How Comet Crew works

Behind the spaceships is a careful practice engine. Its job is to keep your child in the sweet spot: hard enough to learn something, easy enough to keep going.

The adventure

Kids join a crew and fly missions across the galaxy. A mission might be a short story with questions, a math challenge in the arcade, a science lab or a trip back in time. They earn gear and get to know their crew along the way, and that's a big part of why they come back.

It adapts to each child

Every question has a difficulty level. The game keeps a running estimate of your child's level in each skill and picks questions they should get right about half the time. A few right answers and the missions step up. A few misses and they ease off. Your child doesn't need to know any of this is happening.

A wrong answer means another try

A miss brings a hint and a second go. We only count a skill as mastered from first tries without help. Hints still help your child learn, but they don't make the report look better than it is.

Heart-Sight: practicing kindness

Some missions ask kids to notice how a character feels and choose a kind reply. It's the same engine, pointed at social and emotional skills. To your child, it's just part of the story.

Your grown-up report

Your report shows skill mastery in reading, math, science and social studies, practice test results, how often your child practiced in the last week and month, and a projected reading and math level. Want them to work on something? Assign a skill and it shows up as a starred mission the next time they play.

How we estimate a reading and math level

We take this part seriously. From your child's first tries in the game, we estimate an ability level for reading and for math. Then we place it on the NWEA MAP Growth RIT scale using published norm tables. For Ohio, we also estimate how likely your child is to reach Proficient on the Ohio State Test and to meet the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, using the state's own linking scores.

What this is and isn't. It's a projection from practice in a game. It isn't an NWEA MAP test or a state assessment. We show a range instead of a single number, and we keep it labeled "projected" until we can check it against real test results. It doesn't account for the reading subscore safety net, alternative assessments or exemptions. Use it to decide where to focus, and trust the real test for the real answer.

It works offline

The game runs on the device and saves there first, so a flight with no wifi plays the same. A cadet can stay offline, and then nothing leaves the device. With an online login, progress syncs whenever there's a connection. Your child can switch devices, and the grown-ups linked to them can see their report.