Research & Impact
Evidence before exaggeration.
ABZ Learning is a working K–8 literacy product. We are now building the measurement and research practices needed to understand how it is used—and, later, whether it improves learning.
Last reviewed: July 24, 2026 · Methodology version 3 · Maintained by Zyanna Imani S., founder
What we can verify today
Product facts, not outcome claims
These describe what the product contains and how it is offered. They do not establish reach, effectiveness, or learning growth.
Evidence ladder
What is known—and what is not
Games, storybooks, teacher accounts, classroom rosters, assignments, and progress tools are live.
Meaningful starts, completions, active time, and answer events are being collected through a server-validated system.
A fixed educator survey and permissioned case-study process are being prepared. No testimonial or satisfaction result is published without permission, wording, date range, and sample size.
A permissioned teacher case study will document context, classroom use, challenges, and adaptations.
A pre/post classroom pilot using an external literacy measure is required before ABZ makes an effectiveness claim.
Measurement method
Definitions travel with the numbers
When verified usage is eventually published, every total will include its definition, date range, last-updated date, and methodology version.
Meaningful play
Begins only after a learner initiates the playable experience. A page load or game-card impression does not count.
Active minute
Visible, focused interaction accumulated through short heartbeats. Time stops after 30 seconds without activity.
Completion
A completion event linked to an existing meaningful play. It is not the same as a unique learner.
Anonymous device-day
A privacy-preserving browser identifier with a meaningful start on a UTC date. It is not labeled as a student.
First-attempt accuracy
Correct first responses divided by all instrumented first responses, always accompanied by the answer count.
Educator satisfaction
The share selecting 4 or 5 on one fixed five-point item, always displayed with the sample size.
Engagement
A descriptive combination of meaningful plays, focused active minutes, and return behavior. Engagement is never reported as learning growth.
Learning growth
Change from a pre-assessment to a post-assessment on one named external literacy measure, reported with the sample, time window, and missing data.
Mastery
A pre-declared performance threshold on a defined skill and minimum number of scored items. ABZ will not use this label until those rules are fixed before analysis.
Events are timestamped and checked on the server, deduplicated by event ID, separated by production/development environment, and rolled into daily aggregate records. Test and preview traffic is excluded. Older unverified totals are not combined with the new baseline.
Classroom pilot plan
Seeking the first structured pilot partner
No school or teacher has agreed to a structured ABZ pilot yet. The proposed first study will test foundational decoding accuracy or reading fluency, with meaningful plays and focused active minutes treated as supporting implementation measures—not outcomes.
- 01
Partner and define
Recruit one district or 2–3 classrooms. Agree on the literacy skill, learner group, implementation period, research questions, responsibilities, and privacy terms.
- 02
Measure a baseline
Select one age-appropriate external decoding or reading-fluency measure with the partner, train the assessor, and administer it before ABZ use. Record implementation context and use a comparison classroom when practical.
- 03
Run and document
Track verified dosage, completion, and active time while teachers document how ABZ fits instruction. Monitor fidelity and unintended barriers.
- 04
Assess and analyze
Repeat the external measure, report sample and missing data, compare change over time, and distinguish exploratory findings from causal evidence.
- 05
Publish with limits
Share methods, results, limitations, and what did not work. Do not generalize beyond the students, setting, skills, or time period studied.
Equity, accessibility & privacy
Measure access without turning children into marketing data
Minimize collection
Ordinary gameplay measurement does not collect IEP or English-learner status. Anonymous identifiers are hashed before storage.
No stored voice data
ABZ activities do not record, upload, or store children’s voices. A pilot’s reading-fluency measure would be administered and scored by an authorized adult outside ordinary gameplay.
Use accountable pilot data
Any cohort analysis will use district-provided, de-identified data under a documented agreement—not child attributes added to general analytics.
Report small groups carefully
Public findings will use aggregation and suppression practices designed to prevent re-identification.
Audit accessibility honestly
ABZ will document the features that have actually been tested, the barriers found, and the fixes completed. It does not claim certification that has not occurred.
Privacy approach informed by the U.S. Department of Education’s data de-identification guidance and the Federal Trade Commission’s education technology and COPPA policy statement.
Current limitations
What this page does not claim
- Engagement data does not prove that students learned.
- An anonymous device is not necessarily one child, family, educator, classroom, or school.
- Historical account records are being reconciled and are not a verified reach total.
- Educator satisfaction is not an effectiveness measure and will not be reported without its sample size.
- No school or teacher has agreed to a structured pilot yet.
- No controlled or quasi-experimental ABZ learning-outcome study has been completed yet.
Pilot partnerships
Interested in studying classroom use responsibly?
We are seeking a school or teacher for a small pre/post foundational-reading pilot with clear privacy terms, a pre-declared outcome, and transparent reporting.
Discuss a research partnership