In early June, we announced our new Schools Solutions, which we developed to provide schools and districts with standards-based early education programs proven to help teachers differentiate instruction and accelerate learning while helping students achieve mastery. We also announced the launch of our innovative My Math Academy, the School Division’s first product, which our curriculum and production teams spent six years of development, iteration, and testing. My Math Academy is a research-proven, personalized, adaptive math program for pre-k through second grade. Multiple randomized control trials have shown that students using My Math Academy for as little as 45 minutes a week over a twelve-week period experience significant learning gains, and the children have increased engagement, interest, and confidence in learning math.

In mid-July, we shared that two Age of Learning teams behind the successful launch and ongoing development of My Math Academy published chapters in the academic journal Adaptive Instructional Systems. Design and Evaluation and were to present their work at the HCI International 2021 Conference.

In late July, the head of our Schools Division and a senior researcher on our Learning Science team were featured presenters at the #NYCSchoolsTech Summit 2021, where they shared the truly amazing results we had already seen while rolling out My Math Academy in school district pilot programs nationwide prior to its public launch. Their presentation: Results Count, My Math Academy Delivers! A PreK-2 Game-based Approach that Tripled Math Gains for Early Learners, focused primarily on the truly amazing results achieved in our pilot program in the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District (HCISD) in Texas.

This pilot program was also the focus of a Government Technology magazine website article: My Math Academy Improving Early Childhood Math Skills. The article reported that after offering our My Math Academy: Classroom Edition product to more than 900 largely economically disadvantaged pre-K students in the district, math skills more than doubled for 4-year-old pre-K students and tripled for 3-year-olds. The average pre-K student aged 4 is now at mid-kindergarten level, while the average pre-K student aged 3 is approaching kindergarten-level math skills. You can watch a HCISD school district board meeting discussing the unprecedented impact of My Math Academy on children’s skills and achievement (start at 8:50 for a quicker watch).

This past week, My Math Academy received another honor, winning the Awards of Excellence from Tech & Learning, which named our adaptive early math program one of 2021’s Best Tools for Back to School. Tech & Learning’s Awards of Excellence have long recognized innovation in the edtech industry, and its latest iteration, The Best Tools for Back to School, celebrates the most impressive products and solutions that support the work of teachers, students, and parents as they prepare for the new 2021-22 school year. Tech & Learning’s panel of advisors evaluated My Math Academy on ease of use, value, versatility, and (most importantly) the product’s ability to solve a problem.

Tech & Learning Group Publisher Christine Weiser framed it this way: “As we head into another uncertain year in education, technology will continue to be one of the key drivers for innovation. Our judges chose the winning products recognized here for their versatility, compatibility, value, and ability to help schools solve challenges and support continuous instruction. Congratulations to all of our winners.”

In addition to this latest award, My Math Academy has already achieved an impressive list of certifications: Stemworks Design Principles and Rubrics for Effective STEM Programs, Digital Promise Certification for Research-Based Design, Digital Promise Certification for Research-Based Design and Learner Variability, and the kidSAFE Seal Program’s COPPA Certified seal of approval.

Click here to learn more about My Math Academy, or schedule a product demo.

The post My Math Academy: Classroom Edition Wins Tech & Learning Award of Excellence, Named One of 2021’s Best Tools for Back to School first appeared on Age of Learning.

We developed Adventure Academy to address the alarmingly low levels of academic proficiency among elementary and middle school students, prioritizing the areas the National Assessment of Educational Progress has consistently shown a majority of American students are not proficient in, including reading, math, and science. Adventure Academy offers learners opportunities to explore hundreds of topics within these subjects and learn in ways that are highly engaging and effective.

“Our sole focus at Age of Learning is to help children build a strong foundation for academic success,” said Doug Dohring, founder and CEO of Age of Learning. “Our outstanding team has executed on this mission for many years, developing highly engaging and effective educational programs that early learners enjoy, and families and teachers trust. Adventure Academy allows us to now meet parents’ demands to bring learning to life for older students during the critical elementary and middle school years.”

We have brought the same curriculum-first approach to Adventure Academy that we used in creating ABCmouse, which has helped educate nearly 20 million children to date. In developing Adventure Academy, our curriculum leadership conducted an in-depth review of state, national, and international educational standards, and collaborated with practicing teachers across the U.S. to identify the highest priority curriculum topics that students have the most difficulty with in school. As a result, the Adventure Academy curriculum emphasizes key topics such as reading comprehension, vocabulary development, mathematical operations, fractions, world geography, American history, physical science, life science, earth science, and scientific inquiry.

Over the past three years, our world-class team of game designers, artists, animators, and engineers developed Adventure Academywith the quality and engaging features of a AAA game. This development process is led by creators of some of the most successful titles in the history of online gaming, including Kevin Beardslee, one of the original creators of World of Warcraft^®; and Alex Galvagni, former General Manager of leading game studio Turbine^®, creators of The Lord of the Rings Online^®, Batman: Arkham Underworld^®, Dungeons and Dragons Online^®, and Game of Thrones Conquest^®.

Adventure Academy includes these key features:

• Thousands of learning activities across hundreds of topics, including curriculum-based games, books, a wide range of other types of reading materials, educational videos, and additional interactive experiences addressing all major academic domains.
• Builds critical knowledge and skills in language arts, math, science, social studies, and more.
• Hundreds of hours of educational interaction and gameplay, with hundreds of additional hours to be added in the near future.
• Learners create avatars to explore an ever-expanding world, complete learning quests to unlock new zones, and interact with other learners.
• The same engaging experience across all platforms—smartphones, tablets, and computers—with the ability for up to three children in the same household to play simultaneously within the same parent account with individual profiles.
• Subscription-based service, fully COPPA compliant with no advertising or in-app purchases.
• Safe social elements that enable players to interact with other learners in-game, including filtered chat functionality. Parents control the level of interaction their children have with other learners through this filtered chat and can block all in-game communication, if desired.

The Adventure Academy app will be available through the Apple App Store or Google Play and can also be accessed at www.adventureacademy.com. Families can purchase an annual subscription for less than $5 per month, or a month-to-month subscription for $9.99, both including up to three separate student profiles per household.

The post Introducing Adventure Academy™, the World’s First Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game first appeared on Age of Learning.