District leaders highlight Magma Math adoption and digital outreach tools
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Summary
Ed‑tech provider Magma Math and school digital outreach platforms were presented as tools supporting instructional shifts; presenters and teachers described diagnostics, multilingual access, and high usage metrics reported for the district.
District staff and vendors used the April 1 workshop to showcase technology tools supporting instruction and family engagement.
Henrik Appert, cofounder and CEO of Magma Math, described how the platform captures students’ written solutions and provides AI‑generated hints and heat‑map views for teachers. “We’re giving teachers real‑time data about what the students know and how they understand the math,” Appert said, noting the platform’s multilingual accessibility and student 'show your thinking' feature. Appert stated the district has recorded more than 5.3 million student solution submissions on Magma Math; district staff clarified that figure represents cumulative student attempts and practice submissions across the district and that raw counts include multiple attempts, group submissions and repeated practice items.
A Hidden Oak teacher and a long‑time classroom teacher who has used Magma Math described classroom workflows: teachers can pin student work, play back step‑by‑step solutions, freeze screens to focus instruction, and use the tool for small‑group interventions. The district reported that, after adding additional grade bands, the annual Magma Math subscription cost rose to roughly $200,000 for districtwide access.
Separately, digital‑outreach presenters described the district’s work to use websites, social media and a district mobile app to raise enrollment awareness and keep families informed. Lofton High School’s leadership said coordinated social posts, a dedicated digital content creator and a mobile app have helped raise program visibility and contributed to a near 60% rise in Lofton’s enrollment over four years (a figure reported by the school’s presentation). District representatives said the outreach platforms can post multilingual content and support targeted notifications for families.
Board members asked how the district will sustain subscriptions and whether in‑house analytics capacity could replace vendor subscriptions if budgets tighten. Staff said their long‑term goal is to develop internal capacity to replicate key data views (for example, K‑12 Lift visualizations) but that subscriptions currently accelerate access to actionable dashboards and tools used in daily instruction.
The board did not take action during the workshop; budget decisions for subscriptions will be considered in upcoming budget cycles.
