A recent study tested the impact of ExploreLearning Reflex on math fact fluency and student progress toward full achievement of grade-level standards. The study included a sample of students who used Reflex in 2nd grade for the first time and took the iReady math diagnostic tests in the fall and spring to assess growth, and the results are in! If you’re looking for an adaptive, online program that’s effective in helping students develop math proficiency and fact fluency, look no further than Reflex.
Supporting math grade-level proficiency with Reflex
Reflex benefits students of all ages who need to strengthen their foundational math skills for current and future success by focusing on developing automaticity across four key operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. When students achieve automaticity, they can retrieve math facts from long-term memory without conscious effort or attention, which is critical for more complex math concepts.
Automaticity allows students to focus their working memory on more complex problem-solving instead of simple computations. A technology-based adaptive program for fact fluency, like Reflex, can provide differentiated practice, immediate feedback, and engaging game-like environments. What about improving student engagement and motivation and building self-confidence in math ability? Yes, Reflex supports these, too.
Student demographics
This research involved 547 2nd-grade students in a moderately-sized public school district in a suburban area in California. The student sample was diverse, with 20% of students classified as economically disadvantaged, 50% non-white, and 40% Hispanic.
Main finding: 2nd grade students who used Reflex demonstrated large growth in addition and subtraction math fact fluency
Math fact fluency plays a critical role in elementary school-level mathematics and beyond. Math proficiency is attainable for all students with the proper support tools. Students who frequently used Reflex showed large increases in math fact fluency, from an average of 28% fluency at the start of the school year to an average of 84% fluency by the end of the year. Moreover, 44% of those students reached 100% fluency!
Main finding: Reflex users were 2x more likely to meet ambitious math growth goals compared to non-users
Teachers and students love to meet and exceed learning goals. And there’s a lot to celebrate with Reflex.
Many diagnostic progress monitoring assessments, such as i-Ready or NWEA MAP, provide teachers with individualized growth goals for students so that they can set ambitious and accelerated targets to help them move toward proficiency over time. Students who meet these goals- regardless of their baseline achievement levels- are more likely to achieve grade level proficiency, establishing a strong foundation for academic success in higher grades, boosting self-confidence, and opening doors to further educational opportunities.
In this study, students who used Reflex were 2x more likely to meet their ambitious growth goals compared to students who did not use Reflex. This means that twice as many students in a classroom will be put on that path towards positive long-term educational outcomes when using Reflex compared to business as usual!
Main finding: Reflex moved more students to grade-level proficiency, with greater growth in fluency predicting higher spring math assessment scores, regardless of baseline abilities
Reflex users and non-users showed similar results in their baseline math achievement, with 92% of non-users and 87% of Reflex users scoring below grade-level proficiency on the fall math diagnostic test. Things changed after using the adaptive math program. On the spring math diagnostic test, Reflex users were 2.6x more likely to meet grade-level proficiency than non-users; 39% of Reflex users met grade-level proficiency in the spring, compared to only 15% of non-Reflex users.
Additional data supports the causal relationship between Reflex usage and overall math increases. After considering data from fall-to-spring growth, the ExploreLearning research team found a significant correlation between fluency improvements in Reflex and increases in math scale scores, even when controlling for baseline fluency and fall iReady math achievement.
Enhance your math instruction with Reflex
Within this sample of 2nd-grade students using Reflex for the first time, there was significant growth in math fact fluency in a short time period, with the average student achieving over 80% fluency. Supporting this important foundational math skill proved to have large, positive outcomes on student growth and achievement. Across both users and non-users, nearly all students began the school year testing below grade level in math skills. However, students who used Reflex were significantly more likely to end the year approaching or fully meeting grade-level proficiency standards in math.
This improvement in proficiency was due to the accelerated growth in math skills supported by Reflex usage. Students who used Reflex were significantly more likely to meet or surpass both expected (typical) AND ambitious (stretch) growth goals than those with no Reflex usage. Furthermore, the growth rate in Reflex was predictive of the growth on the test regardless of the students' baseline scores, providing even more evidence that Reflex was a driver and major supporter of their ability to succeed in math.
This evidence suggests that Reflex is a robust math intervention and instruction tool. It supports the growth of students below grade-level proficiency, helping all students meet growth targets and preparing them to tackle more advanced math instruction in later grades.
Fact fluency saves students time and significantly impacts their future math success. Give your math students effective instruction with a free Reflex trial today!
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