Zearn

Zearn is a nonprofit math curriculum publisher founded in 2012 with a mission to ensure all children love learning math. The platform serves elementary and middle school teachers and families with a K-8 curriculum that combines video lessons, digital practice problems, printed student workbooks, and hands-on materials. Zearn provides a complete instructional program rather than just a supplemental tool, and it is designed to work within classroom instruction and homeschool settings. The company received $4.4 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the foundation's broader investment in math education.

What learners and teachers get

Zearn Math delivers a complete K-8 curriculum with both digital and physical components. The digital portion includes fluency games, instructional videos, and interactive quizzes designed to build conceptual understanding and procedural fluency. The printed materials include student workbooks, course guides, instructional materials, and math manipulatives. The platform's digital content is accessed via web browser.

A daily lesson follows a consistent structure. Each day, students begin with a "Number Gym," which is fluency practice for the day. Then they work through a digital video lesson and solve problems using visual models and drawing. The lesson concludes with the "Tower of Power," a digital assessment that requires a perfect score to demonstrate mastery before the student advances to the next topic. According to a homeschool resource, "each daily lesson takes about 30 to 45 minutes to complete and requires a device with internet access along with paper and pencil."

The curriculum is organized into thematic units called "Missions." This structure allows families and schools to start mid-year by identifying which mission aligns with the learner's current level. The material emphasizes visualization and concrete representations of mathematical concepts. Zearn uses specific visual models, such as "number bonds and tape diagrams," to help students understand abstract concepts.

The curriculum is available free for individual learners. Families can create a free account and access the K-8 curriculum with no payment required. For schools and districts, Zearn offers paid "School Accounts" that include professional development, coaching support, and progress monitoring. According to Zearn's pages, the company provides "dedicated implementation support that included professional development, coaching, and progress monitoring." The support helps schools establish dedicated time for the program, build routines, and track usage to reach the recommended dosage of three digital lessons per week.

Standards alignment and research

Zearn's curriculum aligns with state math standards. The New Mexico Public Education Department completed a rigorous review and determined that "Zearn Math is the only instructional material recommended for all grades K-5 in New Mexico" following evaluation. Teacher reviewers gave the curriculum "a score of 95% or higher in every grade," and determined it was "a comprehensive research-based curriculum that aligns with New Mexico state standards, meets all high-quality indicators, and exhibits cultural and linguistic relevance."

EdReports.org, an independent nonprofit that reviews instructional materials, gave Zearn a top rating. Pennsylvania's Distance Learning program noted that "there are only two digital material programs for math out there that completely satisfy the PA Core Standards. One of them is Zearn, which we use for elementary math."

Research on the platform's effectiveness comes from multiple studies. Evidence for ESSA, an independent research clearinghouse, rated Zearn Math "strong" in 2025, based on 3 studies. A large-scale randomized controlled trial conducted during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years in a large urban Texas district included "over 10,000 students in Grades 3-5" with "sixty-four schools randomly assigned to either implement Zearn Math as a supplemental program or continue with business-as-usual instruction." Students in Zearn schools significantly outperformed those in control schools on the NWEA MAP assessment, with an effect size of +0.11 overall and +0.13 for students not proficient at baseline. On the Texas STAAR assessment, results were directionally positive but not statistically significant, with an effect size of +0.07 overall and +0.10 for students not proficient at baseline.

A second study in Louisiana during the 2023-24 school year with students in Grades 4-8 found similar results when Zearn was used as a supplemental program with dedicated implementation support.

Scale and adoption

Zearn is widely used in U.S. schools. According to the Clever app gallery, "Zearn is the top-rated math learning platform used by 1 in 4 elementary students nationwide." As of 2022, according to Wikipedia, the company claimed its software was used by 25% of U.S. elementary school students and more than one million middle school students.

The company launched its K-5 curriculum in 2017, followed by an expansion to K-8 in 2022, broadening its reach from elementary into middle school mathematics.

What pages leave open

The pages provide no information about pricing for school accounts or district-wide licensing. Individual learners access the platform free, but institutional pricing is not published on accessible materials. No pricing tiers, per-student costs, or contract terms are documented.

Support channels are named in limited detail. The company's website includes a "help center" providing "free 24/7 access to an in-depth knowledge base," and there is a "help.zearn.org" support resource. However, it is unclear whether live chat, email, or phone support is available.

The pages do not describe data export, interoperability with other platforms, or what happens to student progress data after a school year ends. Compliance certifications such as SOC 2, GDPR, FERPA, or COPPA are not mentioned in the accessible materials. It is also unclear whether the platform supports single sign-on or integration with existing school information systems beyond Clever roster management.

Zearn does not offer a formal placement test, so families typically start at their child's current grade level or use placement tools from related programs like Eureka Math, which follows a similar sequence.

Who it suits and who it does not

Zearn is well suited to schools and homeschools implementing a complete math curriculum from scratch or seeking to replace a traditional textbook program. The visual, concrete approach with emphasis on understanding conceptual foundations works well for learners who benefit from drawing and manipulatives rather than pure computation. The free individual tier makes it accessible to homeschooling families without cost.

The platform's structure works best when used as intended: a full daily curriculum with consistent lesson time, not as a supplemental program for occasional practice. Teachers need to establish classroom routines and allocate dedicated time each week to reach the recommended three-lesson dosage. Students used to memorization-focused math may need a transition period to adjust to the program's emphasis on explaining reasoning.

Zearn is less suitable for schools seeking a light supplemental program or for learners who need adaptive placement assessment and self-paced remediation. It is designed as a deliberate, structured curriculum for classrooms and families committed to regular engagement, not as a pull-out tool for struggling students or an on-demand resource.