I Know It

What I Know It is

I Know It is an online practice site for elementary school math and English language arts (ELA), covering kindergarten to fifth grade. The About page describes it as "a comprehensive, interactive practice site for students in Kindergarten to fifth grade" that "can be used during class or at home for independent practice, remediation, assessment, or homework." It is sold to teachers and schools, and to families through a separate family account. The help pages give a contact address in Tonawanda, New York.

The core idea is differentiated practice. The About page says the site lets teachers and parents "differentiate assignments for students allowing them to work at their own level and pace towards mastery of concepts and skills aligned with common core." Lessons are grouped by subject and grade, and the menu runs from K to 5 for both Math and ELA.

What a student sees

Each skill is a lesson with "a wide variety of question types and graphics", according to the About page, and students work through it with "question hints and explanations, along with receiving instant feedback." An animated character accompanies the lessons; the About page credits "our unique characters and animations" with keeping practice fun. If a student cannot finish a lesson in one sitting, the help page says the site saves progress and brings the student back "to the exact point where they left off."

Questions can be read aloud: students click a speaker icon next to a question, and can choose a male or female voice in their settings. Students also see grade levels as letters rather than grade numbers, so a third grader's regular lessons appear as "Level C". When a teacher sets an optional "Math Ability Level", the student is shown their assignments first and then lessons at that level to explore, so a fourth grader working at a second-grade level sees second-grade topics without the label.

What a teacher controls

The teacher account is where most of the product lives. The help page walks through the setup: create a class, add students with names, usernames and passwords, and choose a class code. Students log in with username, password and class code, which the help page explains exists so that duplicate usernames across schools and districts are not a problem. Student passwords cannot be reset online because the site does not store student e-mails; teachers can view and edit them instead.

From the roster page a teacher can print a PDF of student passwords, e-mail the passwords to themselves, print a letter to parents with login details, download the roster as an Excel file, or print the roster table.

Assigning work is done by picking a grade and ticking lessons. Teachers can reassign a finished lesson to a student. Several "General Lesson Settings" shape the experience:

• Hints: "Allow 3 hints per lesson" (the recommended default), always allow hints, or never allow them.
• Animations: the character can be shown, replaced by emojis or switched off, and a teacher can turn animations off for the whole class.
• Read-aloud can be disabled.
• Lesson visibility: students can be limited to their grade or ability level, to only one of those, to any level, or to assigned lessons only. The help page recommends letting students explore at their grade or ability level and advises against allowing only assigned lessons.
• Standards: lesson tags can be switched between Common Core, Florida Standards and Texas Standards, with a CC icon beside each lesson title showing the standards it covers.

Progress reports and parents

The "Progress" tab offers three reports: Recent Activity, Completed Assignments and Student Progress. If a teacher enters parent e-mail addresses and switches on "E-mail scores to parents", parents receive a weekly e-mail listing the lessons their child completed and the scores. The help page says these go out "on Saturday morning" with the previous week's data, that no e-mail is sent if the child did not use the site that week, and that parents can unsubscribe. On privacy, it states: "We never share e-mail addresses with third parties, and we will never advertise to parents."

Family accounts work the same way at home: a parent adds each child under "My Children".

The research page

A "Researched Learning" page lists studies the company points to in support of its approach: Henderson and Mapp (2002) on family and community connections, Kulik and Fletcher (2016) on intelligent tutoring systems, Cunningham and Stanovich (1998) on early reading, Hattie (2009) on visible learning, Fan and Chen (2001) on parental involvement, and Jordan and colleagues (2009) on kindergarten number competence. The page introduces them with the line "Independent studies show how iknowIt.com helps student development essential core curriculum skills" and links to each study in full.

Trials, membership and payment

The site offers a free trial: "a free, 30-day trial to interested schools and teachers, and a 7 day trial for family accounts." During the trial users get "unlimited access to all Math and ELA lessons", can create student accounts and track progress. "No credit card is required and we do not have an auto-renew system." When a subscription ends, the help page says users get an e-mail reminder rather than a bill.

Prices sit on a separate pricing page, linked from the menu along with membership and school license information. A teacher's membership covers a set number of students; adding more means extending the membership, and deleting a student who has left frees a place. Payment is by credit card online, and the help page says the company also accepts "school purchase orders or checks via snail mail."

Training and support

The training page offers complimentary training in two forms: "pre-scheduled webinars" for an individual teacher, administrator or parent, and "video conferences" for a group of teachers or administrators. A roster setup service is listed for schools that want help getting classes loaded. Help files cover logins, rosters, settings and membership, and the footer links to an accessibility page, testimonials, accolades, a blog and a newsletter.

Support runs through an online form, an e-mail help desk, post and fax. The phone line is for "Billing and Account Inquiries Only", with the help page noting that phone staff are not trained for technical issues. On content, the help page says "a small staff of teachers, writers, and graphic artists" keeps adding lessons and invites requests for topics.

Who it suits

I Know It suits elementary teachers who want a straightforward practice tool for K to 5 math and ELA, with class rosters, assignments, standards tags and weekly reports to parents, and schools in Florida or Texas that want lessons tagged to their state standards as well as Common Core. Its classroom controls over hints, animations, read-aloud and lesson visibility let a teacher adapt it to younger or struggling readers. Families can use it at home on a family account after a 7-day trial. It is a practice site rather than a full curriculum, and it stops at fifth grade, so middle school teachers and families wanting subjects beyond math and ELA will need something else.