WHERE LEARNING COMES FIRST
Essential Skills helps you give your students focused, individualized K–6 reading and math instruction at the right level, so they can build the core skills they need, experience success, and become confident, independent learners.
Susan Delaney, Resource Teacher
Even strong core programs may leave some students needing more time, more practice, or another way to engage with a skill. Essential Skills works alongside the curriculum and tools you already use to provide the additional support your students need.
Targeted, sequential reading and math practice strengthens foundational skills, closes learning gaps and accelerates progress—without replacing your core programs.
Students work at their own level and pace, seeing, hearing, typing and responding through varied activities that provide the additional practice and repetition they need to build mastery.
Use Essential Skills during special education and intervention blocks, Title I, RTI/MTSS, centers and independent practice, or extend learning at home.
1
ASSESSMENT
Choose the area you want to target. Essential Skills uses built-in pretests to assess each student's needs, then automatically builds an individualized program based on the results.
2
INDIVIDUALIZED PRACTICE
Focused, sequential activities teach and reinforce one skill at a time, providing the practice and repetition each student needs to build mastery.
3
ONGOING PROGRESS TRACKING
Clear reports and post-tests show what each student has mastered, where they are making progress, and where additional support may be needed.
Every Classroom and School License provides access to the complete, teacher-developed Essential Skills learning library, with no separate subject packages or add-ons.
Grades K–6
Sequential programs provide explicit, systematic instruction from reading readiness and phonemic awareness through phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, spelling and grammar. Purposeful, repeated practice helps students build fluency and become confident, independent readers.
Grounded in the Science of Reading.
Grades K–6
Comprehensive programs build essential skills across number sense and operations, measurement, geometry, patterning, data and probability. Clear verbal instructions and varied, carefully sequenced practice strengthen understanding, accuracy and problem-solving skills.
Adaptive practice builds math fact fluency.
Mad Minute Math assesses fluency across all four operations, then creates an individualized practice path that introduces new facts while continuing to review missed ones—building speed, accuracy and automaticity in as little as 10 minutes a day.
GRADES 1–3
Engaging instruction and experiments build foundational knowledge across life science, physical science, and earth and space science.
GRADES 4–6
Students develop map and globe skills while exploring physical and political geography across the United States, Canada, and the world.
ELL / MLL
Students build English proficiency from basic vocabulary through phonics, sight words, and comprehension, with optional instructional support in more than 10 languages.
Grades 4–10 · RL 2.0–5.0
High-interest, age-respectful texts build vocabulary and comprehension for students reading below grade level, with content spanning reading levels 2.0–5.0.
Every activity is teacher-developed to teach and reinforce a specific skill—not to entertain or fill time. Fewer distractions help your students stay focused on learning.
I like that there are not a lot of distractions or bells and whistles in the programs. They really focus on the skills that need to be taught.
Stacy Quinlan, Grade 1 Teacher
When instruction meets students at the right level, success comes early and often. Those early successes build confidence and motivation to keep going.
1.5M+
students supported since 1995
In a 10-week classroom case study, six second-grade students used Essential Skills Reading Comprehension for 30 minutes each school day. They gained an average of 2.16 instructional levels in oral reading and 2.50 in silent reading, as measured by the Ekwall–Shanker Reading Inventory.
Oral reading
+2.16
Silent reading
+2.50
One classroom case study involving six second-grade students; 10 weeks of use at 30 minutes per school day.
Straightforward teacher and student interfaces make Essential Skills quick to introduce and practical to use every day.
Every subscription includes access at school and at home on supported devices. Clever access is also available.
Simple, consistent navigation and clear verbal instructions help students work independently at their own level and pace, giving teachers more time for targeted support.
Straightforward, real-time reports show what students have mastered, how they are progressing and where additional support is needed—without unnecessary complexity.
Every license includes full access to the complete Essential Skills learning library, with no separate subject packages, add-ons or hidden upgrades.
$299
per classroom / year
One teacher and up to 35 students
School and home access included
Built-in assessments and real-time reporting
Every Essential Skills program
$599
per school / year
Unlimited teachers and students
School and home access included
Built-in assessments and real-time reporting
Every Essential Skills program
If your students do not show measurable progress within six months, we'll refund your subscription fee. To qualify, use Essential Skills 2–3 times per week for 20–30 minutes per session, beginning with a pretest and tracking growth through posttests and built-in reports.
The Free Phonics Program provides systematic K–2 instruction that takes students from learning the alphabet and letter sounds to blending words and reading complete sentences.
Try every Essential Skills program free for 14 days.
