As the school year rolled out, seventh and eighth-grade students were expecting to begin ALEKS, but instead, IXL was introduced as the new math program. The switch from ALEKS to IXL occurred because the Santa Ana School District no longer purchased ALEKS, so MacArthur switched to IXL for its lower cost. On a weekly basis, students now have to do three IXL skills instead of seven ALEKS topics. They may practice their skills at home, in math class, and during Tiger Connection.

Math Teacher Ms. Holly Kotler said, “IXL teaches individual math skills, and they do this by giving them lessons and then sample problems, and the problems get increasingly harder so that they challenge them, and make sure they understand the concepts.”

Students completing their three topics are given Monday through Friday to complete them, and they have to score at least 80% on a topic to be proficient.

Gilberto L, eighth grader, said, “I feel good (about IXL). It’s way better than ALEKS.” 

Jason D, an eighth grader, said, “I feel amazing using the program because I used to use it before.”

MacArthur also offers a variety of other programs for both educational and staff use. Educational tools include Accelerated Reader, Wayground, Booklet, Gimkit, and Sora, which help enhance learning experiences. Additionally, staff members mostly use programs like Minga and Aries to manage the students on campus. Accelerated Reader is for ELA to take a test on books that the student has read. Wayground is used for test practice and taking. 

During MacArthur’s use of ALEKS, the school has grown significantly on the annual SBAC test, gaining 10% growth in students meeting or exceeding standards in the past two years. 

“I believe it’s very different than ALEKS. I think we have less amount of topics, but I feel like hopefully they learn them just the same, but with less work,” said Kotler.