Tabtor Math Releases Results Of South Brunswick School District Pilot Program To Measure Elementary School Math Performance

KENDALL PARK, N.J., May 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Tabtor Math, an iPad-based learning program, announced today that students participating in the pilot program at Greenbrook Elementary School, part of South Brunswick school District, improved their math test scores by an average of 70 percent. As a result of the success, two additional South Brunswick School District elementary schools, Brunswick Acres Elementary and Cambridge Elementary, are adopting the Tabor Math program.

"Our use of Tabtor Math with students receiving Instructional Support Services at Greenbrook Elementary School has produced exceptional results," said Dr. Gary P. McCartney, Ed. D., Superintendent of Schools for the South Brunswick School District. "Student academic growth, as measured from pre-test through post-test, has increased significantly. When compared to the progress of non-Instructional Support students, students engaged with the Tabtor Math platform experienced a growth rate almost equal to all other grade level students. My sense is that the Tabtor approach is responsible for this student performance."  McCartney went on to state, "We are hopeful that this breakthrough for some of our least-able math students in first and second grade will transform their thinking about math and create an enthusiasm for even greater future academic successes."

The pilot program started in May of 2013 with about six students in the Instructional Support program who needed additional help learning math. By the end of summer, the program had over 97 students across multiple grade levels with everyone, including teachers and administrators, agreeing that the Tabtor program had a lasting impact on student performance. 

During May and June of 2013 students participating in the Tabtor pilot answered a total of 26,000 questions and answered 24,000 of them correctly, a 93 percent correct answer rate.  In October through December of 2013, students continued to show improvement and answered 46,420 math problems and received 44,631 correct answers – a 96 percent correct answer rate.

District post-test results validate the effectiveness of the Tabtor program to influence student performance outcomes. In the post-test, Instructional Support (Tier II) students in Grade 1 improved their performance levels to 91 percent, almost on par with the students in the general population (Tier I) who scored 96 percent.  By using Tabtor students showed a ten-fold increase in productivity, solving more problems than they did before they started the program.

The curriculum helps build students' analytical and critical thinking skills and the personalized assignments enable teachers to address individual areas of weakness. Tabtor Math appeals to students because it provides immediate feedback and employs gamification that can lead to reward points; which can be exchanged for retail gift cards.

"It's the efficacy.  If you are an educator who really has done this and understands how children learn, all you have to do is look at it and you see that it works.  Teachers are able to provide the human touch at the point of learning.  The ability for teachers to determine student misconceptions/errors by reviewing scribbles on the assignments and the ability to respond to the student directly on the math assignment is terrific," said Lori Woods, the Instructional Support Teacher at Greenbrook Elementary. "By far this is the best math teaching tool I have ever used in my 20-year career. Now that I have seen the results and the level of enthusiasm and engagement of my students when they use Tabtor, I cannot imagine teaching math without this resource.  All the teachers felt that their productivity increased by 60-70 percent using Tabtor, enabling them to focus on improving student results."

Not only did students improve their total percentage of correct answers, they also accelerated their answer speed by approximately 30 percent. This represents a 70 percent reduction in math errors. Tabtor also recorded a 50 percent increase in student math engagement as scores improved and student motivation soared. The pilot program, which included kindergarten through fourth-grade students, succeeded in improving the students' ability to recognize number sense and place values.

"We see a strong correlation between students adopting the Tabtor platform and improved math performance – both in problem solving accuracy and in overall time spent solving problems," said Raj Valli, CEO of Tabtor. "The evidence of student success is simply overwhelming.  We are seeing similar results across all student populations including gifted students, across the U.S. and internationally as well."

Helping Students Succeed          
Greenbrook Elementary uses the Response to Intervention (RTI) Action Network to ensure that each child has access to quality instruction and that struggling students – including those with learning disabilities – are identified early and receive the support necessary to succeed.  Students in the Tier II instructional level needed conceptually oriented instruction, more practice and cumulative review. Tabtor was a cost-effective program which helped in identifying the individual level of the students and moved students back to the Tier I level through personalized lessons.

Common Core Ready
A major challenge for teachers implementing Common Core standards (CCSS) is about transitioning students from state standards to the Common Core. While fluency and skills are given importance, there is a paradigm shift in the instruction. Tabtor allows the students to get a personalized study plan from their teacher and watch the instruction on how to solve a problem based on common core. Teachers appreciate the program because it complements their math lessons perfectly and helps prepare for standardized Common Core testing. Given the adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) across 45 states in the U.S. this year, the demand for a math program that supports a strong foundation of math literacy is at an all-time high.

"By the 2014-15 academic year, public schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia will administer Common Core tests to students of all ages," said Raj. "With class sizes continuing to trend towards one teacher for every 25 students, digital technology solutions are needed to enhance student performance while providing capacity expansion for time-constrained teachers."

Available without Charge
Tabtor is available without charge to any school district interested in adopting or piloting the platform for elementary education. This offer is good through the 2013-2014 school year. Tabtor is used on iPads which makes learning fun and engaging for students while giving teachers insights into how students navigate problem solving.

About Tabtor
Tabtor is a flagship educational technology platform from PrazAs Learning Inc and is designed to completely transform the way the world looks at learning. The patent pending platform provides teachers and students with a highly personalized learning experience, which focuses on the Point of Learning for each student.  Currently available on iPads and scalable to other tablet devices, Tabtor is an innovative digital offering that combines best of personalized teaching with a fun and engaging learning program that supports multiple subjects.  It is tailored to every student using a combination of patent-pending Digital-paper technology that allows sharing and review of handwritten work, automatic grading, video tutorials and adaptive analytics. For additional information, visit: http://Tabtor.com/schools

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SOURCE Tabtor