This document provides an abstract and introduction for a comparative analysis of the i-Ready, IXL, and Prodigy learning software programs. It examines these three programs and their effectiveness based on student performance on math portions of standardized assessments. The study aims to determine which program has the greatest impact on student growth and achievement. It reviews the relevant literature around the rise of educational technology and standardized testing.

1. A comparative analysis of i-Ready, IXL, and Prodigy
learning software programs
Ernest J-A. Conerly, Christopher L. Jarrett, and Cristina M. Ryter
Biscayne College of Liberal Arts, Social Science and Education,
St. Thomas University
EDU 650: Practicum in Instructional Design & Technology
Dr. Timothy Stafford
April 25, 2021

2. Abstract
● Teachers are required to differentiate instructions in order to meet the
individual needs of students.
● Math learning platforms are marketed to educators claiming to be self-paced,
data-driven, and researched-based theoretical frameworks that meet the
needs of each student.
● Research examines three well-known math learning platforms, IXL,
i-Ready, and Prodigy, with learning theories that support the success of each
program.

3. Abstract Cont’d
● All three programs offer individual student differentiation and academic
improvements.
● No conclusive data on which program produces the greatest result in student
growth.
● This study will make a recommendation for which program demonstrates
higher student growth.

4. Introduction
● Average National Assessment of Educational Progress’ (NAEP) math
assessment score in 2012 for 17-year-olds was not significantly different
from the score in 1973 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013,
p.29).
● Academic learning gaps are not closing as quickly as NCLB and ESSA
planned.
● i-Ready, IXL, and Prodigy have gained popularity because of online learning
which promise to achieve learning gains.
● Leads to research question, What is the causal-comparative effect of
math-based e-learning platforms, i-Ready, IXL, or Prodigy based on student
performance on the math portions of the NAEP?

5. Background
● COVID-19 has accelerated the pace at which schools have moved towards
digital resources.
● Districts are under pressure to integrate technology.
● Increased mandates for differentiating instruction, given rise to educational
software resources marketed as “evidence-based” and “data-driven” to prove
their effectiveness for increasing student achievement.
● Research evaluating the effectiveness of these e-learning academic programs
has proven difficult to achieve.

6. Background Cont’d
● Difficult to complete a true controlled research study due to school
reluctance.
● Important to gather as much field tested data as possible to ensure that
districts are providing students with the most effective resources available.

7. Problem Needing to be Solved
● Lack of academic progress and or achievement gains in mathematics from
American students compared to their European or Asian peers.
● Results from 2015, the U.S. placed an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries
in math.
● Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, the U.S. ranked 30th in
math (DeSilver, 2020).
● Due to the large number of unmastered skills that contribute to a lack of
proficiency on standardized assessments.

8. Problems Needing to be Solved
● High-stakes testing has deepened the lack of academic progress by forcing
chronically low achievers to reach unattainable growth standards without
providing necessary resources to fill learning gaps and reach proficiency to
succeed on math portions of mandated tests.
● Data from testing fueled testing explosion but student growth did not
improve.
● Leads to teaching the test/more time and attention spent on test preparation,
creating a never-ending cycle of breeding more tests.

9. Purpose of the Research
● Analyze the three math educational software platforms, i-Ready, IXL,
Prodigy, to improve student achievement on the NAEP.
● Educational software is composed of several functions: drill and practice,
tutorial, simulation, game or problem-solving, and personalized learning.
● i-Ready is a tutorial software
● IXL is a drill and practice program
● Prodigy is a game-based educational program

10. Purpose of Research Cont’d
● Determine which platform will have the greater impact on a student's overall
growth and performance on standardized assessments,
● Will provides a scope of focus to determine whether that particular type of
instructional technology should be used within classrooms.

11. Research Question
● What is the causal-comparative effect of math-based elearning platforms,
i-Ready, IXL, or Prodigy based on student performance on the math portions
of the National Assessment of Education?

12. Hypothesis
● H1
1: All three e-learning platforms, i-Ready, IXL, and Prodigy will have a
greater effect than the control group.
○ H0
: The control group will do better than the 3 e-learning platforms,
i-Ready, IXL, and Prodigy.

13. Hypothesis Cont’d
● H2
: Prodigy uniquely applies the most learning theories to its platform,
intertwining cognitivism and behaviorism which will lead to self efficacy
and have a greater impact than i-Ready, IXL, and the control group.
○ H0
: All three e-learning platforms are essentially the same and none are
better than the others.

14. Literature Review
● This literature review examines how standardized testing gave rise to the e-learning
industry because of the need to differentiate instruction, fill learning gaps, and prepare
students for standardized assessments given in each state and nationally every four
years. The study looks to identify whether or not e-learning platforms, specifically
math-based, are meeting the expectations that brought them into existence. Are students
making substantial academic gains on standardized assessments after learning, playing,
or practicing on these platforms? If so, how are these platforms accomplishing these
improvements?

15. Review of the Historical Literature
● Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results from 2015, the U.S. placed an
unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math. Among the 35 members of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, the U.S. ranked 30th in
math.
● Congress requiring states to bring all students to the “proficient level” on state tests by the 2013-14
school year, although each state was able to decide, individually, what “proficiency” would look like.
● A new never-ending cycle began where tests bred more tests, including practice tests and test
preparation. States and school districts start conducting more tests to use as test preparation and
predictors to determine a student's scoring ability on the mandated testing.

16. Review of the Current Literature
● The need for data-driven instruction and differentiation, coupled with increased teacher
scrutiny because of the accountability measure being required of school districts receiving
federal funding, created a huge need in e-learning resources to truly differentiate
instruction.
● The greatest challenge facing America’s schools today isn’t the budget crisis, or
standardized testing, or “teacher quality.” It’s the enormous variation in the academic
level of students coming into any given classroom.

17. Review of the Current Literature
● Several factors over the last decade, specifically COVID-19, have seen the development
of platforms tailored to primary and secondary schools to platforms specifically
constructed for the field of higher education; from digital environments designed to
manage pupils’ learning to environments focused on the monitoring of their behavior;
and from digital spaces bundling a variety of functionalities to interfaces with a more
singular function: no matter the focus, there seems to exist a corresponding digital
platform used within the educational field

18. IXL
● IXL is based on the drill and practice function of instructional technology.
● Drill and practice is rooted in the theory of behaviorism, focusing on repetition of
stimulus-response practice and the concept of reinforcement (Lim et al., 2012).

19. i-Ready
● i-Ready is an adaptive diagnostic assessment and personalized instructional tutorial
tool that places each student in a personalized learning path through online lessons.
● i-Ready’s tutorial program is rooted in explicit instruction; clear and concise tracking
of growth to determine which students need additional help or interventions which
lends itself to cognitivism theory, learning focusing on the internal process and
connections that take place during learning

20. Prodigy
● Prodigy is a practice website and app for grades K–8 that addresses standards-based
skills and testing- based concepts in Math for both home and school.
● Prodigy is based on the gamification-theory, which is the use of game elements in
non-game contexts, and is increasingly being implemented in both student and
organizational learning initiatives.

21. Review of this Study In Light of the Reviewed
Literature (the gap)
● The central argument to all three learning platform programs are that they
are supported by research-based educational theories that lead to increased
academic progress. Each platform has the ability to differentiate instruction
through personalized learning plans based on diagnostic examinations that
students take

22. The Gap cont’d
● Where all the programs overlap is a combination between two learning theories of
cognitive and behavioral learning. According to Kendra Cherry (2019)
● The combination is called Social Learning theory or Social Cognitive Learning theory.
the theory considers how environmental, behaviorism and cognitive factors interact to
influence human learning and behavior.

23. The Gap cont’d
● Alberts Bandura's, the author of Social Cognitive theory
While the behavioral theory of learning suggested that all learning was the result of
associations formed by conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment, Bandura's social
learning theory proposed that learning can also occur simply by observing the actions of
others. His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new information
and behaviors by watching other people. Known as observational learning,

24. The Gap cont’d
● Bandura explanation of observational and modeling processes
● Four steps: attention, retention, reproduction and motivation,

25. The Gap cont’d
● At the core of all three is platform retention, the ability to store information.
● IXL and i-Ready overlap at step reproduction, or the ability to perform the behavior you
observed. Each of these programs have explicit instruction, tutoring and practice built into
their programs, so that after a while the students are able to reproduce what they have
learned.

26. The Gap cont’d
● IXL and Prodigy overlap in motivation or the stimulus that reinforces
behaviors. Both programs have built in extrinsic motivational interfaces that
are designed to help the students focus and want to get better at math.
● With Prodigy’s unique gamification style, it has the greatest potential to keep
student’s attention or the ability to focus on the content, which Bandura
states it has to be interesting.

27. Methodology
● We intend to analyze records and artifacts including district data from the
previous NAEP administration among districts that implemented one of the
three math programs in the year following the next NAEP assessment in
2021. The 2025 NAEP administration’s data will be compared to the district
data for 2021, the year prior to the treatment.

28. Type of Research
This research will be quantitative, measuring data at the ordinal level.

29. Research Design
● Causal-comparative
● Groups are chosen through pre-existing data from the NAEP assessment.
● Controlled groups are exposed to learning platforms and compared to groups
that are not using the e-learning platforms (Key Elements of a Research
Proposal Quantitative Design, n.d.).

30. Data Gathering Procedures
1. Identify districts that are frequent participants in the NAEP assessment, having
taken the last three tests.
2. Select districts that have adopted either of the independent variables (i-Ready,
IXL, or Prodigy) district-wide for the first time in 2022, the year after the last
NAEP assessment and establish a data-sharing agreement with those districts.

31. Data Gathering Procedures
3. Classify each district as performing in the lowest quartile, 2nd quartile, 3rd
quartile, or upper quartile.
4. Randomly select twelve treatment districts - one adoption district for each of the
three programs and each of the four performance quartiles.

32. Data Gathering Procedures
5. Randomly select four control districts - one from each performance quartile that did not
adopt either of the treatment programs.
6. After the next NAEP assessment in 2025, district personnel will provide NAEP data to
the research team for an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The second NAEP district
average will serve as the dependent variable. A homogeneous subgroup comparison will
be completed for each quartile to strengthen the research sample. (Salkind, 2010)

33. 1. Determine the 2022 average NAEP percentile among forth and either
graders for the students in each district to serve as the baseline.
2. Determine the average NAEP percentile for the students in each district after
the 2025 administration.
Data analysis Procedures

34. Data analysis Procedures
3. Run a regression between: the independent variables - the programs
implemented, or the control with no program used; and the dependent
variables - the average NAEP percentile for the district.
4. Complete an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to examine the differences
in the mean values of the dependent variables (Analysis of covariance
(ANCOVA) 2020).

35. Data analysis Procedures
5. Use the ANCOVA analysis within each grade level and each of the four
quartiles to determine the program that yields districts with the greatest
positive change in each category.

36. Final Summary of the Proposal
With the research conducted and data collected, one of the three e-learning
platforms will have a greater effect on student data than student groups that are
not receiving e-learning supplemental resources. The goal is to expose each
e-learning platform for its specific capacities to determine the most effective
program that will support in closing learning gaps.

37. References
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