Provo, UT, Jan. 11, 2016 – Imagine Learning,developer of award-winning language and literacy software for pre-K through sixth-grade students,announces its acquisition of Utah-based Big Brainz™,a math-facts software product that helps students master math fluency and grow into more advanced.
“Too many American kids are falling behind in math and reading fluency,” says Joe Swenson, CEO of Imagine Learning. “The National Assessment of Educational Progress recently reported that fourth- and eighth-graders’ math assessment scores fell several points in 2015. At Imagine Learning, we want to reverse the trend of low math scores. We’ve always been passionate about language and literacy, and with Big Brainz, we give kids access to math literacy as well.”
Big Brainz was developed to help young students quickly gain automaticity and math fluency in an intensely memorable way. Following an initial assessment, students master math facts through a series of engaging,game-based activities. Students must demonstrate their mastery of key facts before they move to new learning levels.
“Initially, we set out twelve years ago to cure some of education’s most critical challenges,” explains Ben Harrison, founder of Big Brainz and current developer at Imagine Learning. “While we did accomplish a lot on a smaller scale, being a part of Imagine Learning now allows us to bring a critical math-facts component to even more kids.”
In order to meet the wider needs of multiple students, Big Brainz activities continually monitor student growth and provide needed intervention. Educators receive progress reports that pinpoint students with deficiencies,note how far behind they are, specify which facts need extra practice, and predict how much usage is required before students achieve fluency.
Jeremy Cowdrey, Imagine Learning’s Executive Director of Sales and Marketing, further explains, “Imagine Learning is already a great program for teachers, partly because it offers actionable data about students who need extra help. Big Brainz gives teachers a similar teaching tool, indicating which students have mastered math facts and which students still need more work.”
Big Brainz helps students master single-digit addition and subtraction facts by the end of second grade, and then multiplication and division facts by the end of third grade. Once students are fluent in core math facts,teachers can work on deeper mathematical concepts with the assurance that students are prepared to grow in skill and understanding.
As Ben Harrison explains, “Now that Big Brainz is a part of Imagine Learning, we know that we have limitless potential to impact students’ knowledge and love of math. We look forward to great new adventures ahead.”
