Freckle by Renaissance vs. Infinite Campus

Renaissance Accelerated Math is an excellent tool for practicing and reinforcing previously learned math skills. It is also a wonderful tool for assessing student growth and content weaknesses. It works well in a classroom that has access to technology and time to implement every day.

As a classroom teacher, I love not having to rely on just a handwritten grade book anymore. When I input grades, I can print the updated grade book whenever I choose. This keeps my workload down since I don't have to write it in the grade book and then put it on the computer.

Incentivized

• “Kids don’t care what you know until they know that you care.”
• One of the very first things I learned my first five years of teaching, except that student teaching does not really prepare you, is that it is my job to help my students succeed, not to just give them a grade. In the beginning, I taught the lesson, assigned work, administered tests, and took grades. I did that because that is how we are supposed to determine efficiency. Right? No, Wrong. I learned this the hard way and, sadly and regrettably, at the expense of my students at that time. Over time, I noticed how sometimes it took re-teaching along with small group instruction and interventions for students to understand and master the concepts. Since then, I have allowed for them to fix, re-do, and re-re-do their work, as needed.
• I focus on my interventions just as much as I do my initial teaching of the objective. Making sure that they truly understand and master the content before moving on to another objective helps me just as much as it helps them. It saves me from continually re-teaching. Slow and steady does win the race. This approach allows me to help the student master objectives with more efficiency.
• Accelerated Math has allowed for me to individualize my instruction and interventions. I love this program. Truly! I have three types of students; above, on target, and below. This program allows for growth in each area. However, I have found the most growth in my bottom quartile. Why? I believe it is because I am able to recognize a problem or issue with a particular objective immediately. I, then, can address that issue immediately before the bad habits or wrong approach is repeated.
• This program is masked as a whole-group classroom approach, however, the most important components are found under the mask. One-on-one instruction is how I describe it to educators. My students are actively engaged in their own learning. They are also actively engaged in the learning of their peers, as well. I use a lot of peer tutoring techniques. They have access to knowing who is also working on mastering the same objective(s) they are working on plus they know who has already mastered said objective. This allows them to know who to go to for effective help. They are able to steer their own learning to a point. They can ask a peer or me. They can get on Accel math and look at the objective and see completed answers for a reference. This also boosts the confidence of their own understanding. They feel confident in having control of the path they want to use for gaining knowledge. Peer-tutoring and peer-discussions give them the opportunity to say out loud what they are thinking/feeling about a concept and rationalize their approach to evaluating said concept. As the teacher, I play various roles. I can teach, facilitate a small group, or just be an observer. A lot of times, I just ask open-ended questions to jump start their own questions.
• Accel Math has assisted my math classrooms with tremendous gains. My test scores have gone up significantly. My students have a greater sense of accomplishment since they have been given the "driver's seat" for their own learning. This makes my heart smile! ;)

• It is very clean (not cluttered with information and buttons)
• It keeps all personal information in one spot
• The message center is helpful, and it is easy to see when there is a new message
• The breakdown of attendance is done very well

Incentivized

• I would like to be able to choose specific math problems for my students to practice.
• It would be beneficial to see more practice products on Freckle that address writing conventions.
• My students could benefit from more leveled reading practice, so having multiple stories that address the same skills would be beneficial.

Incentivized

• Infinite Campus does not integrate seamlessly with our learning management system. This is a big deal in that using Infinite Campus means our faculty and staff are asked to do more (fatigue) and there is more room for error to occur.
• Infinite Campus' platform is not visually appealing nor does the site design use enough colors and distinction to clearly convey progress to a user.

Incentivized

Freckle is an excellent educational tool. The platform supports students and provides them with the opportunity to be successful in mathematics.

It is very user-friendly. All of my teachers have gotten training (including me) and all have a positive attitude as to how it will impact their classes. May have already stated that they will use it within the next day or two of training. All are very excited about the prospect this will provide.

Incentivized

It is consistently available with outages planned and communicated well in advance. The outages also seem to be planned to provide the least disruption to teachers.

Incentivized

It is easy to use and understand. Students have no difficulty finding their way around, and teachers easily understand the reports and data.

Incentivized

Such an excellent program that is a hidden gem at no cost for teachers to use with students.

Incentivized

I haven't reached out to Infinite Campus for technical support. We have in-school people who are trained to help us out in the event of a problem. We have had a couple of times where the system has gone down unexpectedly, but our school IT professionals were able to sort it out.

Incentivized

I like the support I receive with Renaissance Accelerated Math. I like that I can quickly and easily print the problems I need for interventions. I like the hands-on lessons with Engage but it is too scripted for my tastes. I gave up on I-Ready years back because it was too complex. I still use Moby for filling in gaps. I use Study Island for my higher students after they work through Renaissance Accelerated Math.

I find these other products to be much more simplified in their set up and user friendly where with Infinite Campus, it requires a good amount of time and patience to acclimate to the set up and arrangement of content. Also, the other products I have reviewed are more appealing to the eye with their color content/contrast, background themes/colors and engaging colors which make the experience enjoyable and calming.

Incentivized

If there is going to be an outage for service, Renaissance does a great job of communicating that well in advance to allow the faculty to plan accordingly.

Incentivized

• Freckle has been an asset by allowing me one more resource to use while trying to teach my students certain skills. I have been using it as a source for my students to practice skills in an attempt to strengthen their reading abilities.
• Freckle is an asset to our entire school. By teaching my students how to read more effectively while using Freckle to strengthen their reading abilities, students become more successful in every area of education.
• As students become better readers they tend to be more successful on the state test at the end of the year. Freckle plays a part in our success as a school. We tend to do well in our state. We were rated in the top 10 schools within our region. This is important in the financial stability of our school as it plays a part in our funding.

• Positive impact: Allows us to keep our pacing guides up to date for weekly meetings and information dissemination.
• Positive impact: Allows us to provide our counselors, students, and parents with informative progress reports in a timely manner.
• Negative impact: Takes more time away from our other duties when it takes so long to find the data/information I'm looking for amongst all the classes I need to go through just to get to the one I need. They really should look at a better way to arrange/group the drop down menu for the classes.

Incentivized