For schools

Pilot support

How can we help you?

Find answers to common questions about how Poppins Learning supports students, educators, and reading intervention.

Documents

What you can hand to your team

The documents pilot teams ask for most, in one place. Send this page to anyone who needs them.

Scope & sequenceEvery skill the program teaches, in the order it is taught, with the exercise that carries it and a worked example. For curriculum leads and reading specialists.
Open the guide
The gamesEvery game a student plays, family by family, with a short clip of each.
Open the catalog
Privacy policy & data securityWhat we collect, how student data is protected, where it is hosted, and the state student-privacy laws we align with.
Read the policy
Terms of useThe terms that govern use of the Poppins Learning services, including the section that applies to schools.
Read the terms

Technical

Technical specifications

What your IT team needs before students sign in: devices, installation, audio, rostering, and what student data we hold.

Who Poppins Learning is for

Poppins Learning is ideal for grades K–6. To get value from the program, a student should be able to sit and focus for a full session: 20 minutes at a time, 3 times a week. Placement adapts down automatically, and the lowest level is Kindergarten-level content.

If you are unsure about a student, let’s discuss it at implementation.

Supported devices and platforms

Poppins Learning is a native app from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. There is no browser version, so a student plays in the app, never in a web browser. We recommend running the latest operating system.

Chromebook (any brand): Google Play Store, once your IT team turns Google Play on for the student organizational unit and allows or force-installs the app
iPad: Apple App Store
iPhone: Apple App Store
Android tablet or phone: Google Play Store

Not supported: Windows laptops and desktops, and Mac computers. If your students use Windows devices, contact us before enrolling in a pilot.

Installation and managed deployment

Individual teachers can install Poppins Learning directly from the App Store or Play Store on unmanaged devices. On school- or district-managed devices, your IT team installs the app. On a managed Chromebook, that means turning Google Play on for the student organizational unit.

For pilots: if the Play Store or App Store is blocked on your devices, your district IT team can allowlist Poppins Learning. Send us your IT contact and we will provide the app details directly. Allow one to two weeks of lead time before your start date.

Audio, microphone and camera

Headphones: every student needs their own headset with a working microphone. Headphones let each student hear the rhythm cues clearly in a shared classroom.
Speaker output: plan on a headset for every student and every session, in place of the device speakers.
Microphone: some speaking activities use the device microphone live, during the activity. The US version of Poppins does not record or save any audio. Nothing is retained on our end.
Camera: Poppins Learning does not use the camera, and no video is ever captured.

Internet connectivity

Poppins Learning does not require an ongoing internet connection.

Student accounts and rostering

A school that sets up its own list adds its students in the Poppins Learning teacher portal: the school admin enters each student’s first name and grade, and the portal prints a login card with a username and a password. No student email address is required. A district that connects its student information system rosters through Ednition, with single sign-on, from the system it already runs:

Clever, ClassLink or Wonde (approve or share through the platform)
OneRoster 1.1 / 1.2 API (dedicated read-only integration client)
PowerSchool (Poppins Learning integration package)

Student data we store

What we store: The minimum needed to run the program: the student’s first name only (we do not store student last names), grade level, and date of birth.
What we do not store: No student email addresses, no home addresses, no IEP data, and no assessment history.
Where it lives: US infrastructure (AWS, N. Virginia), encrypted in transit and at rest.
Agreements: We will sign your student data privacy agreement and complete any security questionnaire your district uses.

Session flow, and how students exit

The app ends the day on its own. Once the day’s activities are done, about 20 minutes in, the student sees an end-of-day screen. There is no log-out step for a student to find.
If a student closes the app mid-activity, that activity is skipped rather than repeated. The student picks up from the next one.

Training note: do not interrupt a student’s very first session, because it contains the placement step.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

01Program fitWhich students should use Poppins Learning during a pilot?Poppins Learning is designed for K–6 students who need additional support with reading, including students with dyslexia or reading challenges. Schools can use Poppins Learning with small intervention groups, MTSS cohorts, or multi-school pilot groups.

02Reading supportHow does Poppins Learning support readers who struggle?Poppins Learning combines reading practice with rhythm and multisensory exercises to strengthen the skills that make fluent reading possible, including phonological awareness, decoding, timing, sequencing, and fluency.

03Pilot setupHow do schools get started with a pilot?Poppins Learning provides launch support, including onboarding, implementation planning, and teacher training. Schools identify participating students, set up rosters, and establish a consistent routine for student sessions.

04MTSS & interventionHow does Poppins Learning fit into MTSS or intervention time?Poppins Learning can be used during intervention blocks, MTSS time, or supplemental reading routines. It is designed to fit into existing school schedules without requiring major changes to classroom instruction.

05Student experienceWhat does a Poppins Learning session look like?Students complete short, structured, video-game-like activities. Sessions include rhythm and reading exercises that adapt to each student’s level, keeping motivation and engagement high.

06Teacher roleWhat do teachers need to do during the pilot?Teachers help manage student rosters, support the session routine, monitor usage, and review progress. They may also complete brief pre- and post-program questionnaires to help evaluate the pilot.

07Session routineHow often should students use Poppins Learning?Students should use Poppins Learning for 20 minutes, 3 times per week, for at least 12 weeks. Consistent use helps students build skills over time and gives schools enough data to evaluate progress.

08PacingWhat moves a student to the next step?

Every skill is broken into ordered steps: three to fifteen of them, depending on the skill. A step clears on a running points counter, not on a trial count and not on a percentage: a correct answer is +1, a wrong one is −1, and the step clears at +2.

In practice, two correct answers clear a step for a student who is rolling. The first answer on a brand-new skill doesn’t score, because it opens the counter, so the first step of a new skill costs three correct answers. Three wrong answers in a row knock the counter back and freeze scoring until the student gets two right, which typically means six or more correct answers on that step, up to nine at the worst.

So there is no fixed number of trials and no percentage gate to advance. A student who is solid moves in two answers; a student who is shaky does as many repetitions as it takes.

09PacingWhat happens if a student keeps struggling with the same skill?

They stay on that step. The program does not move on until it is earned. Two safeguards keep a student from being parked there.

After 50 failed attempts on one step, the skill leaves the active rotation and moves into a consolidation rotation: the student keeps practicing it in short doses while moving forward on other skills. Doing well in consolidation still advances that skill, so it is a real path back rather than a write-off, and the record keeps a flag that the student needed extra help. Separately, once a skill is finished, if it took more than about twice the minimum number of answers it automatically comes back for extra practice, and it is marked mastered only after 30 consolidation turns at 80% or better. That 80% is the only percentage in the system, and it governs mastery, not advancement.

One expectation to set honestly: the presentation does not change when a student struggles. There is no separate tutorial mode that kicks in. What changes is the number of repetitions, and on a few games the difficulty band the items are drawn from. The instructional support is the sequence itself and the small step size.

10PacingCan we align Poppins Learning to the skill we are teaching this week?

Not directly, and we would rather say so than let it surprise you. The sequence is fixed and each strand’s starting point is set by a placement check on day one, so a student can sit at Level 1 in spelling and Level 2 in decoding. Teachers cannot reorder the program or jump a student to this week’s classroom skill.

The practical move is the reverse one. Every student’s live position (the skill they are working on right now, and which step of it) is visible in the teacher portal, so you can see where a student is and match small-group work to it. If your team needs to steer the sequence, tell us: that is product feedback we want.

11Student seatsCan schools reassign student seats?Yes. Student seats are flexible and can be reassigned during the school year if students exit the program, complete their intervention cycle, move, or participation changes.

12Progress dataWhat progress data do schools receive?The teacher portal shows each student’s live position in the program: the skill they are working on, which step of it, and how far through the sequence they are. On top of that, we walk your team through a usage and progress read at the pilot check-ins and whenever you ask: who is at dose, who needs a nudge, and what the cohort looks like as a whole. Tell us at setup what your team needs to report upward and we will build the pilot summary around it.

13ResearchWhat evidence supports Poppins Learning?Poppins Learning has been tested in two randomized clinical trials, both showing gains in reading fluency. The first is peer-reviewed and published in Scientific Reports, a Nature Portfolio journal, 2025; the second, larger trial has final results that are not yet published, and we hand over the documentation and walk your team through it. The approach is grounded in research on dyslexia, rhythm, music, phonological processing, and the brain systems involved in reading.

14SupportWhat support is available during implementation?Pilot partners receive onboarding, implementation guidance, progress check-ins, and email support. Schools are encouraged to contact Poppins Learning as soon as challenges arise so support can be provided quickly.

15Pilot successHow should schools measure pilot success?Schools evaluate success by looking at reading fluency growth, consistent usage, student engagement, implementation fidelity, and teacher feedback. Poppins Learning also provides progress updates and a final summary.

Still stuck?

Email us and a person reads it. No bots. Tell us the school and, if it is a student issue, the student’s name, and we will take it from there.

schools@poppinslearning.io