YourTeacher Releases Algebra 1 iBooks Textbook for iPad, Available Exclusively on the iBookstore

HOUSTON, July 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- YourTeacher (www.YourTeacher.com), a digital publisher specializing in middle school, high school and college math, is proud to announce the release of their Algebra 1 iBooks textbook for iPad, available now exclusively on the iBookstore. 

Algebra 1, built using iBooks Author, is the world's first 'Textbook with a Teacher Inside®.' Unlike traditional textbooks, Algebra 1 features a personal math teacher built in, ready to provide the 'heavy lifting' instruction for every student. By 'flipping the classroom' so that the repetitive core instruction is done outside of class, this iBooks textbook offers teachers the freedom to focus on higher-level concepts and one-on-one instruction.

"When I was a math teacher, I would start class each day by presenting the example problems from the book. Next, I would ask my students to try a few problems on their own as I wandered around the classroom to help them" states Mike Maggart, Co-Founder and Director of Education at YourTeacher. "That's why every example problem in our entire Algebra 1 iBooks textbook is a video of me explaining the problem at a whiteboard, and every practice problem includes a complete audio explanation if the student needs it. There are many other features, but they all relate to the same idea – we take the teacher and the textbook, and we put the two together for the very first time. The bottom line is that it makes taking math and teaching math so much easier."

From February through May 2012, several classrooms of 8th grade math students at KIPP Academy in Houston* incorporated Algebra 1 on iPad as a replacement for significant portions of their traditional Algebra 1 textbook. Eighty percent of iPad usage was outside the classroom, providing the core math instruction in a 'flipped classroom' model, thereby allowing teachers to focus class time on higher-level instruction and one-on-one help. Students using an iPad then took the KIPP Spring Common Assessment Test, and their results were compared with the results of a control group of KIPP Academy 8th grade math students who did not have access to an iPad.

Overall, the percentage of students who rated either proficient or advanced (the 'passing' rate) was 49% percent higher in the classrooms using iPads than in the traditional classrooms without iPads. The difference was most pronounced in the percentage of students rated as 'advanced,' which was 150% higher. Nearly all of the students in both the experimental and control groups were economically disadvantaged, suggesting that YourTeacher's iBooks textbooks on iPad can provide significant benefits for even the most at-risk student populations.

Find out how your school or district can unlock the power of iBooks textbooks by visiting Apple's iBookstore and downloading a sample lesson from YourTeacher's Algebra 1 iBooks textbook (www.itunes.com/iBookstore/).

* Results are from KIPP Academy's Spring 2012 Common Assessment Test, taken by 8th grade math students in both a test group who used YourTeacher on iPad and a control group.

Media Contact: Sue Hanson Panache PR, 763-657-0987, [email protected]

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SOURCE YourTeacher