Schools move on before mastery.
Curricula march forward whether your child is ready. A shaky fractions unit in Grade 3 turns into a rocky ratios unit in Grade 5 — and the gap compounds. Nobody pauses to close it.
Real mastery — not just completed worksheets.
Algo School helps parents close gaps and build durable understanding — from Grade 1 arithmetic through Algebra 2 — with a deliberate practice plan, an AI tutor that teaches Socratically, and a mastery model that tracks real comprehension across Bloom's six cognitive levels.
15-day free trial · cancel anytime · kids use aliases only
The gap we're closing
Why kids fall behind — and what we do about it.
Four problems compound between kindergarten and middle school. None of them are your kid's fault. All four share the same root cause — practice that doesn't build the right thing, in a routine that screens are happy to fill instead.
There's no plan — just "do some practice."
Most kids practice the way they brush their teeth: quickly, randomly, when reminded. No deliberate sequence, no idea which gaps matter most. A year of "doing math" later, no one can say what actually got built.
You can't see what your kid actually did.
On most platforms you have no idea which videos your child watched, which questions they attempted, what they got wrong, or which concepts they're hiding from. Time spent looks like progress in the app. It usually isn't.
Without structure, screens win.
The iPad doesn't care. Without a 15-minute daily anchor, time leaks into games, YouTube, and reels. Kids fall behind not because they're lazy — but because their day has no learning-shaped hour in it.
How it works
One setup. Then a weekly loop.
Sign in once, set a parent PIN, add your child, pick subjects, choose a buddy. After that it's a simple cycle: teach → practice → master, with each round informed by the last.
What's ready today
Grade 1 through Algebra 2. Complete, not "coming soon."
Eleven math courses, every concept backed by verified practice questions before we let you select it. We list exactly what's ready — and we don't claim what we haven't shipped.
96,000+
verified practice questions
1,000+
math concepts, standards-aligned
175+
deterministic question engines
49
visual types — number lines to normal curves
Grades 1–5
Grades 6–8
Pre-Algebra
Algebra 1 & 2
ELA is in the lab, not on the shelf — reading and writing practice will launch when it meets the same verification bar as our math.
Cognitive coverage
Every question tagged by Bloom's level.
Bloom's Taxonomy is the standard educators use to classify cognitive demand. We tag every question we generate by its level — from Remember (recall) to Create (novel problem-solving). Practice spans the whole pyramid as mastery builds, so kids aren't stuck at recall forever.
- Six levels mapped to three practice tiers
- Introductory tier pulls Remember + Understand
- Challenge tier pulls Analyze, Evaluate, Create
- Real cognitive growth, not just question count
Calibrated difficulty
Three tiers, real-time balance.
A normal session blends three difficulty tiers: 30% Introductory (warm-up), 50% Reinforcement (the meat of the session), 20% Challenge (push). When a concept's mastery dips, the mix shifts toward fundamentals (50/40/10); spaced-review concepts flip the other way (10/30/60, mostly challenge). And mastery per concept decides which concept comes next — so practice targets what your kid actually needs this week, not just what's next in a book.
- Introductory questions for warm-up + review
- Reinforcement makes the main concept stick
- Challenge stretches mastered material into harder cognitive territory
How mastery is measured
Mastery is a sustained pattern — not a streak.
We track mastery with a weighted recent-average score per concept, so one lucky run doesn't fake it and one bad day doesn't tank it. Concepts move through four states: Not Started → In Progress → Proficient → Mastered. Regress on later questions and the state drops back to Needs Review so we know to revisit it.
- Per-concept, not per-session
- Replay-deterministic — every score has an audit trail
- Threshold-based, not "5-in-a-row"
- Drops back to Needs Review on regression so gaps don't hide
Verified content — our line in the sand
Every question verified. Zero AI improvisation.
AI helps us build our question bank — it never gets to improvise in front of your child. Math questions come from 175+ deterministic engines we wrote (a fraction engine knows how to make a "compare ¾ and ⅔" question correctly, every time), and each engine's math is re-derived independently by its own test suite before a single question ships. Visuals pass a separate review so a diagram never accidentally reveals the answer.
- 96,000+ questions, Grade 1 through Algebra 2 — every one verified before a child sees it
- Engine math independently re-derived by automated proofs — not spot-checked
- Rich visuals — number lines, fraction bars, coordinate planes, normal curves: 49 visual types
- Explanations and misconception notes AI-enriched, human-reviewed, standards-aligned
The AI tutor
Meet Pico — Socratic by design.
When your child gets stuck, they can call Pico. Pico is a Claude- backed tutor trained to teach the way good teachers do: ask, listen, scaffold, redirect — and never just give the answer. Sessions are multi-turn, calibrated to your kid's mastery level, and bounded (capped at 5 teaching sessions per day, so no rabbit holes).
- Socratic questioning, not lecture-mode
- Never reveals the answer — guides toward it
- You get a parent brief after every session — what concept, what stuck, what didn't
- Character skins (Pico, Lumi, Buzz, Doot, Rocket) — same tutor, different face
Compared
Where Algo School fits.
We're not the only option, and we're honest about that. Here's an even-handed look at where the major players shine and where we differ.
| Algo School | IXL | Khan Academy | iReady | Kumon | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mastery model | Bloom-tagged, threshold-based | SmartScore (proprietary) | Skill tree progress | Diagnostic-driven path | Worksheet sequence + tests |
| AI tutor (Socratic) | Yes — Pico, multi-turn | No | Khanmigo (paid add-on) | No | Instructor at center |
| Per-session parent brief | AI-written, emailed | Weekly summary | Limited | School-only reports | Biweekly center meeting |
| Question variety | 8 answer types, 49 visual types | High volume, repetitive | Video-heavy + practice | Diagnostic + practice | Paper worksheets only |
| Designed for | Parent-driven, at home | Schools + home subscriptions | Self-paced learners | Schools (district-licensed) | Center-based + home worksheets |
| Subjects ready today | Math G1 – Algebra 2 | All K-12 subjects | K-12 + test prep | Reading + math K-8 | Math + reading, K-12 |
| Free trial | 15 days, full access | Limited free preview | Free tier (with ads / limits) | School-licensed only | Varies by center |
If your school already provides iReady, that's your baseline. If you want broad K-12 coverage today, Khan or IXL are excellent. If a weekly in-person center fits your routine, Kumon is the classic. Algo School is for parents who want a clear plan, an AI tutor that actually teaches, and full visibility into what their kid did — without leaving the house.
In four weeks of regular practice…
- You'll know exactly which concepts your kid has mastered vs which need another pass
- Your kid will be working at the right cognitive level — not stuck at recall
- You'll get a parent brief after every Pico tutoring session
- You'll get a Sunday-evening weekly digest summarizing the week's wins
- Gaps surface explicitly — not buried in a report-card letter grade
Questions parents ask.
ChatGPT can generate practice questions for my kid — why use Algo School?
Three reasons. First, trust: a chatbot can't tell you whether the questions it just made are mathematically correct, age-right, or leak-free. Our questions come from 175+ deterministic engines whose math is independently re-derived by automated proofs, and every visual is reviewed so it never reveals the answer. Second, a plan: ChatGPT hands you a worksheet; we hand your kid a sequenced year-long queue built on the curriculum's knowledge graph, and a mastery model that re-targets practice every week from what they actually did. Third, visibility: you see your child's progress on every concept, where they're struggling, and what's coming next — a chatbot shows you none of that. Use ChatGPT for curiosity; use Algo School when the practice has to be right and someone has to keep score.
What grades and subjects are ready today?
Math from Grade 1 through Algebra 2: Grades 1–8, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, and Algebra 2 — over 96,000 verified questions across 1,000+ concepts, generated by 175+ deterministic engines. ELA tooling exists but the student-facing curriculum isn't loaded yet — we're not claiming what we haven't shipped.
How much practice should my kid do?
15-30 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week, is the sweet spot. Pico teaching sessions are capped at 5 per day (15 per family) so the platform can't become a screen-time sink or a chat rabbit hole.
How much practice can my child get in a week?
As much as your family's rhythm allows — you set it during setup: 3, 5, or 7 practice days per week, and 30, 45, or 60 minutes per day. Each practice day serves one session drawn from your child's plan, and the queue keeps feeding it all year. Most families settle on 3-5 days at 30 minutes — steady beats long.
How does my child get help when they're stuck?
Never alone, and never just handed the answer. Every question offers a hint, a full explanation, a worked example, and a short video, plus a one-tap "ask the tutor" for Socratic back-and-forth. Kids get up to three attempts per question — and if the third misses, the session turns it into a learning moment that walks through the right answer and moves on. If a whole concept is shaky, Pico can teach it from scratch on demand.
Can I add more than one child?
Yes — one family workspace, one sign-in for you, and a simple name-and-PIN kiosk for each kid. Each child gets their own grade, subjects, plan, and mastery profile. Billing is per child per month, so you only ever pay for the kids who are actively practicing.
What if Pico gives a wrong answer?
AI can be wrong — we say so in our content disclaimer. Pico is designed to ask questions, not declare answers, so the failure mode is "asks something odd" rather than "asserts wrong fact". Every parent brief includes a one-tap report so you can flag anything off; we read every report.
How much does it cost?
$15 per child per month — all subjects included — after a 15-day free trial (a card is kept on file, but $0 is charged until the trial ends — cancel in one click before then and pay nothing). AI tutor sessions consume AI Credits which you can top up as needed. Cancel any time — your child keeps access through the end of the paid period.
Is my kid's data safe?
Kids use aliases only — we never collect a child's real name. We don't sell data, ever. We hold opaque references to Stripe for payments (no card info on our servers). Read our cookie policy for the technical details.
Do I need to know the curriculum to help?
No. Pick a starting grade, pick a strategy (work through the year, focus on weak concepts, follow topics), and the platform sequences the practice. The parent brief after each Pico session tells you exactly what your kid worked on and where they got stuck.
We don't teach lessons. We teach concepts.
Ready to see what your kid can master?
Free for 15 days — a card is kept on file, but $0 is charged until the trial ends. Cancel in one click before then and pay nothing.
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