Our mission is to enhance critical thinking and improve learning for all children. CORE pairs a short Learning Snapshot after each lesson with assignments at each student's level, and a tutor that asks questions instead of handing over answers.
CORE in two and a half minutes
Great teaching has always meant getting students to think for themselves. CORE is built to help teachers do that for every student.
Designed by co-founder Barbara Leventhal, drawing on 40 years in education.
Teli is built to coach with questions and hints, not hand over answers. Written work is graded on the reasoning, not on polish or length. SPARK challenges end by asking students to use the skill in a new situation. And students learn named learning strategies they can bring to a problem they have never seen.
Teach the lesson. See the thinking. Plan the next assignment.
Follow one Grade 8 History lesson: What makes a historical source trustworthy? Illustrative example
Learning Snapshot
A short check, built from the teacher's own lesson and approved by the teacher, shows what each student understood: who can name a source's author, purpose and bias, and who isn't there yet.
Work at each student's level
CORE prepares assignments for the teacher to review, then publishes them with due-date reminders.
Another look
Short reviews come back days and weeks later. When a concept is holding, the questions get harder. When it slips, a quick refresher. Our pilot schools will show how well that works.
A question before an answer.
Teli is the tutor built into CORE. When a student is stuck, Teli is built to coach with questions and hints, so the thinking stays with the student.
- Tries another way. If a student is stuck on the same step twice, Teli switches to a new example, picture or approach.
- Talk or type. Students can ask Teli out loud and listen to its replies.
- Safe by design. Teli screens what students type, checks its own replies before they send, and keeps every conversation on our servers.
Give the lesson a problem worth arguing about.
SPARK puts students in a real-world role. Each challenge is built around the skill they are working on, at their level, and ends by asking them to apply that skill in a new situation.
YOUR MISSION
The outbreak
- Your role
- A city epidemiologist, the morning after cases double.
- Your decision
- Close the market or keep it open? Recommend one, today.
- Your evidence
- Case maps, a timeline and two conflicting reports. Show which you trusted and why.
- A new situation
- Now a school reports cases. Use the same reasoning to decide what it should do.
Scored on seven dimensions, never just right or wrong: problem understanding · reasoning and strategy · use of evidence · knowledge transfer · creativity and application · reflection · communication. Teachers see the challenge and the student's own work inside CORE.
Would your students recommend CORE?
Let them examine it, question it and tell us what should change. Run CORE as a 12-week class project in at least two classes, one science and one humanities, ideally in different grades (grades 6–12). Your school decides how many classes, teachers and students take part. At the end, students present their recommendations to our team. Criticism welcome.
Teachers commit fully to the pilot: they use CORE with their class throughout the 12 weeks. Each week, a one-hour check-in with our team covers what went on, what they observed, anything that needs attention or changing, and the goals for the following week.
The materials and setup support, at no cost. Your school brings real classroom use and feedback; the teacher stays in charge.
- A direct say in what we build next
- First access to new releases
- Preferential pricing if you adopt CORE
See CORE first, or just talk to us.
Questions leaders ask us.
Plain answers. Where the honest answer is "not yet," we say so.
What proof is there that students actually grow?
We do not have a finished research study yet. CORE is new, and our pilot schools this year are exactly how we gather that proof. CORE is built to track whether students move up and whether scores climb over time. We will not claim results we do not have.
What does participation require from our teachers?
Full participation for the 12 weeks: teachers use CORE with their class throughout, and meet our team for one hour each week to review what happened, what they observed, what needs attention or changing, and the goals for the next week.
What happens after the 12 weeks?
You receive a written end-of-pilot report: what worked, what did not, what changed because of your feedback, and what your school's own data shows. There is no obligation to buy anything. If you continue, pilot schools get preferential pricing. If you don't, your student data is deleted or returned within 60 days.
Who checks CORE's work?
Teachers choose the lesson and approve what each Learning Snapshot will check before students see it. For right-or-wrong questions like math, CORE checks the answer with plain arithmetic. For written answers, CORE grades the thinking, not the fancy words. Teachers can see every result.
How does CORE match our curriculum and standards?
Everything is built from your own lesson plan, so it lines up with what you already teach. CORE does not yet tag work with your state's standard codes; that is the next thing we are building.
Does it work with the tools we already use?
Yes, with Google Classroom, at no extra charge. Students click once with no new password, and assignment grades flow back automatically. Rosters can also be imported from Blackbaud or a spreadsheet.
What if a student rushes or walks away?
If a student runs out of time or walks away, that Learning Snapshot is set aside rather than scored as a fair result, so a bad five minutes never becomes a label that follows the child.
Student data and teacher oversight.
Student data stays protected and is never sold. On the pages students log into there are zero tracking pixels. CORE is built to be observational, never diagnostic, and teachers make every decision.
- FERPA and COPPA aligned
- Encrypted in storage and in transit
- When a school leaves, every student's name, email and login is removed
The same mission, built for younger learners.