How to Use Claude With Class Data, Without Student Names
Dr. Steve Troyer · August 10, 2026
The last edition ended by promising this one would be about your students, once you had names and nothing else. Here is the play: you do not need the names. You can get a real picture of where your class is, leveled groups with reasoning attached, and a lesson built with three differentiated levels, without a single student name going anywhere.
The work is in the folder you point Claude at, not the prompt. Here is what goes in it, what never does, what comes back, and what you check before any of it reaches a student.
Can you put class data into Claude for Teachers?
Follow your district’s guidance first. If it says something about student data, that beats everything below. Where you have room to decide for yourself, the practice in this edition is initials or ID numbers rather than names, no pasted student work, and nothing you would not be comfortable reading aloud. That constraint costs you almost nothing, because the useful output does not depend on names.
Anthropic says the plan includes K-12-specific terms and FERPA-aligned protections, and that teacher content is not used for model training. Worth knowing. It is also not the same thing as your district approving a particular use, and no vendor can make that call on a district’s behalf.
Most people point AI at a class, get something generic back, and conclude AI can’t possibly understand their students. It doesn’t. It never will. But what it can do is read the data and records you already keep, and that is the power that is so often unrealized.
What is a class folder?
A class folder is a single folder of your own planning records that Claude can read in Cowork, so it starts from your actual class instead of from a description you retype every time. It takes about 20 minutes, once, and then it is reusable for the whole year.
The output is only ever as good as the folder. That sounds obvious and it is the entire game, because a thin folder does not produce a thin answer. It produces a confident one built out of averages.
What should go in a class folder, and what never should?
| Goes in | Stays out |
|---|---|
| Recent scores and checks, initials or ID numbers only | Student names |
| Attendance and grouping notes | Anything pasted from student work |
| Your lesson plans, at least from the unit, but the entire year is better | IEP or 504 documents |
| Support needs written as supports, not as people | Discipline records |
| What you already tried that did not land | Anything you haven't talked to a family about |
The last row on the left is the one people skip and it is the most valuable thing in the folder. A folder with only scores produces generic grouping. A folder that says the manipulative lesson flopped, and the exit tickets got better once you added the sentence frame, produces a plan you could actually implement.
What does Claude give you back from a class folder?
Four things, from one request:
- A short picture of where the class is right now
- Groups, each with the reason it is grouped that way
- One lesson differentiated to three different groups, target unchanged
- What to check first tomorrow
The reasons attached to the groups are the part worth spending some time on. A grouping with no reason is a guess you cannot evaluate. A grouping that says these 6 students are together because they all missed the same step in the same way is a claim you can check in about 30 seconds against work you have already seen.
What prompt do you use on a class folder?
Read the files in this folder and give me a short picture of where this class is right now. Group students by what they actually need next, and tell me why each group is grouped that way. Then take my most recent lesson and build 3 access levels from it without moving the learning target. Flag anything you are unsure about instead of filling it in.
That last sentence is doing more work than the rest of it combined. Without it, a gap in the folder gets filled silently and reads exactly like a finding.
What do you check before any of it reaches students?
- The groups are a proposal. You know which 2 students cannot sit together and the AI never will.
- Check one grouping claim against real work. Not all of them, just one. If the reason holds up, the rest probably do. If it does not, the process is thinner than you thought and may need some adjustment.
- Read the flagged uncertainties first. They are the cheapest quality signal you will get.
- The access levels still need the learning-target check. Below proficiency should mean more access, not a lower bar. Above should mean deeper reasoning, not more worksheet.
My one warning
In order for this to work, you have to keep the folder current. If the scores in it are 3 weeks old and the lesson plans are from a unit you already finished, what comes back will be confident, specific, and about a class that no longer exists. It will not tell you that. Nothing in the tone changes when the inputs go out of date, and that is the single most expensive property of these systems.
Drop the newest formative assessment check into the folder the same afternoon you give it. 2 minutes, and it is the difference between a tool that knows your class and one that is completely out of date.
What is next
The 21-day Claude for Teachers series ends next week. On August 17 the complete Field Guide goes out, all 21 workflows with the inputs, the copy-ready prompts, and the review steps, and it goes to email subscribers first. It is free, and it stays free. If you are new here, the setup edition is the one that comes before this one, and the lesson-planning edition is where the series started.
What is the first unit you are teaching this year? Reply and I may build the next example around it.
Every workflow in the series, with the prompts and the review steps, in the free Field Guide.
Get the Field Guide, freeCommon questions
- Can I put student data into Claude for Teachers?
- Follow your district's guidance first, because that governs the answer. Where you have room to decide, the practice recommended here is initials or ID numbers instead of names and no pasted student work, which keeps the workflow useful while minimizing what goes in.
- Does Claude for Teachers train on what I upload?
- Anthropic says it does not train models on a teacher's inputs or outputs, that the educator retains rights to inputs and owns outputs, and that data can be accessed or deleted from the dashboard. Your district remains the data controller.
- Is Claude for Teachers FERPA compliant?
- No vendor can be FERPA compliant on your district's behalf, because your district is the data controller and compliance is a property of how the district uses the tool. Anthropic says the offering includes FERPA-aligned protections and a K-12 Data Processing Agreement written around FERPA, which is what makes compliance possible rather than automatic.
- What if my class folder does not have much in it yet?
- Start with the lesson plans from your current unit and one recent check, then keep adding as the year goes; a full year of plans is better than a single unit. A thin folder produces confident generalities rather than an obviously thin answer, so ask Claude to flag what it is unsure about instead of filling it in.
- Can Claude group my students for me?
- It can propose groups and explain the reasoning behind each one, which is the useful part. The decision stays yours, and every state currently writing AI policy reserves grouping, placement, and grading to humans.