Improving math achievement: What's unique about Rocket Math

Dr. Don Crawford, the founder of Rocket Math, has been an educator for over 30 years, teaching all grade levels from K-12 in both regular and special education as well as being a professor of special education at the university level and running successful charter schools.

Rocket Math is dedicated to improving math achievement. I founded Rocket Math because of my passion for effective educational tools. Students learn successfully from effective educational tools. Ineffective tools leave students confused and discouraged, thinking they are not good at learning. I know from my experience running schools and creating curriculum that effective instructional materials make all the difference. I firmly believe that all students can be successful in math and have dedicated my company to making it happen. I also knows that students’ own achievement motivates them more than anything else. In short, Rocket Math’s mission is to help students succeed in math.

Rocket Math’s Online Game is an educational app that teaches and develops fluency in basic math facts. Being able to instantly and effortlessly recall basic math facts is the prerequisite of all success in mathematics. There is nothing more powerful that anyone can do to improve math achievement, than to improve students’ fluency in math facts. This is why Rocket Math focuses on this essential building block to all math achievement.

The Rocket Math Online Game app is unique in a couple of respects. First, the game focuses students on their progress in learning math facts, rather than distracting them with a cutesy game format. The math facts are taught in a series of 26, A to Z steps. Each step is manageable and easy for students to learn. As they learn the four new facts at each step they progress through the alphabet. As students learn a set, they color-in another step in their individual A to Z Rocket Chart. Seeing their progress of learning the facts and developing fluency displayed graphically on the chart motivates students to do more. What’s more, they also develop confidence and improved self-esteem as a by-product of the process.

Second, the rocketmath.com website uniquely provides real-time evidence of its effectiveness. Rocket Math charts all its users, showing that they are learning and developing fluency with basic math facts. Go to their Evidence of Effectiveness page and you can see results of students on fluency tests. The tests are given at four times in each learning track (pre-test, 1/3 through, 2/3 through and post-test). For example, over 55,000 students have completed the Multiplication learning track. The chart shows they began with an average fluency of 11 problems per minute at the pre-test. Those students finished the Multiplication Learning Track with an average of 21 problems per minute. Student scores show they are more fluent at each milestone in all 16 learning tracks, from beginning Addition to Fraction and Decimal Equivalents.

Rocket Math’s mission is to help students succeed in math.

Ensuring that students develop fluency with basic math facts is the single, most powerful thing school administrators can do to improve student math achievement. There’s no excuse for allowing students to struggle and count on their fingers or rely on multiplication charts while trying to do math. Rocket Math has the mission of fixing that for anyone who uses their app. They even offer a 30-day initial, complimentary subscription so you can see that it works before paying a dime. Rocket Math has a money-back guarantee that using their app will improve student fluency in math facts. Rocket Math continues to grow thanks to the enthusiasm of its customers.