A look back at 2025
What a year! 2025 brought significant growth, momentum, and meaningful innovation for ExploreLearning. As more schools sought high-quality math and science learning tools, we continued to earn the trust of educators who rely on us to support their students across grades K-12.
In our ExploreLearning year-in-review, we’re proud to look back at the milestones we achieved together and prepare for the exciting things ahead in 2026.
New features that made an impact
In 2025, we launched product expansions designed to deepen students' understanding, increase engagement, and provide teachers with greater flexibility in how they teach. Here’s a look at new features that educators quickly made their own in their classrooms.
Frax and Reflex Competitions
We introduced Frax Competitions to bring a school-wide engagement to fraction learning. By blending friendly competition with purposeful practice, we helped students stay motivated and excited as they built foundational fractions skills.
Teachers continued to use Reflex Competitions for math fact fluency engagement, with many sharing how the new element of competition amplified classroom motivation. We also released new features specifically for administrators, allowing schools to use the math learning tools to monitor and celebrate Reflex and Frax Competition success at the campus level.
Frax Sector 3
We also introduced Frax Sector 3, expanding the Frax galaxy with new missions targeting advanced fractions concepts. The all-new Sector 3 allows students to apply the foundational skills they developed in Sectors 1 and 2 to perform advanced operations with fractions, with a focus on fraction arithmetic.
Hear From the Team Who Developed Sector 3!
Gizmos Investigations
We also launched Gizmos Investigations, a major step forward in bringing inquiry-based learning and sensemaking to classrooms. By combining guided exploration with the powerful Gizmos simulations teachers already know and love, Investigations deliver turnkey, scaffolded lessons with built-in questioning and feedback that keep students engaged in scientific practices at their own level.
These new High-Quality Instructional Materials added a new dimension to our lineup of STEM education tools, and teachers embraced them right away.
Take a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Investigations
New real-world STEM Cases
The Gizmos team partnered with STEM professionals to develop five new interactive STEM Cases that allow students to solve real-world problems while learning more about STEM careers.
New STEM Cases in 2025:
Research that drives results
Behind every learning tool we develop and expand is a commitment to rigorous research and real-world evidence. This year, our research team continued investing in studies that evaluated student growth, instructional impact, and teacher outcomes across our STEM solutions.
These findings guide how we design features, refine learning pathways, and strengthen the effectiveness of our math and science learning tools—ensuring that everything we create supports meaningful, measurable results for students.
Reflex Product Efficacy Research
Adaptive and individualized, Reflex is the most effective system for mastering basic math facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division for grades 2+.
- Our team investigated the impact of Reflex on grade-level math proficiency, using a sample of students who first used Reflex in 2nd grade and took iReady math diagnostic tests in the fall and spring to assess their growth. Students who frequently used Reflex showed large increases in math fact fluency, from an average of 28% fluency at the start of the school year to an average of 84% fluency by the end of the year.
- We found that Reflex Competitions not only improve the frequency of student logins, but also the quality of each math fact practice session. Students who took part in a Reflex Competition saw a 94% increase in total Green Light days—nearly doubling their high-quality Reflex usage!
- In a survey of elementary teachers across the US and Canada, educators overwhelmingly agreed that Reflex increased students’ confidence, engagement, persistence, and growth in math fact fluency.
Frax Product Efficacy Research
Game-based and story-driven, Frax meets students where they are and stops the fractions struggle, putting students on a path to ongoing success in higher mathematics.
- A two-year study found that all students who used Frax during a pilot met or exceeded 3rd-grade proficiency standards, with continued improvement on 4th-grade fractions standards compared to students who did not use Frax.
- Our researchers studied 3rd-grade students who completed Frax Sector 1 and 4th-grade students who used both Sectors 1 and 2. In a sample of students receiving typical classroom instruction, 11% of 3rd-graders and 26% of 4th-graders failed to meet grade-level fractions standards. In comparison, 99% of 3rd-grade students and 98% of 4th-grade students who used Frax met proficiency in grade-level fractions standards.
- After three years, our new longitudinal study demonstrated how early and consistent classroom Frax usage leads to lasting fractions proficiency for students, building the foundation for success in algebra and higher-level math. Students who completed Sector 1 in earlier grades significantly outperformed similar non-users on 5th and 6th-grade math assessments, including both fractions subscales and overall math scores.
- A separate study measured Frax's impact on at-risk students’ math proficiency in a public school district in California, finding that students who used Frax were more likely to meet math grade-level standards on summative assessments.
- We were also excited to measure how Frax supports Multilingual Learners (MLLs). Students who used Frax showed greater math growth than their peers with similar starting points who did not use the program. MLLs and English-proficient students experienced equal gains, suggesting that Frax supports learning across language groups.
Frax + Reflex Product Efficacy Research
Math facts and fractions are two areas where young math students struggle the most. Reflex (for math facts) and Frax (for fractions) develop this critical knowledge in a fun and effective way.
- Our recent longitudinal study found that students who consistently used Reflex and Frax made significant, sustained gains in math achievement across elementary grades. In contrast, students who did not use Reflex and Frax not only grew more slowly but also fell behind their peers over time, entering 6th grade with larger skill gaps than they had in 2nd grade.
Gizmos Product Efficacy Research
Gizmos bring math and science to life with a library of over 550 virtual Simulations, STEM Cases, and Investigations.
- Results from a survey of nearly 300 educators showed that Gizmos engaged their students in inquiry-based learning activities that meet the newest standards for scientific sensemaking.
- To evaluate the impact of new Gizmos Investigations, we partnered with 33 teachers who used Investigations with 2,648 students across 93 middle school classrooms during a beta testing phase. Teachers reported high satisfaction, curricular alignment, and improvements in student knowledge, noting that students showed measurable growth in science practices.
Celebrating STEM successes
We continued to grow our STEM Stars program, one of our favorite ways to connect with teachers and celebrate successes happening in classrooms across the globe.
Our team sat down with teachers and administrators to learn about their backgrounds, students, and how they incorporate Gizmos, Reflex, and Frax into their instruction. We were amazed to catch a glimpse of the innovation, curiosity, leadership, and creativity these teachers bring on a daily basis to create meaningful learning opportunities for their students.
ExploreLearning awards wins in 2025
We also took some trophies this year! Our team collectively celebrated our industry award wins for excellence in educational technology.
- 2025 CODiE Award Wins:
- Frax: Best Educational Game
- Gizmos: Best STEM Instructional Solution for Grades K-12
- Educators Pick Best of STEM® 2025 Award Wins:
- Reflex: Bridging the Gap: Math Intervention Resources
- Gizmos STEM Cases: Trailblazer: Phenomena-Based Teaching and Learning
- Gizmos STEM Cases: Trailblazer: Simulations for STEM
What’s ahead for ExploreLearning
2025 brought a lot of exciting change and innovation, and our team can’t wait to build on that momentum in the new year.
ExploreLearning and Learning A-Z: Unifying to accelerate K-12 student outcomes
We’re excited to announce that ExploreLearning is uniting with Learning A-Z to accelerate student outcomes in K–12 literacy, math, and science. By combining our strengths, we look forward to equipping teachers with research-based solutions that target critical literacy and STEM building blocks required for advanced student success.
Stay tuned for our new company name in early 2026! In the meantime, your current product experience will not change. Our teams are working together to ensure a seamless transition and will keep you informed in the new year.
Continuing the global impact
Through Cambium Learning Group’s new Global Impact Pilot, we’re partnering with school leaders and educators across Sub-Saharan Africa to explore how our STEM tools can enhance student outcomes and foster a lifelong passion for math and science within their communities.
In Fall 2025, Senior Learning Designer Jesse Mercer traveled to Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo to introduce ExploreLearning solutions and lead hands-on training sessions with educators. Together, Jesse, local teachers, and students brought STEM concepts to life with Gizmos. We’re excited to see the global impact milestones we achieve together in 2026.
Students at Bishop Stanway School in Tanzania learning with Gizmos.
Thank you to educators
Of all our accomplishments in 2025, none matter more than the trust and feedback we received from you—teachers and administrators who bring our tools to life. Your insight drives our decisions, your feedback shapes our innovation, and your dedication inspires us daily.
“Because of the engagement with Reflex, students were able to get more buy-in. They stayed engaged and could retain it and learn it more.”
–Cori Montz, Third-Grade Teacher
Cori Montz and Beth Melton created Reflex “Influenter” shirts in Louisiana.
“Gizmos Investigations are really like that bridge between Gizmos and STEM Cases. It’s like right in the middle. There’s a story there. Students are pursuing a specific storyline to get to an end result or as close as possible. I think that’s meaningful interaction for students.”
—Matthew Sisk, Curriculum Supervisor of Science and Applied Technology (Grades 6-12)
“Anything I can do to make what I do in the classroom transparent, accessible, clear, and validate somebody's home experience as well as what we're required to teach—that promotes engagement and conversation with their family. That’s what I like about your products and your programs, and that's why I use them.”
–Christine Scovill, Fifth-Grade Teacher
A third-grade student in Kentucky celebrates Reflex milestones.
“I love Gizmos. I think every student should have the opportunity to use them, especially in our technology and computer era today. Kids want to be on the computer. I think it's especially great if hands-on is not an option as well. But even if it is, then use a Gizmo after to solidify what they just learned.”
–Alissa Himelfarb, Eighth-Grade Teacher
Ready for what’s next?
We’re already building the next generation of STEM education and math and science learning tools, and we can’t wait to share what’s coming as we expand our horizons to literacy.
Explore new features, revisit your favorite resources, or start a trial to see how these tools can support your students in the year ahead. Here’s to another year of discovery, growth, and empowering learners—together.