Business Profile: Ascend Math

Atlantic High School, Port Orange, Florida

Kevin & Marjorie Briley Taylor County Elementary, Perry, Florida

CHANGING HOWWE LEARN MATH— ONE STUDENT AT A TIME.

Sierra Elementary, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

SHREVEPORT, LA. Today, mathematics education depends heavily on foundational learning. Nevertheless, math education traditionally follows a math education traditionally follows a “spiral method” of applied learning—where numerous, varied topics are presented in units and students may not explore the same topic for several months (or possibly not until the next grade level). As a result, some students never truly master a concept and therefore lack a foundation for connecting basic concepts and transferring that knowledge to more complex math. Without basic, complete mastery, students then encounter a compounding effect—falling further and further behind as mathematics tasks progress in complexity.

Here’s how Marjorie Briley thinks about math learning—all students can learn math and personalized adaptive learning is the most effective way to help students and teachers accelerate learning. Utilizing the powerful architecture of online programs, students can learn foundational math lessons online and the program provides teachers valuable information to further learning. Teachers can utilize quality class time for problem solving and communicating about math to further student understanding of concepts. This flipping of the traditional classroom is an operating system espoused by Marjorie and Kevin Briley’s company Ascend Math—a web-based math instructional platform that goes far beyond drill and practice. When it comes to learning math, Briley says “Ascend evaluates a student’s individual needs, automatically outlines a learning path that is based on state standards and provides all of the instruction a student needs to learn core mathematical concepts.” Ascend’s focused, individualized instruction—which uses developed and adapted activities and ongoing assessments— attempts to ensure that students quickly gain proficiency in basic mathematical concepts. Instructional options within Ascend’s curriculum are rich and varied, including video tutorials presented by award-winning mathematics instructors, multimedia explorations including technology-based design, and ample practice. Frequent assessments enable a student’s learning path to be continually updated to reflect their current level of skill. Its course plans target skill gaps and aim to teach exactly what a student needs based on identified strengths and weaknesses. Instruction is delivered in a logical sequence and students can progress at their own pace—tracking their own progress and success. Simply put, Ascend uses state-of-the-art educational technology to build critical math skills through online math instructional skills through online math instructional and multi-modal learning methods through video instruction and virtual manipulatives. Based right here in Shreveport, Ascend Math was established in 2007 by Marjorie and Kevin Briley. Marjorie has over twenty

years’ experience in educational technology and consulting, and currently serves as Vice President of Business Development. CEO Kevin is a consultant, coach, and champion of social impact entrepreneurial businesses in the Ed Tech space for 25 years. “Most programs put kids into three categories, the lows, the middles, and the highs. I’m so proud of the Ascend Math architecture because it removes the need for categories and allows students to work at their own pace. So often, the kids that started at the lowest will end up at the highest.”

When it comes to learning math, Ascend

is highly engaging and motivational. By providing high quality video instruction, it delivers video instruction to hundreds of schools and districts serving tens of thousands of students throughout the United States and Canada. The platform empowers students to direct, assess, and internalize their mathematics proficiency. “Ascend videos provide basic tutorials which students can watch in class or at home and pause or even speed up if they need to—something that can’t happen with a classroom lecture,” notes Briley. “Teachers and administrators, in turn, have immediate access to achievement data, enabling them to make sound instructional decisions quickly and easily. They are then free to work individually with students and be more creative.” And that, according to Briley, enables class time to be “an optimal experience for students and teachers.” There’s no doubt that Ascend’s video lessons are a hit among students and educators. After all, each video lesson is taught by a master teacher.

The Ascend Math’s concept isn’t just for students—it’s even gaining traction among

educators. Teachers and administrators view the platform as a useful tool to individualize learning. Its automated reporting saves instructors time by eliminating the need to grade or scan papers or compile timeconsuming reports. It automatically guides students through individual study plans, provides frequent and ongoing assessment, and automatically reports progress. “These tools allow teachers and administrators to access real-time data to measure achievements of an individual, class or the school and communicate this information more effectively with each other and students’ parents. The schools that use our platform see it as something that really does help students. Everybody doesn’t learn at the same pace. But once you’ve got it, you’ve got it.” While Ascend Math joins a crowded field of online learning programs—which many tout as the future of education because of the online learning requirements forced by the COVID-19 pandemic—Briley believes there is no substitute for classroom teachers. “Teachers are a driving force in achieving these results and we are proud that Ascend Math plays a role in providing the backbone to support teachers and students in these efforts. Besides, technology is not going to replace teachers. It can only empower them to be much more effective with students. There is an unbelievable opportunity that we have to leverage how people learn through technology.”

categories, the lows, the middles, and the to be much more effective with students. There is an unbelievable opportunity that we have to leverage how people learn through technology.” Algebra is often seen as the gatekeeper that that 86% of their Algebra students passed support step-wise learning and encourage today’s rigorous state standards. they have made. By putting control of augmented with outstanding video-based way today. What we have, along with what we

Ascend Math’s results seem to agree.

Algebra is often seen as the gatekeeper that prevents students from staying in school and graduating. “We had one school report that 86% of their Algebra students passed Algebra,” excitedly recalls Briley. “These were students who had not passed the 8th grade math proficiency test the previous year. We also had a second grade student who was homeschooled for the past two years, who moved from the 1st percentile to the 51st percentile after working with Ascend Math.” It’s because of those results that educators are embracing Ascend’s technology—as it opens doors to new resources and learning techniques. Whereas teachers and students used to rely on books for information, they can now access an infinite world of information with the click of a mouse. Ascend includes more than 550 distinct video lessons with thousands of points of interactivity that support step-wise learning and encourage students to write about math consistent with today’s rigorous state standards.

One of the key benefits of Ascend Math is that students themselves are able to monitor their own progress throughout

their learning process. At any given time when using Ascend, students can access achievement data and visualize the progress they have made. By putting control of learning in the hands of students, this model motivates them to continue in the program. This student-centered, technology-based learning experience is particularly beneficial when working with today’s generation of students. Similarly, because Ascend can be accessed anytime/anywhere, parents are afforded significant access to student progress. Being able to watch their children improve and achieve not only provides motivation for parents to become more active in their children’s learning, but it also empowers them to make good decisions about how, when, and how frequently their children should use the program. Briley acknowledges that when it comes to online learning, Ascend Math is not a new idea, but it does provide the best of both worlds in terms of student engagement and motivation. First, because students receive immediate—and private— feedback on their work, they are inherently motivated to continue moving through the instructional pathway. Second, detailed explorations, examples, and practice activities are augmented with outstanding video-based instruction delivered by an award-winning mathematics teacher. “We’re not the first company to utilize webbased learning,” she said, “but Ascend Math is different. To suggest that all kids are able to learn math using only one medium wasn’t realistic years ago, and we don’t function that way today. What we have, along with what we do, works.”

Ascend Math serves over 1000 schools and districts and over 150,000 students each month throughout the United States.

“Purchasing a license for Ascend Math has, unequivocally, been one of the smartest, if not the smartest, decisions we have made in the last year here… The touchstone of education in these tumultuous times is Learning Loss and how to address it. Virtually every state and federal program of assistance to schools has included, as foundational piece, the idea of measuring and remediating learning loss in every student. That is a daunting prospect in any school district but for a small urban district such as East Allegheny it is especially difficult. We do not have the staffing or the resources to have the staffing or the resources to adequately measure and remediate the learning loss experienced by our students and the cost for employing consultants or other external expertise is beyond our means. What we needed was a turnkey solution that could assess our students, provide accurate assess our students, provide accurate date on their individual needs and then lay out a recovery pathway for that student. Ascend Math does all that and more. There is not a single component of the Ascend Math platform that is anything less than excellent. The assessment tools are the best and are designed to maximize teacher control. The assessment data reporting capabilities of Ascend are like nothing I’ve seen before and the remedial pathways also provide for maximum teacher control and modification for the unique needs of each learner. The remedial activities are likewise superb. It is difficult for me to find one area of the Ascend platform where I think that the developers have missed the mark. For our school district Ascend Math was the right tool at the right place and at exactly the right time.”