Community reviews for DreamBox Learning Math

I LOVE DreamBox! It has helped my students immensely. My students this year aren't as interested as the past students, but that will ebb and flow from year to year. They don't like that they seem to get stuck on one particular "type" of lesson, and it stays with them forever, so they get burned out. I do wish there was a way to unassign lessons for those that they aren't ready for yet. I can assign certain lessons--what we might be covering in class at that moment--but I cannot unassign them. I love that they have little 30-second brain break games for every 2 lessons completed. The students will work toward getting the game, even though it's super short. There is a Spanish version if needed, and the computer will read the directions. What I don't like is that there isn't any instruction. If the kids don't immediately know how to do it, they end up "failing" that lesson, and the adaptive program will drop them to a lower level to build back up to that previous lesson. Sometimes it may just be a problem of figuring out the manipulatives that are given...or maybe not understanding what they are wanting. It would be super easy to show how to complete a lesson, including how the dials, buttons, etc. work with some instruction. Many teachers don't help their students at all and call it productive struggle and just let the program work it's adaptive magic. I don't like doing that when I know it's something they know how to do. I will walk them through the first part of the lesson if they ask. However, I teach middle school, so that could be part of the difference. As the teacher, I have the ability to see what the students are working on. I also have the ability to show a sample lesson to a small group and/or whole class by projecting it. If I notice many students are stuck on how a certain lesson works, I can show that lesson and explain how to manipulate the dials or whatever they are getting stuck on. All in all, I have seen MANY online math programs, some free, some paid. DreamBox is by far the best one I've ever seen or purchased. It's relatively engaging, I can track students progress, I can see exactly what they are working on, and I can see where they need help.

My favorite part of using Dreambox in my classroom is that my students love to be on Dreambox. When they work on Dreambox, I can see my students enjoying themselves while practicing through their individualized, assigned lessons. I can also see them go through that productive struggle to figure out the various math tools that Dreambox utilizes like the Math Rack and number lines. Dreambox is a helpful tool for students to practice skills they actually need practice with. It provides data for teachers so that teachers can have a better understanding of the standards students are succeeding in and struggling with. I would recommend this tool to other classroom teachers because students (at least in the primary grades) enjoy it and it provides formative data that can serve as a guide to responsive teaching.

We really love it at our school and this is our second year of using it. As a teacher you do need to watch the students work on it because they can bounce in and out of different lessons. What has worked at our school is that they show you when they have completed it and you guide them into the lesson you want. Overall, it is an outstanding program and I highly recommend it to all schools. It does not replace your curriculum, but it does enhance it!

I absolutely love using this tool in my classroom. The benefit of using Dreambox is that I am able to track all students’ progress. I am able to see which lessons the students are playing, which standards they are mastering, and whether they are being productive or not. I can then take the data to decide what topics I need to revisit during my small group instruction. Dreambox also provides a Classroom Usage Report that allows me to see the whole class ranking, as well as compare individuals in the class. I am able to see the numbers of sessions that have been completed, the number of lessons completed, and the number of units completed. This allows me to regroup students based on common needs. I use the data to reflect and recognize the standards I need to revisit in my whole group instruction.

I like the teacher dashboard which makes it easy for me to monitor student progress. In addition, the ability for students to monitor their own progress is very motivating for them and is something I haven't found in many other programs. The tutorials are generally quick and provide additional reinforcement for students to compliment what I've taught. It is an expensive program so probably not available to every classroom teacher or school.

Dreambox is an industry leader and continues to improve and add content and lessons to support math at the basic and progressing through advanced levels. There have been times where we would like to "assign" a specific lesson and have struggled to do so; during set-up and in these sporadic instances customer support has been a five star experience.

From our perspective this program is not actually teaching them much. It uses a lot of repetition and seems more focused on memorizing answers. My 6th grader prefers Khan Academy since he feels he is actually learning math concepts there, With DreamBox he feels he is just clicking through games and has to get things wrong first before it gives any clues on what to do. And even then it just gives him the answer so he can get it right next time. He is frustrated that it doesn't ever explain what he is trying to accomplish. My 5th grader loves it. He plays it all the time but we are not sure it is actually teaching him much. For example, he has recently been working for a while in DreamBox on fractions but my wife noticed he wasn't really getting it. She decided to give him a quick lesson of her own--his response, "Awesome, now I know how to beat that DreamBox game". I plan on doing a bit more research to make sure they are using it correctly. But I really trust my 6th graders opinion on this. Maybe it works better for younger ages. As a review or assessment tool, it might be great. I have not seen the back end and what is provided to the teachers.

There is a cost attached but dreambox's approach to mathematically relevant engagement is well worth the cost. If I could offer any improvements, it would probably be on cost structure. I would love to more kids have access to these tools so maybe a freemium version?

Our primary students are so excited. It's going to be a great way for teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses in math. I liked that once students were logged in, navigating around the areas was predictable and easy for young students. I also liked how many choices students had to make once they were in. As a supplemental tool, it will be a great addition to our classrooms.

Love, love, love DreamBox! It is engaging and supports our Common Core math standards. I, especially, appreciate the number sense skills that are developed in all the grade levels. I'm teaching grades 5-6 special needs students this summer and DreamBox targets these essential number sense skills that my students need. The DreamBox team is also very open to suggestions from teachers and provides teacher support through their Edmodo group.