Education.com

What Education.com is

Education.com is a library of printable and digital learning resources for children from Pre-K to 8th grade, used by parents, teachers and homeschoolers. Its home page invites visitors to "Explore 40,000+ teacher-created worksheets, hands-on activities, and learning games that build real skills!" and the page title calls it the "#1 Educational Site for Pre-K to 8th Grade." The footer identifies the company as "Education.com, Inc, a division of IXL Learning," and lists IXL's other brands, from IXL itself to ABCya, Vocabulary.com and TPT.

The About page states the mission as "Nurture each child's passion, curiosity, optimism, and educational success." Its philosophy starts from the line "Teaching is one of the most challenging and complex jobs on the planet," and says the resources "are developed by educational experts to incorporate leading pedagogical practices," adding that many of them "can be used to support national education standards." The intended users are named directly: "From school teachers and tutors to home schoolers and parents."

What is in the library

The learning library is organized by type, and each type has a short description on the home page.

Lesson plans. "Free, ready-made lesson plans make it easy to provide meaningful, standards-aligned instruction in both classroom and homeschool settings." A teacher planning tomorrow's lesson, or a parent running a homeschool day, can start from one of these rather than from a blank page.

Worksheets. "We've got a worksheet for anything your student is learning!" The printables cover practice "from handwriting to multiplication to sight words, and much more!" The library also has interactive worksheets for on-screen work and a Worksheet Generator for building custom sheets, which the support FAQ files under "Create Your Own."

Games. Games are pitched as a way to "Transform study time into an adventure!" by building math fluency and letter skills through titles such as Flipping Pancakes Fractions and Irregular Nouns Ski Race. A teacher quoted on the About page notes that "Students like the interactive games to practice reading and writing."

Activities. Hands-on projects "bring topics to life through hands-on science experiments, creative art projects, inspirational writing prompts, and more!"

Common Core resources are listed as their own section in the tools menu. Members can also bookmark resources into collections, then send a collection to their children or assemble it into a custom lesson plan.

Guided lessons, assignments and progress

Premium membership is what turns the library into a learning program. The home page says "A premium membership gives you unlimited access to all of Education.com's resources and tools like playlists of guided lessons, progress insights for each student, and more!"

Guided lessons are the structured part: "expertly-designed pathways of fun games that help learners practice and build upon skills in math, reading, writing, and typing!" A child works through a pathway rather than picking activities at random.

Assignments are the other half. An adult can "Create assignments for individual learners, an entire household, or a classroom," with "insights to celebrate each student's achievements and milestones." Children reach their work with a code: the home page asks "Did you receive a login code from your child's teacher?" and the support FAQ covers a Student Code for Home Use and a Classroom Code for student login in class. Teachers who already work in Google Classroom will find it among the FAQ topics.

The member quotes speak to this part of the product. Sarah H., a parent and Premium member, writes: "I love that it shows me the areas my child needs to improve on and directs me to resources to work with him on." Sara D., a teacher, says: "As a teacher, I love the correlation to standards, and that I am able to see the progress and struggles my students have in obtaining skills."

Prices and membership terms

The pricing page lists two Premium options:

• Monthly, at US $15.99 per month, renewing automatically every month.
• Yearly, at US $119.88 per year, renewing automatically every year.

Cancellation is self-service. The page says members can cancel "anytime by logging into My Account," clicking Cancel Subscription and following the steps on screen, and that "Your cancellation will be effective at your next subscription renewal date," so a member keeps access until the period they paid for ends. Gift memberships can be given and redeemed through the support menu.

For schools there is a separate product. The home page describes Education.com for schools and districts as a "comprehensive, standards-aligned supplemental program" that helps "students build essential skills in math, reading, writing, science, social studies, and more," and the support menu carries a Get a Quote link for it.

Reach and support

The About page puts the size of the community in exact figures: "Over 50,434,880 people have signed up as Education.com members," "25,217,440 are teachers," and "10,000 new members join every day." It adds that Education.com provides learning resources to 195 countries, and the home page reports "49 million parents, teachers, and students served."

Support runs through a Help Center, an FAQ and a contact form. After a form is sent, the site says the team "will contact you by email in two business days." FAQ topics include assignments, memberships, where to find answer sheets and changing the email address on a Premium membership.

The home page also quotes Amy Jo Meiners, 2016 Alaska Teacher of the Year: "Education.com has multiple resources organized for any learning tool you might need as a teacher, parent, and student, and I love the ability to be able to sort by grade, subject, enrichment, or type!" Patricia K., a homeschooler, says it has been "an invaluable aid to me in teaching my children from home, no matter what the grade level," and praises how quickly she can find and download what she needs "at a most reasonable cost."

Who it suits and who it does not

Education.com suits parents of children from Pre-K to 8th grade who want printable practice and games they can pick by grade, subject or skill, and teachers who want ready-made lesson plans and worksheets matched to standards. Premium is the right step for a family or class that wants structure: guided lessons in math, reading, writing and typing, assignments for each child, and progress insights in one place. The yearly plan at $119.88 suits a household that will use it across the school year; the monthly plan at $15.99 suits a shorter push, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period. Homeschoolers get a deep pool to draw from, as Patricia K.'s comment suggests.

It suits less well a learner past 8th grade, since the library stops there. It is a resource library and practice tool rather than live teaching, so a child who needs a tutor will need one separately. Schools wanting a district setup go through the separate schools program and a quote rather than the family membership.