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Schools are in session within a classroom, completely online, or a hybrid of both. How do you keep up with the paradigm shift? What will it take to get ahead? Three teachers who joined our August webinar 'Getting the Best Start With Students and Families In Class and From a Distance' give their response.

ASSISTments is seeking diverse 7th grade math teachers with experience using Engage NY, Eureka Math, Illustrative Math and/or Open Up Resources for a paid opportunity to support the development of two new features within our platform.

Since the shift to distance learning began in March more than 25,000 teacher from all 50 states and internationally have signed up for ASSISTments accounts.

The impact of distance learning has not hit communities equitably. At a time when access to technology has become a must-have for learning to continue, there continues to be a digital divide along race, socioeconomic and geographic lines. Read more to find out how ASSISTments provides support for teachers.

Have you ever caught yourself wondering how much difference it would make for your students if you had more time to give thoughtful feedback? This is the second blog post in our series on Evidence-Based Instructional Practices that sheds light on teaching practices grounded in learning science.

ASSISTments holds a unique position in the edtech space due to our passion for learning science and the bridge we build between educators and researchers to drive advances in education research. This post delves into two of the key components of that bridge.

See how Andrew Burnett uses ASSISTments and the other tools in his edtech toolbox to enhance his instructional practice. Andrew Burnett is a 7th Grade Math Teacher in Newton, Massachusetts. He is an ASSISTments Ambassador who has been using the program as a tool for formative assessment in his classroom since 2008.

Cristina transitioned from her role as Chief Strategy Officer with The ASSISTments Project @ WPI, in July of 2020. She and her husband, Co-Founder, Neil Heffernan have been innovating and developing ASSISTments since 2003.

Adapted from NCTM 100 Days of Professional Learning talk on how QuickComments allows teachers to give feedback powered by AI.

How relevant is homework anymore? We're reconsidering the new realities of today’s learning environments and how they can best serve student learning.

Through this first post in our Evidence-Based Practice blog series, we aim to shed light on instructional practices grounded in learning science principles and research evidence that teachers can apply in class.

7th grade math teacher Thea Durling spent two years on the TeacherASSIST project, developing hints and exemplars to support other ASSISTments users in providing personalized feedback to students

TeacherASSIST is an ASSISTments feature that leverages teacher crowdsourcing to amplify and support teaching and learning across all ASSISTments users. Read more about our work and research using crowdsourcing.

Read more about our work on using teacher crowdsourcing to improve student learning in this article by Jill Barshay in The Hechinger Report.

The Teachers for Research & Feedback community is a monthly newsletter that keeps teachers in the know about opportunities to improve student learning by teaming up with researchers studying education, and providing feedback on new features to improve ASSISTments' classroom impact.

Neil Heffernan, professor at WPI, received the largest award in FY 2019 - $4.98 million to scale and expand ASSISTments over the next five years.

Teachers looking to get the best start with their students this Fall, either back in the classroom or in a remote learning environment, may be considering how to best integrate all the tools in their edtech toolboxes. We share a few tips from teachers on using the new Canvas-ASSISTments integration.

As part of the Teachers for Research and Feedback Program, learn about the research Luisa Ferrari did with ASSISTments teachers to understand if student performance improves using online learning strategies in comparison to paper-based work.

(Opportunity now closed) We are looking for new or novice ASSISTments users to join our Virtual Professional Learning Community (PLC) during the 2020-2021 school year.

In a new publication, ASSISTments was found to boost student learning, particularly for students with lower prior mathematics achievement.

(Opportunity now closed) ASSISTments is seeking diverse 7th grade math teachers with experience using Illustrative Math and/or Open Up Resources for a paid opportunity to support the development of a new feature this summer.

One way ASSISTments provides current and effective math learning material is through teacher crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing lets us both support and engage teachers, helping them collaborate and improve available content, much like Wikipedia for educators.

We are pleased to announce that we have launched the integration of ASSISTments 2.0 with the Canvas Learning Management System! Teachers with ASSISTments 2.0 accounts can now assign problem sets to students with their Canvas accounts.

The ASSISTments Foundation is committed to providing high quality opportunities that support our teachers as they use ASSISTments and lead in their own classrooms and beyond. ASSISTments Ambassador Andrew Burnett spreads the word about ASSISTments across many platforms including his blog, social media and at national education conferences.

Educators — and families — should be careful about overly relying on screens for learning, and research shows that education delivered on tablets and laptops can lead to missed opportunities. Helen Lee Boygues describes the results of a study designed using ASSISTments: students who used pencil and paper received higher scores than their peers who went without pencil and paper.

With schools around the country closed, educators are being asked to support at-home learning. University of Toronto Professor Philip Oreopoulos speaks of promising educational programs like ASSISTments, which has resulted in impressive academic gains in multiple randomized controlled trials.

We are retiring the ASSISTments 1.0 with Google Classroom integration, so that we can dedicate our energy to ASSISTments 2.0, our most up-to-date and teacher-informed version of ASSISTments. We are asking users of this feature to migrate to 2.0, where we will be able to provide you the best possible experience and user support.

Over the past 13 years, ASSISTments was developed and evaluated with the support of a series of IES and National Science Foundation awards. With a 2003 IES award to Carnegie Mellon University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), researchers created the first version of ASSISTments.

In the shift to distance learning, teachers and students are really putting online learning tools to the test. We’ve been hearing from teachers from across the country about stories from their classroom, and their worries and concerns.

When faced with a wrong answer, how do you respond? Learn how Barbara Delaney teaches her students how to respond to wrong answers to inform their learning.

We at ASSISTments are concerned about the impact that COVID-19 is having on teaching and learning and are taking steps to support our community of users and team at this time.

(Opportunity now closed) We are looking for ASSISTments users to help us design a new professional learning community experience! You will be compensated with $500 for lending your leadership and expertise to helping us develop this PLC.

The ASSISTments Foundation welcomes Tom Bolton as Vice President of Product to lead the future of the ASSISTments product. Bolton will support ASSISTments in its work to impact users across the country by delivering immediate feedback for math students and data insights for teacher instruction.

Teachers will tell you that class pacing is quite the balancing act! Because of its flexible design, ASSISTments can support you in your teaching practice— whether that be through warm-ups, homework review or whatever is working in your classroom!

The ASSISTments Foundation welcomes Britt Neuhaus will oversee our efforts to scale the ASSISTments online learning tool across the country, with particular attention to rural areas in collaboration with our partners at Lesley University, WestEd and WPI.

Heffernan has received more than $35 million in federal grants for his work in learning sciences and with ASSISTments, in part because he is relentless in pursuing funding from a number of agencies, though he says he “tries more and fails more” in submitting grant applications. Last year ASSISTments was used by more than 2,500 teaches in 46 states and 14 countries.

Students all bring their distinct educational needs and styles into the classroom. Many teachers work hard to find a balance between supporting individual students and addressing the needs of the whole class. Teachers are tasked with educating classes of students with a wide range of abilities, needs and challenges. Read on to learn how teachers can leverage edtech tools to support all types of learners in the classroom.

While many EdTech tools and solutions might show promising results in small studies or certain conditions, very few prove effective at scale. That is not the case with ASSISTments. Led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute Professor Neil Heffernan, the free classroom assessment software has been shown to bring about remarkable academic gains. Read on to learn the story of how ASSISTments came to be and some of the challenges along the way.‍

How much, if any, homework should elementary school students receive? It is an age-old and ongoing debate. But the discussion misses a fundamental part of the controversy: Teachers often don’t take advantage of homework as an instructional tool. Neil Heffernan weighs in about how homework can be utilized best to enhance student learning.

ASSISTments Ambassador Andrew Burnett was in his 15th year of teaching when he was asked to join the ASSISTments team. His task was to help conduct a long-term educational study by training and supporting the teachers that were participating in an independent research project. Andrew communicated with 70 teachers all around the Northeast about implementing ASSISTments in their classrooms. Read on to learn Andrew's story and how he has transformed his teaching practices.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), in partnership with The ASSISTments Foundation, has been awarded an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program.

Protecting student privacy is our top priority. At ASSISTments, we know that our students, parents, and schools have a clear and important right to their own data. Read on to learn how we protect our students' data.

Students are often told to push themselves to the limit in the math classroom. But is this persistence always the most productive way for students to learn? ASSISTments founder Neil Heffernan weighs in about how students can move past spinning their wheels and start mastering math content.

A message from Neil Heffernan, introducing a new nonprofit, The ASSISTments Foundation! Building the foundation is an essential step in growing ASSISTments and impacting more students and teachers.

The use of technology is growing in schools, but we’re missing critical opportunities if technology isn’t being used to close the pernicious achievement gaps between students of color and their white peers and between low-income students and their more affluent peers. WPI professor and ASSISTments founder Neil Heffernan weighs in on the importance of using tech tools to address inequity in schools.

ASSISTments was developed by husband and wife duo Neil and Cristina Heffernan.As a professor of computer science and learning technologies, Neil is able to collaborate with fellow professors, researchers and PhD students to enhance the ASSISTments platform. As a former middle school math teacher Cristina keeps the project focused on teachers.

Megan will work alongside Neil & Cristina Heffernan in the leadership of the organization to help us spread ASSISTments across the US. We are looking forward to Megan's non-profit leadership experience as well as her ability to help us grow and scale ASSISTments.

Benchmark tests allow teachers to see what students have learned at the end of turning point of a unit.

2019 Video Competition. Students, share how ASSISTments helps you learn.

We asked teachers: what recommendations do you have for teachers introducing ASSISTments into the classroom? Read on for middle school math teacher Mr. Josh McMillen and Ms. Katie McCrary’s tips and tricks! 

The What Works Clearinghouse, a highly regarded federal research review of education products, has reviewed the ASSISTments research and stated that the Efficacy Study “meets standards without reservations.”

We asked teachers: what recommendations do you have for teachers introducing ASSISTments into the classroom? Read on for middle school math teacher Ms. Ivory Cutri’s tips and tricks!

ASSISTments features can help promote data conversations between teachers and students and bolster the shift toward students owning and acting on their own data.‍

It is important that educators know which interventions and products actually work. In order to accomplish that goal, the U.S. Department of Education hosts the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), an institution that evaluates educational interventions to see which work and which are simply flops. Neil Heffernan provides an update about the WWC’s approval of a study that shows the efficacy of ASSISTments.

How can EdTech tools be used to help teachers make the most of limited classroom time? Former teacher and ASSISTments team member Cindy Starks weighs in with her best recommendations.

Are you ready to get started using the ASSISTments in your classroom? Before diving in, it can be helpful to try out our Practice Set to help your class get acclimated to the platform. The practice set is designed to help students explore problem types and progress reports they will encounter using ASSISTments. Happy practicing!

In the United States, there is an ongoing debate about whether homework is worthwhile, with critics saying that it’s busywork at best and, at worst, it’s detrimental to student learning. Only, the problem isn’t homework itself but how homework is done. Instead of implementing “no homework” policies, WPI professor and ASSISTments founder Neil Heffernan proposes that we can and should use technology to improve how students do their homework — or at least their math homework.‍

In middle school, concepts start to build on each other to form new, complex material. This North Carolina teacher describes how ASSISTments supports her teaching practice to differentiate and scaffold complex material.

Ashish is a PhD student in Computer Science

Podcast interview with ASSISTments co-founders Neil and Cristina Heffernan about their inspiration for ASSISTments, their dedication to research-backed impact and what’s next for the online platform.

The Symbols of Success are a powerful tool that can allow students to track their own progress through immediate feedback. Hints and wrong answers can guide students toward the correct answer. Help your students transition from a focus on “right or wrong” to a focus on the learning journey!

Meet Meghana, a Masters student who works in the ASSISTments lab!

March is the senior PhD student in the ASSISTments lab! March is passionate about machine learning and AI, and serves as a supervisor to his fellow PhD students.

Dr. Ostrow is a Research Scientist at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

As a Project Coordinator, JA arranges the content building for all the curricula on ASSISTments! Read more about JA's background and passion for education.

John Erickson is a PhD student in Data Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Dr. Sarah Irish has been involved with ASSISTments since the Maine Replication Study! Learn about Sarah's experience as an ASSISTments user and teacher mentor.

Donna Lee Tignor is a long-time ASSISTments teacher mentor. Read how she started with ASSISTments!

Cindy is excited to be on the team because it will allows to "have a positive impact on math teaching and learning while also learning about best teaching practices and working with ASSISTments."

Brian Story is an ASSISTments Teacher Engagement Manager in North Carolina. Learn more about Brian!

School districts around the country are doing away with homework, according to the latest education headlines. But research clearly shows that the solution to homework isn’t to abolish it. WPI professor and ASSISTments founder Neil Heffernan weighs in on why we need to make homework as effective and relevant as possible, so students can still learn when their teachers or family aren’t available to help them.

Dr. Botelho is a research scientist with the ASSISTments lab. Before his PhD, Anthony completed his undergraduate in Interactive Media at Becker College and his Masters in Computer Science at WPI.

When introducing ASSISTments, teachers can show students how to use the tool to inform their learning, focusing on owning their progress rather than a grade.

Studies have found that students would enjoy math more if they could see a clear connection between their learning and their future. Math researcher Candace Walkington was awarded a grant to use ASSISTments to study the impact of interest-focused algebra problems on student success and connectedness with STEM careers.

A veteran math teacher puts ASSISTments to the test and reports on how second-year algebra students learn to persevere in completing homework assignments through the use of the online homework platform. She showcases the tool’s ability to deliver instant feedback and embed video explanations in problem sets.

There’s no doubt that education technology can make a big difference in the classroom. But the facts show that the key to closing the achievement gap is not providing more technology to students, but rather putting the right ed tech into the hands of teachers.

In this study, we put the ASSISTments platform to the test to understand the impact of artificial intelligence in education for web-based homework in comparison to traditional homework. We found that students learned reliably more in the web-based homework condition, even without the benefits of additional tutoring features such as hints and feedback messages.

A veteran math teacher puts ASSISTments to the test and reports on how second-year algebra students learn to persevere in completing homework assignments through the use of the online homework platform. She showcases the tool’s ability to deliver instant feedback and embed video explanations in problem sets.

“We had the guts to expose ourselves” to randomized control trials, says ASSISTments founder Neil Heffernan in this US News & World Report article

‍A study conducted at MIT's Poverty Action Lab was recently featured in the U.S. News & World Report concluded that ASSISTments is one of two promising educational technologies in the US. The study praised ASSISTments for its impact on student learning and the tool’s compatibility with schools’ existing curricula and textbooks.

Two grants from the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES) totaling over $7 million have been awarded to education researchers studying the impact of ASSISTments. Large and rigorous randomized controlled trials of online education tools for K-12 education are difficult to conduct and analyze. These grants will build upon a prior ASSISTments trial conducted by SRI Education, which was important in that it provided hard, comparative evidence of the impact of education technology.

Over 2800 students from 43 schools from Maine participated in a year long study. 75% of students improved, find out how we affected them in a positive way.

Completing homework assignments allows students to practice their skills—and then receive feedback on their work from teachers. Based on student homework, teachers can assess how each student is performing independently outside of the context of the classroom. Teachers can make the most of Common Wrong Answers to support students during homework review sessions.

Results of a randomized control trial conducted by SRI Educational Research in public schools in Maine and published in the journal AERA Open by the American Education Research Association clearly quantify the benefits of ASSISTments.‍ The study shows that ASSISTments is effective in helping close the learning gap.

SRI International ran an independent study on the efficacy of ASSISTments. This study allowed ASSISTments to meet the highest What Works Clearinghouse standard for “positive effect without reservations” and to receive a Tier 1 rating by Evidence for ESSA. The study showed that with the use of ASSISTments supported student learning as a whole and helped close achievement gaps.

ASSISTments serves as a unique shared scientific instrument in the social science world, continuing the forward push to do more randomized controlled experiments. Social science can reap the benefits of our cultural shift to the digital world and the many ways people interact with online platforms.

Researchers are using tools borrowed from medicine and economics to figure out what works best in the classroom. Much of the new research goes beyond the simple metric of standardized tests to study learning in progress and the findings are beginning to fill in some blanks in that hugely complex puzzle called education.

We ran a randomized controlled trial on two ASSISTments features: Skill Builders and Automatic Reassessment and Relearning System (ARRS). Skill Builders allows teachers to assign individual skills practice sets and ARRS automatically reassesses students on these skills. Our study showed greater performance on those skills that were reassessed and relearned.

Middle school math classes have worked in much the same way for decades. Teachers send students home with a textbook and a set of problems. Students work out the solutions on paper and bring the answers in the next day. That changed at about 40 Maine schools, where students, mostly seventh-graders, tested out ASSISTments.

The New York Times profiles husband and wife team, Neil and Cristina Heffernan, and how they chose to address the achievement gap through a computer program that can mimic the individualized feedback of a human tutor.‍

Read about the impact ASSISTmennts is having in two schools in Walpole, Massachusetts. Students whose teachers use the software say it’s like taking their teacher home with them.

This study explores the ability of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to increase parental engagement in student learning. A parental notification feature was developed for the web-based ASSISTments ITS that allows parents to log into their own accounts and access detailed data about their students’ performance. This research investigates the impacts of parental involvement on student learning outcomes.

Listen in to Neil Heffernan on wbur radio show Here & Now.

The Boston Globe profiles ASSISTments founder Neil Heffernan, who tells the story of his experience as a middle school math teacher and how a brain tumor inspired him to start ASSISTments.