According to the release, the nonprofit educational organization Zearn will provide the platform, which includes instructional materials and ongoing training services for educators in addition to tutoring resources for students. This is not a state mandate; the decision to sign onto Zearn for the 2023-2024 academic year is made at the district level.
The Zearn initiative is the state’s latest step toward addressing an ongoing problem throughout Colorado since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a report published by the nonprofit Keystone Policy Center in November 2022, less than one third of K-8 Colorado students met or exceeded grade-level standards in math last year. And at the high school level, less than 35 percent of juniors who took the SAT test met or exceeded the college-readiness scores in math. These academic findings prompted the Colorado Legislature and Gov. Polis to allocate $28 million to math improvement programs over a two-year period.
“We are taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to boost student math achievement and make sure Colorado kids have the support and practice they need to excel in math,” Polis said in a public statement Monday. “This new access saves school districts and families money and is part of our ongoing work to provide high-quality education for every Colorado student.”
The program is funded by the federal Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funds.
A brief video of the platform on Zearn’s website shows elementary school students using the software in group settings alongside their teacher as well as individually. The site has short videos to explain mathematic principles and says the tool provides real-time feedback for every math problem.
According to the news release, Zearn Math is used by more than 1 million middle school students and about 25 percent of elementary schools across the United States.
