To get students excited about the literacy platform, O’Sullivan prints out certificates of achievement for students at the end of each month. Those who met their goals in terms of units completed and minutes spent on the platform receive the certificates. “They love getting them,” O’Sullivan said.

Teachers decide how they want to break down the learning and implement it within their reading blocks. “We leave it up to them,” she said, “and it’s primarily the reading teachers who take that on.” Some teachers assign Core5 for homework and others build it right into their classroom time. Other teachers set up different stations or centers throughout their classrooms and have students rotate through the literacy platform that way.

“Teachers see the power in Lexia and how they can use it with their students and the useful data that we extract from it,” O’Sullivan said. “Those ‘wins’ go a long way in helping us get buy-in from our teachers for it.”

Students love the platform because it’s so engaging, colorful, and fun to use, and their teachers like it because it generates specific, actionable data about every student who uses it.

“Lexia flags students who are struggling,” O’Sullivan said, “and lets teachers know when it’s time to pull students into a small group or one-on-one session for additional instruction.” Other key benefits of the platform include differentiated instruction that places students at the right level, recognizes learning gaps, and prompts teachers to pool students for the offline “Skill Builders” to help them advance through specific challenges.

“Our teachers absolutely love it,” O’Sullivan said. “After 10 years of using Lexia, we’re all accustomed to being able to look at the data and then use those insights to help inform our instruction.”