ExploreLearning (ABCD) Reflex Tops One Billion Facts Solved

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — ExploreLearning, a division of Cambium Learning Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ABCD), announced that students have now solved over one billion addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts using Reflex. ExploreLearning Reflex is a research-based program that uses the allure of challenging and exciting games to get students engaged and working at peak performance in developing instant recall of math facts.

Reflex launched in April 2011, just 20 months ago, but is already being used by hundreds of thousands of students in all 50 states.

“Reflex is succeeding in solving the problems associated with math fact fluency in this country,” says Paul Cholmsky, vice president of research and development at ExploreLearning. “Times table drills, flashcards and timed worksheets are not only boring, they also don’t work very well for many students. As a result, these students might decide they aren’t ‘good’ at math. Reflex is playing a part in reversing that trend, helping students across the country confidently master over a million new facts a week, while having a great time doing it.”

Behind the games is a combination of sophisticated technology and pedagogy that stems from R&D that ExploreLearning began in 2004 under a series of National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grants. Reflex is the company’s first product based on this research, which explored how games and simulations can serve as new kinds of sensors. These sensors enable new types of pedagogically-relevant behaviors to be data mined, monitored, and analyzed.

Embedding these sensors within a series of interactive online learning experiences enables detailed information about individual progress to be collected on a large scale.  This rich data can then be analyzed and used to drive optimization of the learning system.  Students have now mastered over 21 million facts using Reflex, and ExploreLearning continues to evolve and improve the system’s instructional logic with each day’s new data.

Pairing this innovative software system with highly-engaging games has been the other factor in the product’s runaway success.

Cholmsky says, “Students enjoy Reflex so much, they even choose to use the system in their free time. We’ve studied many schools where Reflex is assigned as homework, say, three times a week, and students go well beyond that, regularly logging on five, six or even seven days a week to play games and work on their fact fluency.  Teachers are happy when the class average is to do more homework than assigned! And we get fan mail every day from students, parents, teachers and administrators.”

About ExploreLearning
ExploreLearning develops online solutions to improve student learning in math and science.  ExploreLearning currently has two products:  Gizmos, the world’s largest library of interactive, online simulations for math and science in grades 3-12; and Reflex, the most powerful solution available for math fact fluency development. Gizmos and Reflex bring research-proven instructional strategies to classrooms around the world. ExploreLearning is a Charlottesville, VA-based business unit of Cambium Learning Group, Inc. [Nasdaq:ABCD] based in Dallas, TX. For more information about Gizmos, please visit http://www.explorelearning.com. For more information about Reflex, please visit http://www.reflexmath.com.

Investor Contact:
Chris Cleveland
Investor Relations
Cambium Learning Group, Inc.
214-932-9474
chris.cleveland@cambiumlearning.com

Media Contact:
Julia Given
VP Marketing
ExploreLearning
434-293-7043 ext. 223
julia.given@explorelearning.com