Los Angeles Unified School District is wasting no time rethinking classroom ed-tech under the leadership of new Superintendent Andrés E. Chait. Just weeks after launching a bold new Parental Consent portal that took a kind of anti-trust knife to the Google Classroom, the nation’s second-largest school district is now taking the truly remarkable step of empowering its roughly 200,000 secondary students (grades 6–12) to formally evaluate its two dominant e-learning platforms: i-Ready and IXL.
Minors are typically given no voice in consequential policy decisions, but yesterday LAUSD, which is currently conducting comprehensive audits of all its ed-tech vendor contracts, quietly posted a survey for students on its Schoology intranet. Headlined “STUDENTS WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK!,” the survey solicits kids’ opinions of i-Ready and its closest competitor IXL Learning, both of which are used heavily within the district — and nationwide, with 17 and 11 million U.S. students respectively. These ed-tech products were conceived and built by adults, pitched by adults, and purchased by adults — but until now nobody has bothered to ask what the kids forced to use them think.
The brief survey opens by inquiring whether students have access to a computer and internet at home, before proceeding to ten refreshingly blunt questions about the ed-tech giants’ offerings. They are asked to evaluate ten positive statements similar to i-Ready and IXL marketing verbiage, including whether the platforms “help me understand,” “help me improve,” or “make learning fun.” Kids can grade those statements on a four-point truthfulness scale ranging from “Completely True” to “Not At All True.” Crucially, students are also asked whether the diagnostic tests and screen-based lessons take “too much time.”
Reprinted below is the full text of the survey, along with a PDF download of the actual screens.
This is a survey that goes there; one that could never be authored by a district still fully captured by ed-tech’s magical thinking orthodoxy. So what will LAUSD students have to say? As reported previously in this series, across the Internet, American kids hate i-Ready so intensely and so vocally, publisher Curriculum Associates disables all commenting on its YouTube channels — and has even sicked its legal dogs on children for posting videos criticizing i-Ready.
We’ll have to stay tuned for the survey’s results, but speaking as an LAUSD parent who has witnessed large tween birthday parties spontaneously devolve into ferocious i-Ready/IXL hate sessions — and with spoiler regrets to anyone who hasn’t yet seen the 2025 horror masterpiece WEAPONS — I hereby predict that both these ed-tech companies had best brace themselves for their very own (must-see) Aunt Gladys finales:
LAUSD i-Ready and IXL Student Survey Questions
Section 1: Welcome & Overview
You have been invited to take part in a conversation.
LAUSD is asking secondary students to share their thoughts on our diagnostics and personalized learning tools (i.e., i-Ready, IXL).
All surveys are voluntary, and no personally identifiable information will be requested from any participant
Section 2: Demographic & Background Questions
Region
Options: East / North / South / West / I don’t know
Do you have access to a personal computer device (not issued by school/district) at home?
Options: Yes/No
Do you have access to the internet (not issued by school/district) at home?
Options: Yes/No
What grade are you in?
Options: 6th / 7th / 8th / 9th / 10th / 11th / 12th
Section 3: i-Ready Inform Assessments
The following statements will ask that you rate what you think about the i-Ready Inform assessments which are online tests that measure your reading and math skills. Students take these tests two to three times each year.
The i-Ready Inform assessments help me understand when I need more support with my reading skills.
Options: Not at all true / A little true / Mostly true / Completely true
The i-Ready Inform assessments help me understand when I need more support with my math skills.
Options: Not at all true / A little true / Mostly true / Completely true
The i-Ready Inform assessments take...
Options: Too much time / Just enough time / Too little time
Section 4: Personalized Instruction Lessons
Which personalized learning system do you use in your English and/or math classes?
Options: i-Ready / IXL
[Questions Below for i-Ready option only]
The following statements will ask that you rate what you think about the Personalized Instruction lessons that you work on each week.
The i-Ready Personalized Instruction lessons help me understand which areas I need academic support in.
Options: Not at all true / A little true / Mostly true / Completely true
The i-Ready Personalized Instruction lessons help me understand when I am ready for higher level work.
Options: Not at all true / A little true / Mostly true / Completely true
The i-Ready Personalized Instruction lessons help me improve my reading skills.
Options: Not at all true / A little true / Mostly true / Completely true
The i-Ready Personalized Instruction lessons help me improve my math skills.
Options: Not at all true / A little true / Mostly true / Completely true
i-Ready lessons make learning fun.
Options: Not at all true / A little true / Mostly true / Completely true
The i-Ready Personalized Instruction lessons take...
Options: Too much time / Just enough time / Too little time
Section 5: Submission / Closing
Thank you for participating in this survey. Review your responses
[Submit]
Thank you. We’ve received your submission.
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About John Allen Wooden:
Howdy. I’m a tech-traitorous writer, satirist, creative director, and dad of an i-Ready victim based in Los Angeles. Having done hard time in big online media, late night TV, ad agencies, politics, and parenting, I created Epostasy as my little lab for gleefully dismembering all those self-important things. Check out my tech-skeptical kids book series, Screen Time Tales, along with other projects at johnallenwooden.com
