assistance histories. There will be no student participants, real student work, grades, or identifiable education records.
The minimum request is $24,218 for 24 main interviews and four pilots in one state, provisionally Illinois. The target is $28,841 for the preferred Illinois, Ohio, and North Carolina design, with the same total sample. These are proposed all-paid budgets, not quotations or secured funds. Funding, documented ethics review, applicable permissions, and qualified human capacity must precede recruitment.
This proposal was prepared with AI assistance. Its organizational facts and proposed investigator role have been confirmed by Anish Iyappan. No exclusively human authorship, institutionally approved study, government support, or existing partnership is claimed.
Our main question is how educators justify judgments of learner understanding after AI-assisted work, and what further evidence they regard as sufficient and feasible. We distinguish the quality of an answer, the learner’s contribution, what the learner may understand, and whether the assistance was permitted.
Anish Iyappan will conduct and analyze individual remote interviews lasting up to 75 minutes with adults currently teaching or holding relevant assessment responsibilities in public high-school grades 9–12. We propose 18 classroom teachers and six assessment, curriculum, or instructional leaders, spanning science explanation and civics/social-studies argumentation. Four pilots will be outside the main sample.
Each educator will consider three synthetic cases with an overlapping core. They first judge a finished response, then see the starting response, precise AI contribution, and learner uptake. We ask whether their judgment changes, why, and what additional evidence they would request. Assistance histories distinguish language editing, process prompts, supplied reasoning, and mixed contributions. Versions and order will be recorded. The educator is the analytic unit; vignette episodes are nested within educators.
Framework Method analysis will combine open coding, a revisable framework, matrices, within-person contrasts, comparisons across educators, and contradictory cases. Reflexive memos will document how SilverFox’s interests and the interviewer’s questions may shape interpretation. Independent qualitative and subject review are paid budget lines; reviewers are not yet contracted.
If the three-state target is funded and access is feasible, we propose eight main interviews per state. At the minimum, we will adopt a documented one-state design before main recruitment, retaining subject/role variation and seeking multiple districts and independent access routes. We will not retain token state samples merely to claim a multistate study.
Completion means four reviewed pilot interviews, an appropriately finalized instrument, 24 main interviews within the funded scope, checked and de-identified records, transparent analysis matrices and decision memos, independent methods review, an aggregate findings report, and a manuscript draft. These are proposed milestones, not existing results. Publication acceptance and recruitment yield are not guaranteed.
The substantive contribution is an account of the reasons educators give for capability claims and for the sufficiency and feasibility of further evidence. Staged disclosure, teacher judgment, and verification already have relevant precedents; we do not claim an untouched research area. The study cannot establish actual student learning, detection accuracy, national teacher prevalence, a universal assessment threshold, or causal state-policy effects.
We propose public release of the funded synthetic vignette pack, interview guide, methodological account and aggregate findings, under CC BY 4.0 after checking rights and agreed terms. This does not license existing proprietary platform code or third-party material. Empirical findings will be separated from any later commercial design implications, including findings that challenge SilverFox’s assumptions.
No raw recordings or transcripts will be published or used for model training. Consent, recording choices, withdrawal limits, compensation and retention terms will be finalized through review. Contact/payment records will be separated from coded data. Identifiable material will not be uploaded to public AI tools; any transcription arrangement requires suitable data terms, consent and review.
We propose completion within six months after funding, review, access and staffing conditions are met, with at least monthly milestone updates during funded work. Administrative review time is uncertain. Updates will disclose material changes without exposing participant identities or identifying quotations.
The funding pays research effort and independent review, participant honoraria, ethics/permission costs, transcription, secure materials/storage and project-specific data/contract support. No unpaid professional work, separate organizational overhead, or profit is proposed. Rates, compensation-cost treatment, reserves and all other categories must be resolved against actual quotes and allowable terms before award acceptance.
The one-state base is $21,059 plus a $3,158.85 planning reserve, rounded to $24,218. The three-state base is $25,079 plus a $3,761.85 reserve, rounded to $28,841. The reserve is a planning buffer, not an automatic expense claim. We will not conceal disallowed reserves in inflated rates or hours. Unquoted review, site, training or accessibility requirements may require a revised budget.
If the pending $1,000 Chicago seed application funds overlapping preparation tasks, we will credit actual costs and reduce the remaining request, preventing duplicate charging. No seed award is assumed. We will reconcile multiple offers before accepting overlapping funds.
Proposed cost breakdown — one state / three states (USD):
Paid PI effort (304 / 374 h × proposed $40): $12,160.00 / $14,960.00
Compensation-cost allowance (provisional 15%): $1,824.00 / $2,244.00
Independent qualitative review: $1,200.00 / $1,200.00
Independent content review: $600.00 / $600.00
Proposed educator honoraria (28 × $50): $1,400.00 / $1,400.00
Ethics review base allowance: $2,100.00 / $2,100.00
Permission-letter review allowance: $150.00 / $450.00
District application allowance: $100.00 / $300.00
Recruitment distribution allowance: $150.00 / $450.00
Transcription allowance: $525.00 / $525.00
Secure project storage/materials/accessibility: $250.00 / $250.00
Project-specific data/contract support: $600.00 / $600.00
Base cost: $21,059.00 / $25,079.00
Planning reserve: $3,158.85 / $3,761.85
Rounded funding target: $24,218.00 / $28,841.00
Anish Iyappan, Principal Investigator at SilverFox Research LLC, is the proposed interviewer and qualitative analyst. The organization is based in Illinois. No other researcher or institution is currently claimed as an agreed partner.
Preparation to date includes a proposed protocol and interview pack, a conceptual/methodological framework, a focused literature assessment, synthetic assessment cases, and a state/access cost comparison. These are design materials, not completed field studies or validation results. No unverified degree, publication record, institutional appointment, prior grant, or specific qualitative experience is asserted.
Paid independent methods review (16 hours) and content review (10 hours) are budgeted, with people to be selected. Before fieldwork, the methods reviewer will assess the design and interpretation plan and identify training or staffing needs. If qualified capacity or required support cannot be secured within the funded plan, we will revise it transparently before proceeding. No professional is expected to work without pay.
Likely risks are weak access, delays in review or permissions, insufficient subject/role variation, instruments that do not elicit interpretable reasoning, costs beyond estimates, or inadequate available capacity. Donor interest and recruitment response rates are unknown.
We will obtain the appropriate documented ethics determination and applicable permissions before screening, pilots, recruitment or interviews. Pilots will test clarity, task fit and duration; required changes will be reviewed before main interviews. We will document access constraints, contradictory interpretations and scope changes rather than promise representative findings or favorable results.
If a viable study cannot proceed within agreed terms, we will seek an agreed pause, revised scope or handling of unspent money with the fund administrator. Restricted funds will not be redirected unilaterally. Donors will not control participant responses, conclusions or favorable findings and will not receive raw participant data. This is not a product evaluation or teacher-performance assessment.
No funding has been secured for this proposed educator study. A separate $1,000 Awesome Foundation Chicago seed application was submitted October 26, 2026, for a public synthetic-case resource; its website confirmed receipt. No award has been made.
SilverFox Research LLC has raised $0 in external grants, investments, donations, or sponsorships during the last 12 months, as confirmed by Anish Iyappan. Any personal self-funding is not included in that external-fundraising total; no personal contribution amount is asserted.