i-Ready
Shares rank 3 of 4 educational software by recommenders
Recommended by people who say it reinforces lessons and kids enjoy it; critics say it adds little learning and eats too much class time.
Recommended by people who say it reinforces lessons and kids enjoy it; critics say it adds little learning and eats too much class time.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Kids enjoy it and seek it out
“math was her favorite part of school this year”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready” “ONe actively loves it. He seeks it out.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Little or no learning gain
“these apps negatively impact the learning of my students and people dont really realize it”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “€2B spent on children reading, math in Netherlands but gov study finds no impact” “None of the parents felt that their kids were learning anything at all from it.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready” “None of the efficiency or adaptive promises are coming to fruition.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready” Kids find it boring and hateful
“If one wished to design an experience to instill a hatred of mathematics into children, it would be a pretty solid approach.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready” “My kids and the better teachers at their school also hate iReady for generally the same reasons stated in the post.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready” “if it's boring and the kid runs away, it's a parent failure instead of a teacher problem”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready” Screen time crowds out curriculum
“We started heavily drifting to computers after covid so these students can sometimes spend 3-4 hours everyday on iready etc.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Why Boys Are Behind in Reading at Every Age” “its like all of our curriculum is turning into these silly math or reading games from iready”
Comment from 17 May 2026 in “My Son's Math Homework Is Essentially Just Pokémon” Adaptive placement sends kids too low
“the "smart adaptive" algorithm throws them back to the preschool school level”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready” “None of the efficiency or adaptive promises are coming to fruition.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Our Experience with I-Ready”
Other educational software people recommend
The three most recommended other educational software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCompris | 9 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Lathoa math app for kids | 9 | 3 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| i-ReadyThis page | 6 | 10 | 38% | 2 | — | — |
| Early Reader | 6 | 1 | 86% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“its like all of our curriculum is turning into these silly math or reading games from iready”
“The homework on apps like i-Ready is mostly just crappy multiple-choice questions.”
“the absolute garbage (and insanely expensive) platforms the school uses to track grades”
“if it's boring and the kid runs away, it's a parent failure instead of a teacher problem”
“This is my experience as well.”
“ONe actively loves it. He seeks it out.”
“It's fine, and encouraged. She just gets different work while they are still working on up-leveling.”
“My kids don't seem to have any issues with I-Ready”
“If one wished to design an experience to instill a hatred of mathematics into children, it would be a pretty solid approach.”
“My kids and the better teachers at their school also hate iReady for generally the same reasons stated in the post.”
“the "smart adaptive" algorithm throws them back to the preschool school level”
“It’s worse than the annual corporate compliance training that many adults have to suffer through.”
“None of the efficiency or adaptive promises are coming to fruition.”
“math was her favorite part of school this year”
“None of the parents felt that their kids were learning anything at all from it.”
“It has real value for reinforcing lessons”
“We started heavily drifting to computers after covid so these students can sometimes spend 3-4 hours everyday on iready etc.”
“these apps negatively impact the learning of my students and people dont really realize it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.