The revolt against i-Ready: Private equity-backed company faces parent, teacher and student fury

EducationThe revolt against i-Ready: Private equity-backed software faces parent, teacher and student furyA growing number of families and educators say they’re fed up with i-Ready’s personalized math and reading lessons, which feature repetitive cartoons and slow voice-overs. Ward Wooden, 14, demonstrates a math lesson on i-Ready at his family’s home in Studio City, Calif.Jenna Schoenefeld for NBC NewsShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 12, 2026, 5:00 AM EDTBy Tyler KingkadeIn Anchorage, Alaska, math tutor Katelynn Petersen has watched hundreds of students struggle to use the software. “They all hate it — it’s so boring and so monotonous,” she said.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.In Rhode Island, school speech therapist Denise Champney said she’s seen children get so frustrated with the software’s animations and spoken prompts that one punched the screen of his Chromebook. “It is just incredibly infuriating,” she said.In Los Angeles, eighth grader Ward Wooden agrees. “I’m losing brain cells every time I do a lesson,” he said.They’re all complaining about i-Ready, which has quietly taken over America’s public school classrooms, reaching nearly 14 million students each year.For more on this story, watch “Hallie Jackson NOW” on NBC News NOW at 5 p.m. ETThe i-Ready pitch is this: Teachers need help spotting children who are falling behind. Through personalized reading and math assessments that adjust questions based on students’ responses, the software identifies struggling students so that they can get extra support long before they take standardized tests.It’s a promise that has proved attractive to administrators seeking to boost test scores. Since the private equity-backed company Curriculum Associates released i-Ready in 2011, it has become a juggernaut. Nearly one-third of students from kindergarten to 12th grade nationwide use i-Ready, including in nine of the 10 largest school districts.But that gro...