What is an executive function program for schools?

An executive function program for schools helps students build the mental skills behind learning: working memory, attention, processing speed, impulse control, and visual tracking. Mastermind Cognitive Training does this as a platform, assessing each student's skills, training them through game-based sessions, and measuring growth over time.

What do executive function difficulties look like in a classroom?

Usually as ordinary moments rather than anything clinical: instructions that arrive complete and leave in pieces, work that starts well and thins out by the end of a page, a right answer given a beat before it was checked, or a line of text lost on the way back from the board. Those are working memory, attention, impulse control and visual tracking, with processing speed underneath all of them.

How does Mastermind help with IEP goals and 504 supports?

Teams tend to use it at three points: choosing which skill a goal should target, recording where the student starts when the goal is written, and showing movement at review. Training runs against the same named skill the goal does, so what is worked on and what is reported stay the same thing.

Is there research behind Mastermind's approach to executive function?

Yes. A registered, randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN75915439) found statistically significant improvement in teacher-reported attention and in eye-tracking measures. See the trial's findings for the figures, the institutions and the preprint.

What ages does Mastermind's executive function training work for?

The platform adapts to each student's skill in real time, so it works across grade and skill levels. The Bedfordshire trial studied students ages 8–10, and the underlying cognitive domains apply more broadly.

What devices does Mastermind run on?

Most schools run Mastermind on tablets, including the shared device carts many classrooms already use. It also runs on iOS and Android phones and on Meta Quest VR headsets. Students get the same assessment and training on any of them, so device choice follows your budget and setup.

How much staff time does implementation require?

Very little. The baseline assessment takes about 30 minutes. Training is self-guided, running 20 minutes, three times a week. Mastermind extends what your staff can already do.

An Executive Function Program for Schools

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Mastermind Cognitive Training is an executive function program for schools. It assesses, builds, and measures the skills that determine how effectively students learn: working memory, attention, processing speed, impulse control, and visual tracking. Those same skills sit behind most IEP goals and 504 supports.

A registered clinical trial at the University of Bedfordshire found significant improvement in student attention and eye movement control: the steadiness that lets a student track along a line of text and find the next one.

ISRCTN75915439 · N=168 · See the trial's findings

3×

Growth in focus

Sustaining focus through a task and resisting distraction
3×

Growth in working memory

Holding and using information across a task, like multi-step directions

Across Mastermind studies

The skills Mastermind builds

Executive function is a collection of learnable skills that help students access instruction, manage tasks, and build independence. These strengths grow through practice and show up in daily learning long before they appear in scores.

Sustains focus during tasks and routines

The twentieth problem on the page gets read as carefully as the third. A student stays with a task through the quiet middle of it, when the novelty has gone and the work is still there.

Holds and uses information, like multi-step directions

A three-part direction stays intact between the front of the room and the desk. The second step starts from memory, and nothing has to be asked for twice before the work can start.

Takes in information and responds efficiently

A student keeps pace with the room, taking down what is said while it is still being said, and answering a fact without stopping to rebuild it. The page is finished in the time given.

Pauses, thinks, and chooses a response

The first answer that arrives gets checked before it is given. A student holds a thought through someone else's turn and comes back to it, rather than losing it or talking over them.

Follows words, lines, and movement smoothly during reading and learning tasks

Copying from the board and back down to the page lands in the right place each time. Across a full page the eyes hold their place, so a paragraph arrives in order rather than in pieces.

How Mastermind assesses and builds executive function

Assess

30 minutes

Standardized cognitive protocols and performance tasks produce a Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile.

Train

20-minute sessions

Training starts where each student is and adapts as they improve, so it fits every student.

Measure

Standardized and comparable

Growth shows up skill by skill, so each student's progress is easy to see.

Case study

Fusion Academy

With more than 80 campuses, Fusion Academy serves students with learning, social, or emotional differences. The school ran this study in partnership with Mastermind Cognitive Training.

Students using Mastermind improved reading comprehension 3.1× as much as their peers and processed information about 10% faster. That growth rests on the underlying cognitive skills, led by working memory and cognitive flexibility.

38 trained · 27 control10–18 weeks7 locations~60 minutes per week

See the research

Mastermind students vs peers

Working Memory: 6.9×
Cognitive Flexibility*: 5.3×
Overall Cognitive Performance: 5.1×
Visual Attention & Tracking: 4.7×

Students not using Mastermind Students using Mastermind

*Cognitive flexibility is the ability to shift and adapt cognitive responses.

View all Fusion results

Mastermind students vs peers

Cognitive

6.9× Working Memory
5.3× Cognitive Flexibility
5.1× Overall Cognitive Performance
4.7× Visual Attention & Tracking

Reading

3.1× Reading Comprehension

Speed and efficiency

Reading

21% faster reading after training
35% reduction in reading response-time variability

Math

24% faster math processing, without losing accuracy
13% faster mathematical decision-making, without losing accuracy

Processing

10% faster processing and response speed vs peers (~18 ms)

Also observed

Improved performance on skills that support focus and attention
Improved oculomotor performance (saccades, pursuits, fixations)

Independently studied

Across 168 students in UK primary schools, Mastermind produced significant improvement in teacher-reported attention (p=.017) and in eye-tracking measures of visual control (p=.001), the foundation of fluent reading.

Led by Dr. Anastasia Giannakopoulou, lead researcher on the trial, with Dr. Joaquin Anguera, a UCSF cognitive neuroscientist and leading researcher in game-based cognitive training.

Read the Research

Preprint

Virtual Reality and Tablet Cognitive Training Improve Attention and Academic Skills Without Dose Effects

Giannakopoulou A, Gordon AM, Gallen CE, Seaman M, Fedele D, Anguera JA

doi: 10.1101/2025.09.16.676629 ISRCTN75915439 · N=168 · Ages 8–10 University of Bedfordshire · UCSF Neuroscape

Explore a Learning Readiness Profile

A Learning Readiness Profile does more than measure. For each student it shows which skills are strong, which to build first, what helps in class, and what progress looks like, so a classroom teacher has somewhere to start. On this page, that plan centers on executive function, the skills that decide how a student starts, holds, and finishes a task.

Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile

Learning is most accessible for this student when work has a clear first step and a quick reset when it feels hard, before frustration builds or attention drifts.

Maya R. · GR 4 · Baseline

Support first

Focus & AttentionStarts work and stays with it Emerging

PacingKeeps pace across multi-step work Developing

Response InhibitionPauses to check before answering Developing

Working MemoryHolds directions while working Developing

Build from

Processing SpeedTakes work in at a steady pace Age-typical

Object TrackingFollows information on the page Age-typical

Sample reportAn instructional tool, not a medical diagnosis.

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What it takes to run Mastermind in your school

A student works through a session on a tablet at a classroom desk while classmates work nearby.

Evidence your team can report

Executive function goals are often written from classroom observations. The Learning Readiness Profile measures the skills directly, so progress can be reported in the same terms the goal was written in, aligned with the evaluation processes your team already uses.

Schedule a Demo

When it runs: Two twenty-minute sessions a week, built into an intervention block, rotation, or the start of a period. It fits into time your schedule already has.
How students begin: Sessions are self-guided, allowing students to start immediately without educator training or curriculum prep.
What it runs on: A tablet. Each session is individualized, so one device can serve multiple students across the week just as easily as an entire class.
How it is funded: Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment) can support programs like this. Title I funds can also be used in schools that qualify.

We have never seen this many students improve a reading level or even a full grade level in one term as we have with the Mastermind program.

Ms. Dani Strickler Teacher · Icknield Lower School, Dunstable

Where executive function fits

This page covers executive function as a whole, the skills that shape how students learn. When the concern is narrower, these pages go deeper:

Frequently asked questions

The questions institutional buyers ask first. For pricing and rollout specifics, a member of our team can walk you through it.