40 Years of Usage Beyond School Hours for Students Using
ExploreLearning Reflex
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.,
Nov. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/
-- ExploreLearning, a division within Cambium Learning Group,
Inc. (Nasdaq: ABCD), announced today that students using Reflex
logged 350,000 hours, the equivalent of 40 years, outside of school
hours during the 2011-12 school year. During this time, students
gained over 2.8 million new fluent facts. The online math fact
fluency program is helping educators extend learning in mathematics
beyond the school day for hundreds of thousands of students across
North America and around the
world.
Reflex is an adaptive and individualized solution helping
students develop automaticity with basic math facts. With 100%
online access, students can access their account from any computer
with an Internet connection and teachers can easily monitor and
support student progress. The system allows students to play an
increasingly large number of engaging, fast-paced games with
rewards for effort and progress, keeping interest and motivation at
high levels.
At St. Vincent Ferrer School in Boca
Raton, Florida, Reflex is an integral part of the
instructional program, with the goals of 100% math fact fluency and
increased success in more complex mathematics. Students in grades
2-6 are required to use Reflex three times a week outside of
classroom hours, but data shows that students are actually far
exceeding that expectation. For every hour spent in class using
Reflex, students spent six hours outside of class using the
product. During the 2011-12 school year, St. Vincent Ferrer
students logged over 5,000 Reflex hours outside of classroom hours
while answering 1.4 million facts, or four times the number of
facts answered in-class. "Having students learn their facts at home
allows them more time to learn, practice and make sense of problems
in the classroom," says Margaret
Statler, the school's Reflex coordinator.
The result has been quite positive, with St. Vincent Ferrer
students' average fluency rising from 22% to 87%. "There is no
doubt that Reflex is increasing my students' fluency in basic
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. I
can see the positive correlation in my classroom: the higher
the fact fluency, the more a student is able to concentrate on
learning higher-level math concepts. This is because the
student is not bogged down by slow or incorrect computation," says
teacher Julie O'Brien. "Now that we've introduced our students and
parents to Reflex, I know we can never go back to flashcards!"
Denika Gum, a math teacher at
Sutherland Middle School in central Virginia's Albemarle
County, began using Reflex with her students in the spring
of 2012. She immediately saw its value in increasing students'
interest and confidence in mathematics and in facilitating
longer-term success as well. Ms. Gum has made Reflex part of the
curriculum, with students using the product in the computer lab
once a week and at least three times a week outside of school
hours. Over the course of the semester, her students logged 917
hours of Reflex usage outside of school hours while answering
378,000 math facts.
After just 20 days of average usage, students in Ms. Gum's
advanced math classes moved from 26% to 82% fluency in
multiplication and division facts, with five students reaching 100%
fluency. "Their confidence is definitely increasing. I am
seeing less finger counting and computational time." And, as her
students have moved into higher levels of math this school year,
Ms. Gum has noticed that the fact fluency developed in Reflex has
carried forward. Her students are grasping fractions and factoring
much more quickly, allowing them to easily solve complex
problems.
"We're extremely gratified that ExploreLearning Reflex is moving
the needle for students and helping extend learning beyond the
school day," says David Shuster,
Ph.D., founder and publisher. "We've seen excellent results with
Reflex across a broad cross-section of students. This is
partially due to the unprecedented effectiveness of the system and
partially due to how much kids love using it. Usage outside
of school hours is especially important because it allows teachers
to free up time for other critical priorities like building
conceptual understanding and problem solving skills."
About ExploreLearning
ExploreLearning develops online solutions to improve student
learning in math and science. ExploreLearning currently has
two products: Gizmos, the world's largest library of
interactive, online simulations for math and science in grades
3-12; and Reflex, the most powerful solution available for math
fact fluency development. Gizmos and Reflex bring research-proven
instructional strategies to classrooms around the world.
ExploreLearning is a Charlottesville,
VA-based business unit of Cambium Learning Group, Inc.
[Nasdaq:ABCD] based in Dallas, TX.
For more information about Gizmos, please visit
http://www.explorelearning.com. For more
information about Reflex, please visit
http://www.reflexmath.com.
Investor Contact:
Chris
Cleveland
Cambium Learning Group, Inc.
214-932-9476
chris.cleveland@cambiumlearning.com
Media Contact:
Julia
Given
VP Marketing
ExploreLearning
434-293-7043 ext. 223
jgiven@explorelearning.com
SOURCE ExploreLearning