New for Back-to-School 2025: The Personalized Mastery Learning system powering My Math Academy and My Reading Academy has been significantly enhanced with an AI-driven upgrade.
Students now begin all programs by automatically entering Knowledge Mapping Mode, our new Placement experience, which sets them on a path for more personalized and efficient learning. The upgraded system helps keep students in their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) longer, driving stronger growth across skills and standards..
- Placement Overview
- What Should Students Expect
- How to Check Your Students’ Placement Status
- How to View a Student’s Placement Report
- How Our Programs Adapt to Student Progress After Placement
Knowledge Mapping Mode (Placement) Overview
Knowledge Mapping Mode is the first experience students have when they start using My Math Academy, My Reading Academy, or My Reading Academy Español each new academic term. They are automatically given a series of short, adaptive assessment activities to evaluate their skills and understanding, with the programs automatically adjusting the questions’ level of difficulty based on each student’s real-time performance. The system evaluates overall performance during Knowledge Mapping Mode and determines the optimal Placement for each student.
Estimated Placement Duration
Most students will exit Knowledge Mapping Mode within approximately 30 minutes, with the average times lower for Kindergarten and much lower for pre-k.
Average Time Your Students Will Spend in Knowledge Mapping Mode:
- Pre-K: 10 minutes
- Kindergarten: 20-25 minutes
- 1st Grade: 30-35 minutes
- 2nd Grade: 30-35 minutes
- 3rd Grade: 30-35 minutes
- 4th Grade: 30-35 minutes
- 5th Grade: 30-35 minutes
Because Knowledge Mapping Mode adapts in real time, actual duration may vary depending on how quickly the system can determine a student’s optimal Placement starting point. Student responsiveness to activity prompts also affects the time to complete Placement.
Preparing Students
There is nothing that Teachers need to do to get their students into Knowledge Mapping Mode for Placement, because it starts automatically on first use. But they can help students to be ready for it by encouraging them to take their time, stay focused, and do their best. Let your students know that if they are not sure of an answer, they should just click on whatever they think is best. They should do their best so they are not placed lower than would otherwise be appropriate and given activities for skills they already have. And nobody should help them so they are not placed inappropriately high and struggle with activities they aren't ready for.
One Placement Per Year
Students enter Knowledge Mapping Mode and receive a Placement Report just once per school year per subject (typically at the beginning of the school year, or whenever they start using our programs). Students are not "retested" after that, but the programs are continually evaluating their work, adjusting their curriculum, and reporting on their progress. Teachers and Administrators will see only one Placement Report per student per year, but other reports (Learner Activity Reports, Growth Reports) will be available throughout the year to track student progress.
What Should Students Expect
The initial Placement activities in Knowledge Mapping Mode target the end of the prior grade’s knowledge and skills. The system is designed to efficiently gather sufficient evidence of each student’s prior knowledge to place them as accurately as possible within the curriculum without students enduring overly long evaluation times. You can expect Knowledge Mapping Mode (Placement) times will be shorter for lower grades than higher grades.
Students often perceive these initial Placement activities quite differently. Some may report the experience was very challenging if they were presented with a series of questions that stretched their current understanding. Others might say it was really easy if they quickly and confidently answered the initial questions correctly. It's also important to note that students in the same class won’t all get the same set of questions, as in a traditional test.
We recommend preparing students by explaining that some activities may feel difficult—and that this is completely normal. The system is designed to challenge them just enough to find their right starting point, so some Placement activities will be above grade level.
The activities presented during this placement period are designed to help identify the individual strengths and areas for growth for each student, which includes challenging students with activities that are above their level. Note that students will not be placed more than 1 grade level above or below the grade they are rostered in our systems.
You can reassure students: “The first activities you get are meant to challenge you, so if it feels hard, you're doing it right!”
After Placement
Based on the skills demonstrated on these Placement activities, students are placed at the right level (their "zone of proximal development") in the program for them to start learning optimally (erring on easy side at first). Most students will be placed somewhere within the curriculum for the grade level they were rostered. Some may place in the prior grade or the grade above based on their performance during Knowledge Mapping Mode (Placement). The maximum students can be placed above or below rostered grade level is 2 grades. From wherever they are placed, the program will monitor student progress and adjust their activities and placement gradually as dictated by their performance. Students placed at a certain grade level may still see some activities from the prior grade and some from the following grade to continually assess the range of their skills.
Fun tip: When you see Shapeys in lab coats, it indicates that students are about to enter Knowledge Mapping Mode in My Math Academy, and when students select a tile on the My Reading Academy Hub that does not show the usual book cover or game title, it indicates they are entering Knowledge Mapping Mode.
The following screenshots show the program hubs where students will enter Knowledge Mapping Mode to determine their Placement.
My Math Academy
My Reading Academy
Learn more and see additional examples of Placement activities here:
How to Check Your Students’ Placement Status
1. Log in to your Educator Center.
2. In the Educator Center, click Dashboards in the top menu, then choose Progress from the dropdown.
3. In the Skills Progress Status section of the dashboard, there’s a chart showing you which skills each child Needs Support on, which are In Progress, and which are already Completed.
In the Placement Status column on the far right, you may see these four statuses:
- See Report: This link indicates the student has completed their Placement and launched into the learning experience (the “program hub”). Clicking this will open the student’s Placement Report.
- Completed: Student has completed the Placement but the Placement Report has not yet been generated (reports are next day, up to 24 hours).
- In Progress: Student is working in Knowledge Mapping Mode or has not yet returned to the program hub after Placement.
- Not Started: Student has not started Knowledge Mapping Mode for Placement.
- See Readiness Overview: Pre-K students may be placed on our special Readiness Experience if they did not demonstrate they are ready for the regular program content during their initial Readiness Check.
Note: The dashboard status will continue to display the "Completed" status until the student starts a new activity after Placement. If your student has completed Placement but hasn’t started any other activity, have them do so as soon as possible.
How to View a Student’s Placement Report
Note: It may take up to 24 hours after a student completes Placement for the Placement Report to be available to download and print. Additionally, all Progress Dashboard updates occur once every 24 hours at midnight, so you should expect to see the Placement Status changes reflected on the Dashboard the day after Placement was completed. Keep in mind: a report may not be available if the student hasn’t yet completed Placement or hasn’t yet launched another activity. Both steps are required to generate the report.
- Click the See Report link in the Skills Progress Status chart for any student.
- Your web browser should open a new tab for the report, which is quite detailed. At the top, you'll see a bar graph showing the student’s current grade-readiness. The next section shows the student’s placement scores by domain (for this first grade math student: Algebraic Reasoning, Geometry, Measurement and Data, Number and Operations, etc.). This is followed by a Placement Summary for the student.
- The bottom section of the report details What's Next for the student, detailing the skills they will be working on and the standards that apply to them.
- You can print the report the way you would any other web page. On most browsers, Print is an option from the File menu.
How Our Programs Adapt to Student Progress After Placement
Knowledge Mapping Mode (Placement) is not the only time that My Math Academy or My Reading Academy assesses and adapts to student skills. In fact, our programs continue to adapt to the student’s level, in real time, whenever students are engaged in any learning activities, throughout their use of the programs.
Within the adaptive system powering these programs, it is important for students to demonstrate full mastery of all skills and concepts before moving on to next-level activities to make sure they are not missing something that may prove problematic later if not fully mastered early on. As the more advanced students demonstrate sufficient levels of mastery of the curriculum, they will move ahead more rapidly and begin to feel more challenged by new activities.
If at any point an activity is too challenging, the program will provide scaffolding and feedback to support the student’s learning needs. If the student continues to struggle, the program will provide future learning activities at an easier level to ensure they are building the underlying, foundational skills they need to master the full curriculum.
If a more advanced student is frustrated that activities are too easy, teachers sometimes feel like there’s a problem and want to find a way to “fast track” the student, skipping activities or resetting their Placement so they can try again to move ahead. While students cannot skip activities manually, the system includes built-in mechanisms to move faster when appropriate.
Accelerate Mode
For the 2024–2025 school year we introduced Accelerate Mode, a feature designed to help students who consistently demonstrate proficiency move through the curriculum more efficiently. Accelerate Mode is designed to enhance student efficacy and advancement by accelerating the learning activities for students who demonstrate their skills consistently. When a student enters Accelerate Mode, they will be able to skip direct instruction within the activities, allowing them to more quickly demonstrate their advanced knowledge and skills, complete more activities, and move forward in the curriculum more rapidly.
A student is entered into Accelerate Mode after passing four assessment activities in a row. Starting the next day, the system will prioritize assessment-level activities. If a student doesn’t pass, they’ll return to Standard Mode—but can qualify again by passing four more assessments in a row.
Helpful Resources:
- Student Placement Reports: Tips and Troubleshooting
- My Math Academy Placement Activities
- Are my students at the right level for My Math Academy?
- My Reading Academy Placement Activities
- Are my students at the right level for My Reading Academy?
- How does adaptability work?