Reflex and Recess: Fostering Growth Through Gamified Math

When a math program earns the same excitement as recess, you know it’s doing something right. Just ask Katherine Cleary’s third-grade class.

After inquiring about students’ favorite part of school, educator Katherine was met with a resounding ‘Recess and Reflex!’ “That’s just a testament to how great it is – that Reflex has become one of their favorite parts of the day,” she says.

Katherine Cleary and Andrea Pardington are third-grade teachers at William H. Natcher Elementary School in Bowling Green, Kentucky. At their Title I school, between 70% and 80% of the student population qualifies for free or reduced lunch. Both Katherine and Andrea have a high population of English Language Learners in the classroom. “We use a lot of Kagan structures to get students talking and, of course, we use Reflex to help them engage in math fluency,” Katherine says.

Reflex is an adaptive and game-based system that guides grades 2+ students at every level to math fact fluency and confidence.

Andrea Partington first heard about the tool in the most trusted way an educator can – from other satisfied teachers.

Teachers know best: Seeing math fact growth with Reflex

Andrea is a member of a third-grade teacher Facebook group. “I was scrolling one day through the summer,” she explains, “And somebody said, ‘What do you all do for fact fluency?’ Fact fluency had always been my Achilles heel. I tried multiple things to get them to master their facts, with time tests, and then you get kids on different numbers. It was so hard and time-consuming to manage. I did not have the time or the brain power to maintain it.”

Several group members mentioned Reflex. And after some searching, Andrea came across the ExploreLearning Grant Program, which gives teachers full access to Reflex or Frax for the entire school year. “And at that point,” says Andrea, “I shared with Katherine. I was like, ‘I think we should try this.’ And we did, and our administrators got tired of us bragging about it… how much we love it, showing their growth… so then I was like, ‘Listen, we need all kids doing Reflex.’”

Soon after, they took the leap, and now the entire school is learning and growing with Reflex.

From Achilles heel to academic strength

Before we chatted with Andrea and Katherine, they asked their students: If you could talk to someone from Reflex, what would you tell them?

Katherine read us some of the answers. “‘I love it. The games are awesome. It's incredible. It's the best. It's the best game in the world. It's great at helping me with math, and I like the music.’ So, they just think it's a game,” Katherine explains, “They don't even realize the purpose behind it, that we're wanting them to become more fluent, because they just think it's games.”

And they are becoming fluent.

“Getting them to recall those facts so quickly helped them to be able to be more successful on their state testing at the end of the year. In Kentucky, it's leveled by colors, and blue is the highest. Last year, we achieved blue status, and we were the only school in our county to achieve blue status last year. So we think that's a big indicator of the growth that Reflex is helping our students to achieve,” they explain.

Andrea even completed a capstone project that focused on the benefits of Reflex on student achievement. She shared that data with school decision-makers, illustrating the power of the program. And there’s more data where that came from!

Across multiple grade levels, standardized tests, and benchmark assessments, numerous independent academic efficacy studies show that students who use Reflex are scoring higher and growing faster than their peers.

“Our third graders consistently are among the top growth showing students in the entire district year after year. And we think it's because of Reflex.”
— Andrea Partington, Third-grade teacher

Listen to their story!

Boosting buy-in with Reflex Competitions

Reflex is engaging on its own—but when outstanding teachers find creative ways to stoke that excitement, that’s when the real magic happens. At William H. Natcher Elementary School, you can see this with how they leverage Reflex Competitions.

“Last year,” recalls Katherine, “They did the classroom that had the highest fluency for the week based on the Reflex Competitions, and they put your picture on the TV that scans in the foyer up front by the front doors. That's one way we get the whole school involved. They also look at who has mastered the most facts each week, and their names get announced on Friday afternoons.”

“When you add that competitive component, they're even more motivated to get it done and do well.”
— Andrea Partington, Third-grade teacher

Competitions, shout-outs, and rewards boost student buy-in; however, at the end of the day, the gains students are seeing in their own math abilities are also major motivators.

“You've got students who struggle sometimes in every area of school,” Andrea explains, “In reading, writing, math, grammar…everything. Reflex is something that they can feel successful with. And it's just individual to them. They're not being compared to anybody else. They know what their fluency percentage is, and so it's just an opportunity for students who maybe don't feel successful in other areas to feel success.”

Low risk, high reward

It’s clear these educators are seeing great results with Reflex, and the low time commitment makes it easy to implement into students’ routines.

“It's so easy to work it in. And if they truly stay focused and get it done, which I would say 95% of them do, they can have it their Green Light in 12 to 13 minutes is the fastest I've seen it done. And that is just not a lot of time when it comes to them mastering their facts, when everything is based upon that,” says Katherine

What could dedicating a few minutes a day to Reflex mean for your students’ math achievement? Start your free trial today and find out!