Help with English Proficiency Math (HELP Math)

There still exists unequal access to educational resources because of steep language and cultural barriers. Recent research has shown students are months & years behind in math due to the pandemic, and achievement gaps have widened hitting historically disadvantaged students the hardest. Gina, a HM math instructor from Elmwood Middle school in Rogers, Arkansas sums up the HELP Math Story… “If you can’t read the math and don’t understand the terminology, you can’t do the math.” This illustrates the pedagogical focus of our solution.

1.   HELP with English Language Proficiency Math or HELP Math, is an existing evidence based, comprehensive and supplemental math learning tool.

2.   Our current goal is to update HM, achieve greater scale as a remedy for math learning loss as we continuously improve towards V 2.0.

3.   The HM user experience is diagnostic/prescriptive builds on background knowledge, provides math Academic English practice and is PROVEN to raise math scores..

4.   HM has gotten consistent positive usage feedback from teachers and students.

5.   HM V1.0 was initially funded through a public/private partnership with U of Colorado & PBS. We received major grants from USDE, IES and others. Research schools became our first paying customers, and V 1.0 went on to be successfully used by students in 28 states.HM has been successful for many reasons including its’ focus on Academic Vocabulary literacy and adaptive features to address gaps in prior knowledge.

The market for HM includes EL’s, SPED students and all students struggling to attain proficiency in math. It is also a solution for pandemic math learning loss and "unfinished learning".

The Boulder Learning team is passionate about applying appropriate technology to help all struggling students overcome learning challenges in foundational literacy, reading assessment and math instruction. (see video)

We hope to form Strategic Partnerships with ed tech funders, publishers and non-profits that are focused on addressing math covid learning loss and the reduction of math proficiency among US students due to the pandemic.

There still exists unequal access to educational resources because of steep language and cultural barriers. Recent research has shown students are months & years behind in math due to the pandemic, and achievement gaps have widened hitting historically disadvantaged students the hardest. Gina, a HM math instructor from Elmwood Middle school in Rogers, Arkansas sums up the HELP Math Story… “If you can’t read the math and don’t understand the terminology, you can’t do the math.” This illustrates the pedagogical focus of our solution. HELP with English Language Proficiency Math or HELP Math, is an existing evidence based, comprehensive and supplemental math learning tool. 

HELP with English Language Proficiency Math or HELP Math, is an existing evidence based, comprehensive and supplemental math learning tool designed for grades 3-10.

HM V1.0 was initially funded through a public/private partnership with U of Colorado & PBS. We received major grants from USDE, IES and others. Research schools became our first paying customers, and V 1.0 went on to be successfully used by students in 28 states.HM has been successful for many reasons including its’ focus on Academic Vocabulary literacy and adaptive features to address gaps in prior knowledge.

1.  Year 1 Restore HELP Math V 1.5 and redistribute to past school customers

2. Year 2-3 R&D for HM V 2.0

3. Year 4 Launch V 2.0- The 2.0 roadmap includes new features & technologies such as Cognitively Guided Instruction, machine learning and AI, augmented reality and speech recognition reading practice, to increase engagement and accelerate learning.

We use data from prior HELP Math usage such as time on task, data sets with data about pre and post test student performance and many other usage parameters.

The US Department of Education's "What Works Clearinghouse" gave HM research it’s highest possible rating with an impressive 90% effect size. This confirmed our theory of impact; that scaffolds, language supports, and sheltered instruction increase math proficiency. This solution can help to mitigate math covid learning loss, unfinished learning, and summer learning loss.

Funding will allow our partners at the University of Nebraska to mine, analyze, compile, and share data sets from the HM database of over 250,000 prior student users to facilitate 2.0 design and testing. Our 2.0 roadmap includes new features & technologies such as CGI, machine learning and AI, augmented reality and speech recognition reading practice, to increase engagement and accelerate learning.

Our work is guided and informed by our beliefs and commitments to: Inclusiveness - we respect people, value diversity and are committed to equity.

Boulder Learning is a For Profit C corporation.  Our business model is SAAS yearly subscription based revenue with HELP math sold to districts, schools, and homes.  Since it was originally launched , HELP Math V1.0 was sold to schools in 28 states generating over $5M in gross cumulative revenues.  It was sold directly, conversions of research schools to paying customers, abd through resellers and strategic partners.

The company attained sustainability up until 2020 when Adobe discontinued Flash and also because of the Pandemic.  We are now seeking funding to "Restore and Redevelop" HELP Math V. 2.0.

Boulder Learning has received over $29M in prior grants including $6.5M from the US Deapartment of Education and the Institute for Educational Sciences for HELP Math.  We are currently engaged in proposal work for grants to the National Science Foundation, Schnidt Futures, the I have a Dream Foundation and others.