FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Anna O’Sullivan
pressinquiry@zearn.org
A newly released study shows that K-6 students in Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) who consistently utilized a top-rated math platform had large gains in their math learning.
“It is exciting to see the significant growth Tulsa students are making as we develop greater access to high-quality instructional materials,” said Ebony Johnson, chief learning officer of Tulsa Public Schools. “Our teachers prioritize the opportunity for their students to study, engage and learn challenging concepts in mathematics and these lessons strongly support their efforts.”
Fueling these gains is Zearn, a nonprofit educational organization that developed the top-rated math learning platform Zearn Math. Researchers looked at how K-6 TPS students performed on the 2022 NWEA Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth assessment. They found that students who consistently completed three Zearn Math digital lessons weekly grew 1.5 grade levels in one school year, while their peers who did not use Zearn Math fell short of expected one-year growth benchmarks. Moreover, students who started the school year with below average math achievement were over two times more likely to improve their achievement level with consistent Zearn Math usage when compared to students who did not use Zearn Math.
Zearn Math, which aligns to the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Mathematics, was used as a digital complement to the core math curriculum. More than 14,000 K-6 students and over 2,600 educators at 69 schools had access to high-quality materials featuring a mix of hands-on problem-solving and immersive digital learning in the 2021-2022 academic year. Zearn also provided ongoing progress monitoring and real-time reports with precise and actionable feedback to inform instruction as well as comprehensive professional development for teachers.
Zearn shows promising evidence to accelerate student learning at scale. In fact, in a recent study, students who consistently experienced learning acceleration completed twice as many grade-level lessons than those who were remediated. The study, “Catching Up and Moving Forward: Accelerating math learning for every student,” looked at 600,000 students nationwide and 5 million intervention decisions over the last two years.
“We developed Zearn’s technology to complement the work of great classroom teachers,” Zearn CEO and Co-Founder Shalinee Sharma said. “This new research shows the tremendous effect teachers are having districtwide, and we are grateful to be supporting Tulsa teachers and students again this academic year.”
ABOUT ZEARN
Zearn is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization behind Zearn Math, the top-rated math learning platform used by 1 in 4 elementary-school and more than 1 million middle-school students nationwide. Everything we do is driven by the belief that every kid is a math kid. For more information about Zearn’s work in Tulsa or across the nation, contact Anna O’Sullivan, director of communications, at annao@zearn.org.
