Washington, D.C., Feb. 6, 202o—MIND Research Institute today announced that its flagship ST Math® program has earned the research-based design product certification from Digital Promise. The new product certification is intended to serve as a rigorous, reliable signal for consumers, including school administrators, educators, and families, looking for evidence of research-based educational technology (edtech) products.
MIND submitted evidence to Digital Promise confirming a link between research on how students learn and ST Math’s design, and is one of 13 companies selected to be the first recipients of the Research-Based Design product certification.
“All of us at MIND are thrilled to be among this initial group recognized by Digital Promise for our commitment to research, efficacy, and transparency in the edtech space,” said Brett Woudenberg, CEO of MIND. “We are proud to have conducted well over 100 efficacy studies on ST Math, which is used by nearly 1.3 million students at over 5,000 schools nationwide. We owe it to those students and our educator partners to make ST Math the very best and most effective program it can be. That’s why data, analysis, and research are core to who we are as an organization, and have been since our founding over 20 years ago.”
MIND’s Chief Data Science Officer Andrew Coulson added, “I felt a bit giddy when this notice came in, to be honest. The neuroscience research for the ST Math program began in the mid-90s, so we have always proclaimed it as ‘research-based’. Up until today though, the term had no objective independent evaluation. This certification is a major milestone in the maturation of the edtech market, and I’m grateful to Digital Promise for this and many other game-changing initiatives.”
“Schools and families want to know which edtech products can actually help students learn,” said Karen Cator, president and CEO of Digital Promise. “Digital Promise’s Product Certifications are designed to help strengthen consumers’ confidence in choosing research-based products, while recognizing product developers doing the important work of incorporating valid research into their designs.”
After nearly a decade of edtech marketplace research, Digital Promise recognized that while consumers want to know whether a product will improve learning, there is a strong distrust of product-authored studies. Additionally, edtech efficacy or pilot studies conducted once products were already chosen were found to be largely impacted by contextual factors like educator buy-in or a school’s technology infrastructure. Through Product Certifications, consumers can narrow their options as they select products by identifying edtech that is truly based in research about learning before trying it out in their classrooms.
The Research-Based Design product certification uses a competency-based learning framework, developed in consultation with Digital Promise’s Learner Variability Project advisory board, expert researchers in the Learning Sciences field, and dozens of educators across the United States. Further detail about its development can be found in Digital Promise’s new report, “Designing Edtech that Matters for Learning: Research-Based Design Product Certifications.”
All developers, educators, edtech investors, and families are also encouraged to sign the Research-Based Product Promise and demand high-quality, research-driven products that support each unique learner. More information on Digital Promise’s product certifications can be found at productcertifications.digitalpromise.org.
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About MIND Research Institute
MIND Research Institute is a neuroscience and education social impact organization, dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math®, a PreK-8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain's innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems. Its unique, patented approach provides students with equitable access to learning through challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and informative feedback. MIND has also developed programs under MathMINDs to provide students, teachers and families dynamic ways to actively engage with math, and to close the experience gap for all learners. MathMINDs includes Family Game Nights, the national K-12 Game-a-thon and MathMINDs Games. For more information, visit mindresearch.org.
About Digital Promise
Digital Promise is a nonprofit organization that builds powerful networks and takes on grand challenges by working at the intersection of researchers, entrepreneurs, and educators. Our vision is that all people, at every stage of their lives, have access to learning experiences that help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive and continuously learn in an ever-changing world. For more information, visit the Digital Promise website at www.digitalpromise.org and follow @digitalpromise for updates.
For more information contact:
Kelsey Skaggs
MIND Research Institute
949-345-8722
kskaggs@mindresearch.org
Erica Lawton Weinschenk
Digital Promise
erica@digitalpromise.org
JiJi, the ST Math penguin, is delighted after hearing that the program has been awarded the research-based design product certification from Digital Promise!
