We didn't invent anything new. We just follow what the research says actually works—and we're transparent about where we learned it.
Our approach is grounded in explicit instruction—a method backed by decades of research showing that students learn best when teachers clearly explain what to do, model it, and give students lots of practice with feedback.
This philosophy is beautifully captured in Zach Groshell's book "Just Tell Them: The Case for Explicit Instruction". Rather than expecting students to "discover" concepts on their own (which often leads to confusion and gaps), explicit instruction means:
We apply these principles across all our subjects. No gimmicks, no waiting for students to "figure it out"—just research-backed instruction that works.
Let's be honest: if you have $50/month to spend on math education, you should go sign up for Math Academy. We're not ashamed to say it—Math Academy is phenomenal, and we've learned so much from them.
Their adaptive learning system, mastery-based progression, and spaced repetition are best-in-class. We've borrowed heavily from their approach to build our own math curriculum.
Justin Skycak, who leads Math Academy's data and analytics work, wrote "The Math Academy Way"—an excellent deep dive into the science of learning and how adaptive algorithms and mastery-based progression create optimal math instruction. His work has deeply influenced how we think about personalized math education.
Our math program uses similar principles—diagnostic assessments, adaptive problem sets, spaced repetition, and mastery-based progression—but we know we're not at Math Academy's level yet. That's why we recommend them without hesitation for families who can afford it.
If there's one thing we're absolutely certain about in reading instruction, it's this: phonics works.
The science is settled. Decades of research—and frankly, common sense—show that teaching kids to decode words systematically through phonics is the most effective way to teach reading. Yet for years, many schools abandoned phonics in favor of "balanced literacy" and "three-cueing," methods that have been thoroughly debunked.
The excellent podcast Sold a Story by APM Reports documents how bad reading instruction became widespread in America—and how damaging it's been for millions of children.
If you're a parent or educator, we strongly recommend listening to it. It's eye-opening and infuriating in equal measure.
We've built our reading program based on proven phonics-based approaches, particularly:
A structured literacy approach that explicitly teaches phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling patterns in a logical sequence.
A systematic phonics program that breaks reading instruction into clear, manageable steps with plenty of practice and review.
An outstanding free phonics curriculum that provides a complete scope and sequence for teaching foundational reading skills. We reference it constantly.
Bottom line: we teach reading the way the research says it should be taught—systematically, explicitly, and with lots of practice decoding real words. No guessing, no pictures as clues, just sound-it-out phonics.
Writing is thinking on paper—but most students struggle because they're never explicitly taught how to organize their thoughts into clear, coherent sentences and paragraphs.
That's where The Writing Revolution by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler comes in. This method transforms writing instruction by focusing on sentence-level skills first—teaching students to combine sentences, use conjunctions, and build complexity gradually.
Our writing curriculum borrows heavily from this framework. We believe students need explicit instruction in how to construct sentences, organize ideas, and revise their work—not vague prompts to "be creative" without the tools to succeed.
Education research has already figured out what works. Our job isn't to invent new theories—it's to implement proven methods and make them accessible to as many students as possible.
We stand on the shoulders of giants like Zach Groshell, Justin Skycak, Judith Hochman, Hannah Edwards, and the teams at Math Academy, EBLI, and Reading Simplified. We owe them a debt of gratitude—and we encourage you to explore their work directly.
Our goal is simple: take what the research says works and deliver it to students in a way that's engaging, effective, and most importantly, grounded in evidence.