First-year students at PHINMA Education practised maths and reading with the Personalised Learning App for ten weeks, on their own phones, alongside their normal classes.1
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Every step up in weeks of practice came with a step up in grades, in both subjects. Students who practised in seven or eight weeks finished about 12 points ahead in maths and 16 in reading, against students who practised in one week or none.2
One question is whether students who started ahead simply practised more. So we compared students who started at the same level on day one.
At every level, more weeks of practice went with higher grades. The gap was widest for students who started furthest behind: about 11 points in maths and 12 in reading for those who started lowest, from the fewest weeks of practice to the most.3 The pattern holds in every class section, whether or not the class set aside time for it.
Nearly every student who stopped attending had never sat the day-one starting-point check. Almost every student who sat it finished with a grade, whatever they did afterwards.4
So by week two, the students who had not started could be listed, well before the grade sheet. That is the signal Analytics and Alerts watches for. It shows who to reach early.
Where classes gave class time to starting, about three in four students started practising. Where students were left to start on their own, fewer than half did.5
We changed two things in how the app runs.
One person in each class is responsible for getting students started and keeping them practising.
Every student has a goal for the week, so practice stays regular.
The grades on this page are course grades supplied by PHINMA Education, matched to each student’s practice records. Students who finished a course with a zero grade, almost always because they stopped attending, are left out of the grade comparisons; including them would make every gap larger.
Mean grade, by number of weeks with any practice:
| Weeks with practice | 0–1 | 2–4 | 5–6 | 7–8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maths | 57.5 | 63.7 | 65.0 | 69.2 |
| Reading | 71.6 | 79.4 | 82.7 | 87.3 |
Students who started lowest on day one, mean grade by weeks with any practice:
| Weeks with practice | 0–1 | 2–4 | 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maths | 52.1 | 61.7 | 62.8 |
| Reading | 70.5 | 75.6 | 82.7 |
With starting level held constant statistically, weeks of practice still tracked grades in both subjects.
Of the students who finished a course with a zero grade, which almost always means they stopped attending, all but one had never sat the day-one starting-point check. Of the students who sat it, all but one finished every course with a grade, whatever they did afterwards.
Where classes set aside class time for it, 76% of students started practising; where students were left to start on their own, 45% did.
We’ll take the leadership team through how the pilot was measured and how it would run with the institution’s first-years.