What’s new on IXL - August 2023

At IXL, we strive to keep our teaching and learning platform in line and up to date with students’ evolving needs. That’s why we compile a list of our top new features to help you—as a learner, educator, or parent—get the most out of IXL.

Keep reading below for a roundup of releases from the past month, including the new Takeoff by IXL Math™ curriculum, exciting dashboard updates for students and teachers, the IXL iPad app redesign and more! To stay current with our latest updates, follow IXL on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Major releases

Takeoff by IXL Math

Takeoff by IXL Math™ is a groundbreaking new curriculum that provides everything teachers need for their daily math instruction, personalized to meet the needs of each student.

Currently available for grades 2-5, Takeoff by IXL Math™ includes:

Detailed day-by-day lesson plans
Differentiated support and enrichment resources
Print and online learning activities
Built-in unit assessments with personalized next steps

The first few units for each grade are available now, and we will continue releasing units throughout the school year!

Reach new heights with Takeoff by IXL Math™!

Teacher dashboard redesign

We’ve redesigned our teacher dashboard on all English editions! Teachers can now easily access classroom engagement tools, monitor students’ learning, and manage their assignments, all from their IXL homepage. Sign into your teacher account on IXL to see your new dashboard.

New student dashboard

We’ve released a personalized dashboard for students! When students sign into IXL, they now automatically land on their student dashboard, where they can see exactly what to work on next, as well as celebrate all of the progress they’ve made so far. This new homepage gives students more insight into their learning journey and offers fun opportunities for personalization, so they can get excited about learning!

Teachers can also view their students’ dashboards! The dashboard can be reached from the Student Summary report in the “areas to focus on” section, and from the Recommendations wall by clicking on “See suggestions from your teacher” at the top right of the page.

With this release, we’ve also added a “My IXL” tab to student and child accounts. Under “My IXL,” students can find their dashboard, Leaderboards, and quizzes.

Feature updates

View Snapshot data from the previous year

School and district administrators can now view Snapshot data from the previous school year! In addition to data from the current school year, administrators can filter for the previous year’s data in the Diagnostic Levels, Diagnostic Strands, and Snapshot Growth reports. This update helps administrators track student growth over multiple years.

Student demographic data in District Analytics

Student demographic data is now available in District Analytics, in the US edition! Now, district administrators are able to filter, group, and sort reports by any demographic field rostered to their account. Administrators have the option to roster students with the following data:

Gender
Race
Hispanic ethnicity
English language learner status
Free or reduced-price lunch status
Individualized education program status
Home language

Student demographic data can be collected through all rostering methods for US site accounts using either standard demographic data fields or custom demographic fields based on individual district needs. Student demographic data will also be available in all exports from District Analytics.

New “group by” functionality in district diagnostic reports

District administrators on US, CA, and UK site accounts are now able to group their diagnostic reports by grade, school, or (for US only) any rostered demographic category. Administrators will also have the ability to choose multiple “group by” categories which will stack, allowing them to view specific student subgroups. Administrators can also export the data as shown in the image, both through PDF and CSV exports. This new functionality will allow administrators to further dig into their Diagnostic data and better plan for their district.

IXL iPad app redesign

The IXL iPad app has a new look and feel! The updates make everything IXL has to offer even easier to navigate. Plus, students can now complete IXL Quizzes on the iPad app! Take a tour of the changes here.

Skill plan updates and new skills

New math skills

We’ve released a handful of new math skills, including new calculus skills:

Show a number greater than, less than, or equal to a given number up to 10 (Kindergarten)
Complete the addition sentence to make 10 – with models (Kindergarten)
Write subtraction sentences for pictures – up to 10 (Kindergarten)
Sort two-dimensional shapes (Grade 2)
Lateral area of prisms and pyramids (Grade 7)
Write a quadratic function from its x-intercepts and another point (Algebra 1)
Even and odd functions (Algebra 2)
Relate position, velocity, speed, and acceleration using derivatives (Calculus)
L’Hospital’s rule (Calculus)

We’re also constantly making improvements to our existing skills and wanted to note several recent improvements.

Making ten to add (Grade 1) includes new problems using number lines
Addition and subtraction fact families (Grade 1) features an improved student interaction.
Finding the slope of a line from a graph (Grades 7-8, and Algebra 1) These skills have improved diagrams and a new problem type involving slopes of vertical lines.

New ELA skills

We’ve added new writing, vocabulary, and early literacy skills:

Choose the short a word that matches the picture: uppercase (Pre-K)
Identify relevant sources (Grade 7)
Revise the sentence using a stronger verb (Grade 7)
Use academic vocabulary in context: informational (Grade 8)

We’ve also updated some of our early literacy content to better support and delight our youngest learners. These improvements include:

Refreshed illustrations in 35 skills across Pre-K through second grade to give them a more modern look.
Larger letters and handwriting paper backgrounds for lower- and upper-case letter identification skills.
5 new short vowel skills for pre-kindergarten.

New science skills

We’ve released three new science skills:

Where do bearberries and powdery strap air plants live? (K – Grade 2)
The daytime sky (K – Grade 1)
Transmission, reflection, and absorption of waves (Grade 6)

New social studies skills

We’ve released new social studies skills:

What is a community? (Kindergarten)
Use location words (Kindergarten)
George Washington (Grade 1)
The American flag (Grade 1)

New CASAS skill plans

We’ve released skill plans for Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (CASAS)! Our plans align to the CASAS Basic Skills Content Standards and are designed for self-study or classroom-based preparation over several months.

New textbook skill plans

We’ve added the following new skill plans:

Digits (Grade 7 Accelerated)
Schoolwide Reading Fundamentals (Grade 5)
Schoolwide Writing and Grammar Fundamentals (Grade 5)
Benchmark Advance 2022 (Grade 5)
EL Education (Grade 8)

We’ve updated our skill plans for the following textbooks to showcase our newest skills and include additional skills:

EngageNY (ELA Grade 6)
Wonders 2017 (ELA Kindergarten)
HMH Integrated I, II, and III (Math)
Connected Mathematics 3 (CMP3) (Math Grade 7)

New standards skill plans for Indiana

We released skill plans for Indiana’s new streamlined 2023 standards for math, ELA, science, and social studies! These plans will help teachers as they prepare to implement standards in the 2023-2024 school year.

New Integrated I and II Checkpoints

We’ve expanded our Checkpoints for Kentucky, West Virginia, and South Dakota to include High School Integrated I and II. Teachers and students in these states can access these Checkpoints directly from their state standards skill plan. And, if teachers have pinned the skill plan, they can use the Checkpoint performance report in Analytics to evaluate student readiness.

Seasonal skill plans for math and ELA

Our Fall Power-up plans are back! These skill plans provide 20 days of math and ELA skill recommendations for students entering grades K-12. These plans will help students review critical concepts from the previous school year, setting them up for success in the fall.

Revamped Learn to Read skill plans

Our Learn to Read skill plans have gotten a summer makeover! Our Learn to Read skill plans guide students through the foundational skills they need to start reading successfully. They’ve been updated to align even more closely to the typical scope and pace of instruction for each grade. New concepts are strategically introduced throughout the year, and spaced repetition ensures solid learning.

Updates to Weekly Boost plans for math

We’ve updated the weekly boost plans in math for Pre-K through 5th grade to feature our newest and best elementary skills. The Weekly Boost plans provide structure and pacing to ensure learners are on track week to week for a year’s worth of curriculum.

Additional releases

New math and ELA videos

We’ve released 17 new math videos to expand our coverage! This includes 3 new grade 3 videos, 5 new grade 6 videos, 1 new grade 8 video, 6 new Geometry videos, and 5 more Canada grade 6 videos. Check out some of those videos:

Multiplication and division facts up to 12 (Grade 3)
Reflections and rotations: write the rule (Grade 8)
Understanding the arc length and sector area of a circle (Geometry)

We’ve also released 23 new phonics videos and 7 new middle school ELA videos. These videos cover topics such as:

Reading sight words (Grade 1)
Completing the word with the right r-controlled vowel (Grade 1)
Choosing between the past tense and past participle (Grade 6)
Identifying appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in advertisements (Grade 7)

We’ve also added Spanish captions for 72 more videos. (Like translated skills, translated captions are available to users with Spanish support enabled.) With this release, we now have over 2,400 videos published!

More math skills with Spanish support

We’ve expanded our Spanish-language support to include a handful of new skills from 1st grade through Algebra 1. These newly-supported skills include comparing numbers using place value, and word problems involving division, identifying graphs, and the domain and range of linear functions.

New skills added to international editions

We have added 9 English skills to our international editions (CA, AU, NZ, UK, IE, IN, ZA); these skills were previously only available in the US. The skills include practice for third grade spelling patterns, as well as secondary-school-level reading strategies skills:

Spell the long a word (Grade 3)
Spell the long e word (Grade 3)
Spell the long i word (Grade 3)
Spell the long o word (Grade 3)
Spell the long u word (Grade 3)
Spell the diphthong word (Grade 3)
Spell words with r vowel patterns (Grade 4)
Determine the author’s point of view (Grades 6, 7, 8)

ABCya games now available on IXL’s UK and Australia editions!

We’ve added over 100 ABCya games to the UK and Australia editions of IXL! The games have been localized for our UK and AU users. Just like in the US and CA editions, users can access the games from the grade landing pages! Games are available on the UK edition for Reception through Year 6. Games are available on the AU edition for Preschool through Year 5.

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