The Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) has contracted with ed-tech company ImpactEd for new professional development software in hopes of raising K-8 math and reading scores across the state.
A group of teachers will begin piloting ImpactEd’s PD2 (Personalized, Differentiated, Professional Development) technology on April 15, with a statewide rollout planned for this fall, according to a press release issued Thursday. PD2 allows teachers to personalize their professional development plans based on the specific needs of their classes or students.
State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen said only 37 percent of the state’s elementary and middle school students are proficient in math and only 46 percent are proficient in reading.
“My office has focused on the fundamentals by revising our state content standards, creating the Math Innovation Zone and rethinking student assessment through the Montana Alternative Student Testing (MAST) program,” she said in a press release. “Partnering with ImpactEd is another opportunity for our teachers and schools to promote student success.”
MAST, announced in 2021, was a series of interim assessments in select school districts administered as an alternative to federal testing, according to the state government’s website.
In an email sent Government technologyArntzen noted that 11 schools in five districts are piloting PD2 for the rest of this school year. A cost of $190,000 to provide the tool to all schools by the end of the 2025-2026 academic year. will be covered by the state, so local budgets will not be affected.
The press release states that ImpactEd’s software has been found to improve student proficiency scores by up to 20 percent.
This isn’t Montana OPI’s first partnership with an ed-tech company to address elementary and middle school math and reading problems in recent months. In October, the state partnered with Discovery Education to provide DreamBox Math and DreamBox Reading Plus digital tools to 30,000 students in grades three through eight in 53 school districts.
The federally mandated state report card for Montana’s public school system indicated a 2 percent increase in math proficiency, from 35 percent to 37 percent, between 2022 and 2023, while the reading proficiency rate remained unchanged at 46 percent and science increased from 36 to 37 percent during the same time period, according to an April 4 press release. These data reflect average scores based on 401 school districts.
Montana’s report also indicated a slight increase in per-pupil spending during that one-year period, from $13,209 to $13,346, while the on-time high school graduation rate decreased by one percentage point to 85 percent. The career and college readiness rate remained the same at 62 percent, according to a press release.
