10 Free or Inexpensive Educational Apps That Could Help Underprivileged Students Close the Racial Achievement Gap

quickkey

Quick Key

It will be impossible to close the achievement gap without getting teachers at underprivileged schools the tools they need to succeed as well. Quick Key allows teachers to easily scan their students’ work and receive reports on the child’s progress in the classroom. Making grading easier not only gives teachers more time to focus on actually improving lessons and giving students the attention they need, but it also means teachers will be able quickly identify when students are not grasping concepts in the classroom. While there are many classroom management apps, Quick Key is a stand out in the fact that it eliminates the need to grade by hand even for teachers who are still working in “paper-based classrooms,” as most teachers at under-resourced schools are.

Mathmateer

Mathmateer

Mathmateer has all the usual elements of an effective math app plus one more thing that other math apps tend to forget — teaching kids how to count money. It’s one of the few fun math games that incorporates U.S. money as well as core arithmetic, shapes and telling time. The game allows students to build their own rocket and then send it off into space with the help of fun mathematic missions. The variety of different games helps reinforce key math skills, and as one user commented about the app, you can “never have too many math apps” for students. Constantly reinforcing those math skills is an essential step to boosting math proficiency for underprivileged students at an early age, and a vast variety of math games could easily accomplish that goal and bring major improvements in the classroom.