What is progress monitoring?

Progress monitoring is the practice of measuring a student's skills repeatedly over time, on the same scale, so you can see whether they are developing and adjust support between assessments rather than waiting for an end-of-term result. Mastermind builds it into cognitive training: each student's skills are reassessed after every 24 sessions, producing an updated Learning Readiness Profile that documents growth over time. That could mean tracking attention, working memory, or processing speed from a baseline through each reassessment.

How does Mastermind approach progress monitoring?

Reassessment is built into the training cycle. After every 24 training sessions, each student's cognitive skills are measured again automatically, producing an updated Learning Readiness Profile that shows how the skills behind classroom performance are developing over time. No separate assessment tool or additional staff time is required.

Can the Learning Readiness Profile support IEP goal tracking?

Yes. The Learning Readiness Profile gives IEP teams objective cognitive data to use alongside existing academic assessments when they write goals and review progress. Because the same measure is repeated at each reassessment, movement on a named skill is documented over time. It feeds the IEP process; it is not itself an IEP instrument.

How much staff time does implementation require?

Very little. The baseline assessment takes 30 minutes. Training is self-guided and auto-leveling, running 20 minutes, three times a week, with little to no ongoing staff facilitation. Mastermind extends what your staff can already do.

Progress Monitoring Built Into the Training

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Mastermind Cognitive Training tracks how the cognitive skills behind classroom performance, such as attention, working memory, and processing speed, develop over time. Reassessment every 24 training sessions gives schools progress monitoring data: each student's growth documented rather than assumed, used alongside academic assessments in IEP planning.

A registered clinical trial at the University of Bedfordshire measured students before and after training and found significant improvement in attention: the same before-and-after design a school repeats each time it reassesses.

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

3×

Growth in working memory

Holding and using information across a task, like multi-step directions
3×

Growth in processing speed

Taking in information and responding without losing pace

Across Mastermind studies

Measure what grows underneath academic performance

Academic scores tell you where a student landed. Mastermind shows the cognitive skills developing underneath, session by session, so your team can see progress as it happens and support it sooner.

Stress and anxiety

A validated check (the GAD-7) captures how stress and anxiety affect a student's focus.

Academic score

AttentionStaying focused through a lesson
Working memoryFollowing multi-step directions
Processing speedKeeping pace with classwork

Follow an ongoing plan for each student

The Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile reads which of a student's underlying skills are strong, which need building, and how stress and anxiety affect their focus. It refreshes at each reassessment as the student grows.

Maya R. Grade 4 · Baseline · Sample

Where to startShort, single-step tasks with a quick check-in before the next step.
What helpsA brief pause-and-check, and check-ins at natural stopping points.
What to avoidMulti-part directions all at once, or timed framing at the start.

A clear starting point, in 30 minutes

One baseline session, no specialist hours to schedule. Objective data for an IEP team.

A plan, not just a score

Turns assessment insights into actionable next steps. The data provides the evidence; the plan gives educators a clear place to start on Monday.

Shareable with families

Families receive a version of the plan, so what a teacher follows, a parent can see too.

A plain-language summary with every profile

Every Learning Readiness Profile comes with a short written summary that turns the measures into a sentence or two a teacher can read at a glance and act on.

Auto-generated summary

Refreshed at each reassessment
Plain language, ready to act on
Reads like a colleague's note

Attention and working memory are strong.

This student stays focused through a lesson and can hold multi-step directions in mind.

Processing speed is the next area to build, so allow a little extra time on fast-paced work while it grows.

From a sample profile

The words to use, and the progress to watch for

For each skill a student is building, the profile gives a teacher the exact words to use in the moment and the signs of progress to watch for as the skill grows.

Suggested classroom language

"Let's hear the whole direction first, then go."
After a multi-part direction, before students respond.
"One step, then we'll check in."
At the start of a task, before attention drifts.

What success looks like

More responses that wait for the whole direction.
More independent use of a pause-and-check between steps.

From a sample profile

How Mastermind measures progress over time

Assess

30 minutes

Standardized cognitive protocols and performance tasks produce the Learning Readiness Profile, an objective baseline for each student.

Train

20 minutes, three times a week

Game-based sessions load the skill under practice and adapt in real time, meeting each student where they are.

Measure

After every 24 sessions

Reassessment repeats the baseline on the same scale, so growth shows up skill by skill, documented rather than assumed.

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), both measured before and after training on the same design a school repeats at each reassessment.

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

Preview 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. Because it is produced again at each reassessment, it also shows those skills moving over time, so progress is documented rather than assumed.

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.

Documented progress your team can report

Goals for the cognitive skills behind classroom performance are often written from observation. The Learning Readiness Profile measures them directly and repeats the measure at each reassessment, so progress is documented in the goal's terms, alongside the evaluation processes your team already runs.

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 progress monitoring fits

Progress monitoring runs across every Mastermind solution. To see how the training builds the skills the Learning Readiness Profile measures:

Frequently asked questions

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