DreamBox

What do you like best?

Our youngest students (PreK-1st) really enjoy the program. It has engaging graphics and characters, and the students feel like they're playing a game - not doing math work. It's great that it adapts to the student and gives hints if a student is stuck.

What do you dislike?

We tried to use Dreambox for our entire elementary school and it got old pretty quick for our upper elementary students. I think it felt sort of childish and in older grades, it's helpful to be able to really target certain skills or topics, like to assign simplifying fractions on a program like Khan Academy or IXL rather than have students just work on their next Dreambox assignment. The program is also one of the more expensive programs we use at our school. There's a bit of a turnaround time when you submit your rosters at the start of the school year (~a week or so), so if you don't get your class lists until right before school starts, know that your teachers won't be able to start using the program until you are able to set up the csv files, submit them, and then wait for Dreambox to get back to you.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

It's a good program if you have the financial resources!

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

It helps to individualize math instruction without having to meet one on one with each child every day - there's rarely time in the day for that. It helps students build internal motivation and set goals for themselves.