When entrepreneurs Sidharth Kakkar and Alexandr Kurilin spent a 30-day stint at an inner city school in Balitimore, Maryland they quickly realized that instead of actually understanding mathematical concepts, students usually processed lessons by copying down classroom notes and committing it to memory.
Although this learning may help students remember math in the short-term, allowing them to successfully pass the next test, it often does little to instill long-term knowledge. Still, the memorization technique also makes it difficult for teachers to gauge which students are ready for advancement and which ones require more time.
Kakkar has discovered that the third-grade is frequently a turning point for math education. Here, he believes, a schism occurs which effectively divides students into two groups: the advancers and the digressers. He worries that if split is not eradicated, digressive students will continue to struggle with math well into their high school years. In response, Kakkar and Kurilin designed the math app, Front Row, to help each student progress regardless of their current math level.
Originally introduced in September 2013, the Front Row app offers individualized, one-on-one lessons for students from kindergarten through 8th grade to learn through interactive methods from the privacy of their own iPad or similar tablet. The app also features a series of different education platforms like video games, real-world situations, and student-led exercises designed to keep lessons enjoyable.
Front Row is likewise advantageous to teachers since the app produces performance reports for each student on a weekly basis. This added bonus feature enables teachers to continually evaluate students’ unique progression rate. Now, 120,000 math teachers in 25,000 schools throughout the United States utilize the revolutionary app as a virtual teaching aid.
Case studies conducted by Front Row indicate that 75% of all teachers that implement the app for a three-month period reported students showed greater math education development than their district’s average.