At IXL, we’re always adding new features and skills to our award-winning teaching and learning platform to ensure we’re on pace 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 national norms for the diagnostic, i-Ready skill plans for high school, new Scratchpad buttons, and more! To stay current with our latest updates, follow IXL on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Table of contents:
Major releases
National norms for the IXL Real-Time Diagnostic
The IXL Diagnostic is now nationally normed for K-8 math and ELA!
IXL’s Real-Time Diagnostic has long been established through validity research to be a precise indicator of student achievement and a strong predictor of performance on standardized assessments. Now, with national norms, IXL provides administrators with the broader context of students’ progress and achievement not only within their school or district, but also against their peers across the US.
You can find the norms tables for overall scores in this guide, or a comprehensive set of norms tables that include specific strands in the full report.
i-Ready Diagnostic skill plans for high school math
We’ve now completed our grade coverage for the i-Ready Diagnostic skill plan for math with the addition of skill plans for Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2! These highly requested skill plans make students’ assessment scores instantly actionable, providing the exact IXL skills that each student is ready to learn next. See the full plans below:
- i-Ready Diagnostic skill plan (Math, K-Algebra 2)
- i-Ready Diagnostic skill plan (Reading, K-12)
New units for Takeoff by IXL Math™
We’ve released Takeoff by IXL Math™ Units 5 and 6!
Takeoff by IXL Math™ provides everything 2nd-5th grade teachers need for their daily math instruction, personalized to meet the needs of each student, including:
- Detailed day-by-day lesson plans
- Differentiated support and enrichment resources
- Print and online learning activities
- Built-in unit assessments with personalized next steps
Unit 5 covers the following topics:
Unit 6 covers the following topics:
- Grade 2 Unit 6: Measuring length
- Grade 4 Unit 6: Divide by 1-digit numbers
- Grade 5 Unit 6: Multiply fractions
Feature updates
Expanded audio support
We expanded our optional audio support to now cover ELA, science, social studies, and math through 8th grade across all English-language editions!
Any student with optional audio support enabled will automatically have audio available through 8th grade. Teachers and parents can enable extended audio support in their Profile & settings.
Print out IXL Quizzes
Teachers can now print out IXL Quizzes!
From the Quizzes page, click the three dots on a quiz card and select “Print quiz” to open a printer-friendly PDF version of the quiz. The PDF will open in a new window ready to be printed!
This is particularly helpful for students who require accommodations such as having printed materials when taking tests.
Undo, Redo, and Clear buttons on Scratchpad
We’ve added three new buttons to the Scratchpad: Undo, Redo, and Clear!
This update allows for easier and more efficient use of the Scratchpad by letting students undo/redo their five most recent drawing actions, as well as clear their Scratchpad with one click. These buttons now appear across all instances of the Scratchpad on the IXL site including: skills, Group Jam, Quizzes, and Diagnostic.
Phonics video tutorials highlighted in literacy skill plans
We have updated the IXL Learn to Read and IXL Reading Intervention skill plans to feature our corresponding phonics video tutorials. This makes it even easier for young learners to access direct instruction, which is an important part of learning to read!
Each skill with a video tutorial has a play button icon next to it. When a student clicks on a skill they haven’t practiced yet, they will land on the skill practice page with the video tutorial pre-opened.
Filter to view suggested skills
In IXL Analytics reports, Quizzes, and Group Jams, teachers can now quickly filter to see only their currently suggested skills. This makes it easier to quickly find the most relevant skills when reviewing students’ IXL practice, and setting up new assessments and activities.
Reports with this new filtering capability include Skill Analysis, Skills Practiced, Skill Score Chart, and Questions Log. Students and families can also see this filtering option in the Questions Log.
Skill plan updates and new skills
New math skills
We’ve released a handful of new math skills for K-Calculus:
- Comparing shapes using attributes (Kindergarten)
- Subtraction sentences for comparison word problems up to 10: how many more? (Grade 1)
- Subtraction sentences for comparison word problems up to 10: how many fewer? (Grade 1)
- Sort subtraction facts – up to 20 (Grade 1)
- Count on and use ten to subtract – up to 20 (Grade 2)
- Count on to subtract two-digit numbers (Grade 2)
- Use number lines to add three-digit numbers (Grade 3)
- Solving equations with rational exponents (Algebra 2)
- Introduction to related rates (Calculus)
- Evaluate definite integrals using the power rule (Calculus)
New ELA book study skill
We’ve released a new book study skill:
New science skills
We’ve released three new science skills!
- Severe weather: tornadoes (K-2)
- The way things move (K-1)
- Constellations and the changing night sky (4-6)
New social studies skill
We’ve released a new social studies skill on Thanksgiving for Kindergarten and 1st grade.
New textbook skill plans
We released new textbook skill plans, including:
- Amplify Math (Grade 6-8 and Algebra 1)
- Go Math! (2023) (Grades K-3, 4-6)
- enVision Mathematics (Geometry)
- TransMath (3rd Edition) (Level 3)
- STEMscopes Science Texas (Grades 5 and 8)
- Schoolwide Reading Fundamentals (Grade 4)
- Schoolwide Writing & Grammar Fundamentals (Grade 4)
- enVision Mathematics (2024) (Algebra 2)
- enVision Mathematics FL B.E.S.T. (Grades 3 and 4 Accelerated)
- Open Up Resources North Carolina (Grades 6-8, HS Math 1-3)
- PhD Science Texas (2024) (Grade 5)
New test prep skill plans
We’ve added new test prep skill plans:
- i-Ready Diagnostic Math (Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2)
- Pennsylvania PSSA Science (Grades 4 and 8)
- Pennsylvania PSSA Math (3-8)
- Pennsylvania PSSA ELA (3-8)
- South Carolina NWEA MAP Growth Math (K-6+)
- South Carolina NWEA MAP Growth Reading (K-6+)
- South Carolina NWEA MAP Growth Language (K-6+)
The South Carolina NWEA MAP Growth plans can also be made into personalized study plans.
Winter Adventures skill plans are back
IXL’s Winter Adventures returns to provide students with a fun educational “camp” for the winter season! The Winter Adventures skill plans offer 20 days of IXL skills, challenges, and offline activities to keep students engaged while it’s cold outside. Winter Adventures is available for math and ELA in Kindergarten through 8th grade. See the plans below:
Additional releases
New math and ELA videos
We’ve released 99 new math videos to expand our coverage! This includes 36 new 2nd grade videos, 3 new grade 3 videos, 2 new grade 4 videos, 3 new grade 5 videos, 1 new grade 7 video, 4 new geometry videos, and 31 new Algebra 2 videos. The videos in this release cover topics such as:
- Counting forward up to 1,000 (Grade 2)
- Exponential growth and decay word problems (Algebra 2)
Additionally, we added 4 new phonics videos and 8 new middle school ELA videos to expand coverage in existing grades. These videos cover topics such as:
- Words ending in consonant blends (Grade 1)
- Revise the sentence using a stronger verb (Grade 6)
- Form and use comparative and superlative adverbs (Grade 6)
We’ve also released 9 new videos for Canada grades 6-8.
Plus, Spanish captions have been added to over 50% of grade 5 math videos as well as to 35 more math videos in grade 6 through Algebra 1! See an example below:
- Scaling mixed numbers by fractions (Grade 5)
More math skills with Spanish support
We’ve expanded our Spanish-language support to include several new skills throughout elementary and middle school. These newly supported skills include naming polygons, comparison word problems, multi-step addition and subtraction word problems, volume word problems, dividing fractions using models, finding slope from a graph, and writing powers of 10 with exponents.