Setup Guide and FAQ

1. How it fits together

Steady Learners gives each student a short daily routine of one-to-one practice — math, reading, phonics, spelling and writing, following the Common Core from Kindergarten to Grade 5 — on the lessons their teacher chose. It works alongside the teacher, never in place of one: the teacher directs, the app practises and reports back, and the same lessons carry on at home. In a school it works like this:

• The school (or district) holds the plan: a number of seats for a school year.
• Admins set up classes, invite teachers, and see the school as a whole — totals, never a child.
• Teachers add their students (a first name and a picture), set the class's lessons, see each student's progress, and send notes to parents.
• Students tap their picture on a class device and start. They never type anything or sign in.
• Parents link their child with a code from the teacher and see the same lessons and reports in their own app, where they also set rewards at home.

Everything is on the web at app.steadylearners.com and in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps (Android from December 2026). One account works on all of them.

2. Before you start: your account

Admins and teachers use an ordinary Steady Learners account — the same kind a family makes.

1. Open app.steadylearners.com/sign-up (or the app from the App Store) and sign up with the same email address your school invitation was sent to. Google and Apple sign-in work too, as long as the address matches.
2. Confirm your email and choose a 6-digit PIN. The PIN keeps children out of the grown-up pages; you'll enter it to open the Teacher Portal.
3. Skip "Add a child" — that's for families. Go to Parent Portal → Account → Teaching → I have an invitation, enter the invitation code from your email and the name colleagues and parents should see (for example "Ms. Fern"). Or just open the link in the email; it fills the code in.

Already a Steady Learners parent? Use the same account. Your family and your school never mix: the Parent Portal stays your family's, and the Teacher Portal is the school's.

3. School admin: setting up the school

Your school was created by us when the plan was agreed, with its seats and dates. You'll find it on Account → Teaching → Teacher Portal, with a School overview button.

Make the classes

Teacher Portal → New class: a name ("Room 12", "Ms. Fern's class") and a grade (K–5, or mixed). Each class starts the year on the lessons its grade suggests; the class's teacher can change them.

Invite the teachers

School overview → Teachers and admins → Invite by email: the teacher's email and role (Teacher or School admin). They get an email with a code and the steps in section 2. Until they join, the invitation shows as "not joined yet"; you can revoke it. Invitations last 30 days.

Put teachers on classes — including split classes

A teacher who makes a class is on it automatically, as its homeroom teacher for every subject. From about grade 3 many classes are split — one teacher for math and science, another for English and social studies. Open the class → Teachers → Add a teacher: pick the colleague, tick the subjects they set (math, reading, writing, spelling), and whether they're the homeroom teacher. Each teacher then sets the lessons, minutes and mastery calls in their own subjects, and sees every student in full. The homeroom teacher speaks for the class to the parents: invitations, notes, announcements. A school admin or the homeroom teacher can change this at any time.

Add students

Teachers do this from their class (section 4). Admins can too, from any class in the school. Each student uses one seat; the Teacher Portal shows how many are left.

4. Teachers: classes and students

Your class

Teacher Portal → your class. You'll see the students, the class's teachers, the class's lessons, and the switch for using the device in class.

How often — whenever you have the devices

Steady Learners never asks for daily use at school. Most classes have the tablets or the laptop cart once or twice a week; a 15-minute session then is exactly right. Nothing counts days or shows a streak in the Teacher Portal — a student's page says when they last practised, and the weekly report compares a week with the one before, never with a goal. At home, daily is recommended and never required: the parent sets the practice days and the reminder. With devices once a week, mastering a lesson (several passing days) takes a few weeks unless the student practises at home — or you mark it mastered yourself.

Adding students

Class → Add student: a first name and a picture. That's all — no email, no birth date. The student starts on the class's lessons. A class holds up to 40 students.

The class's lessons

A class starts the year together, so the lessons are set on the class, not per student. Class → The class's lessons → Change opens the lesson picker: one lesson per subject (math, reading, writing, spelling), each with minutes a day. New students start there. To move everyone already in the class onto the class's lessons, tap Move the whole class to these lessons — each student keeps their own minutes.

One student at a time

Open the student → Edit routine, or open any lesson and tap Set as their current lesson. The lesson page shows what it teaches, a sample question, a 5-minute try-out, and what "mastered" means for it.

How a lesson moves on

Every question is read aloud. A wrong answer gets a step-by-step walkthrough. A lesson is mastered only when the student gets it right, quickly, on several different days; then the routine moves to the next lesson by itself (you'll see it on the student's page). A day counts once, however many times the lesson is passed on it — at school in the morning and twice at home that evening is one day — and the days don't have to be in a row. Nothing is "done" for watching a video.

Your call on mastery

A student who plainly knows a lesson needn't wait out the days. Open the lesson from the student's page: under When it's mastered you'll see how many days are done, and Your call → Mark as mastered. The record shows it mastered by you today, the student's lessons move on to the next one, and the parent gets a note. Only teachers have this; a parent can't switch or skip a lesson.

Archiving a student

Student → Archive student, and say why (moved to another school, graduated, withdrawn, other): their lessons stop and the seat is freed. The record is kept 90 days — the school can bring the student back in that time — then erased for good; after that nothing can be restored, so archive, don't delete, when unsure. A student who came from a family's own account (section 6) goes back to the family with their progress. Telling us which students have left is the school's part: archiving is how; there is nothing to email us.

Where everyone is

The class page shows each student's current lesson in each subject and when they last practised — never a ranking. When you move the class on to new lessons, a student already working on a later lesson keeps it; nobody is sent back to the beginning. A student with no practice in 120 days is marked, so you can ask whether they're still here.

5. Class devices: Chromebooks, iPads and laptops

A class device is any device signed in to a teacher's account and switched to class mode: the children's home screen shows the class, a student taps their picture and their lessons start, and when they're done the picture shows a tick. The grown-up button at the bottom says Teacher Portal and asks for the teacher's PIN. Rewards, Daily Tasks and games are not on a class device — those are the parent's, at home. Students never type anything and never sign in.

Managed Chromebooks: the kiosk app (for the IT admin)

On school-managed Chromebooks, Steady Learners runs as a kiosk app — the web app, full screen, chosen from the sign-in screen without any student Google account. Nothing is installed on the device, there is nothing to update (the app updates itself), and it runs on older Chromebooks. One setting in the Google Admin console does it:

1. In admin.google.com, go to Devices → Chrome → Apps & extensions → Kiosks and pick the organizational unit of the classroom devices.
2. Hover over Add (the + at the bottom right) and choose Add by URL. Enter https://app.steadylearners.com/class and Save.
3. Leave Auto-launch app off for shared carts, so the Chromebook's sign-in screen stays and Apps (bottom left) offers Steady Learners. Turn it on only for a device dedicated to Steady Learners: it then opens straight into the app at power-on.
4. On each Chromebook, the first time a teacher opens the kiosk app they sign in with their own Steady Learners account and pick their class. The device remembers both: from then on, students choose Steady Learners from the sign-in screen and are in their class.

Microphone: in a kiosk session Chrome grants the app's own permissions without asking, so read-along books listen to the student as usual. Everything is heard on the device — the recognizer runs in the browser, no audio leaves the Chromebook (see Data privacy). Headphones with a microphone help in a noisy room.

Settings that matter: keep the kiosk's ephemeral mode off (Devices → Chrome → Settings → Device → Kiosk settings), or the device forgets the teacher's sign-in and the downloaded voice at every restart. The URL must be exactly https://app.steadylearners.com/class — no redirects. Blocked-URL rules on the device need to leave app.steadylearners.com and *.supabase.co (the account's data) open.

One Chromebook or laptop (no IT admin needed)

1. Open app.steadylearners.com/class in Chrome and sign in to your own account.
2. Choose your class and Use it. The home screen now shows your students.
3. Optional: Chrome's Install Steady Learners button in the address bar puts it on the shelf or desktop, full screen, like an app.

To stop class mode, Teacher Portal → Stop on the "in use" card. If a student shouldn't be able to leave the app on a shared laptop, a kiosk app (above) is the way.

iPads

Sign in to the app on the iPad, Teacher Portal → your class → Use this device in class → Use it. On school-managed iPads, your MDM's Single App Mode keeps students in the app; on a single iPad, Guided Access (Settings → Accessibility) does the same.

Headphones help on every device: lessons read every question aloud, and read-along books listen to the student read.

6. Parents: linking a child, notes

Inviting a parent

Student → Parents → Invite a parent: a code like SLP-ABCD2345, good for 14 days and one use. Copy the message for the parent gives you a ready sentence to send home. A student can have two parents linked.

What the parent does

They open the app (or app.steadylearners.com), make a free account if they don't have one, and go to Parent Portal → Add Child → I have a code from school. If they already had the child in the app, they're asked whether it's the same child — "yes" carries the child's progress into the school record.

Acorns: school and home

Schoolwork is expected, so it earns a small fixed amount: two acorns per lesson finished at school. The real rewards are for practising at home: the first routine of the day at home earns the usual acorns (up to ten a lesson, more for doing better than last time), and the parent's reward store, daily tasks and games are all at home. A child who practised at school still finds the lessons waiting at home that evening. Extra practice beyond that is welcome but earns nothing more.

What the parent sees

The child appears in their Portal tagged "Managed by [school]". They see the lessons you set (they can't switch or skip a lesson, but they can set how many minutes a day each subject gets at home), the weekly reports and your notes, and they set rewards, daily tasks, games and the practice reminder at home — all included through the school's plan. The child's lessons at home count the same as at school: it's one record.

Notes: private threads, and the office

Every teacher of a class has their own notes with a student's parents, private to the two of them: a parent can write to the math teacher about a math question and to the homeroom teacher about everything else, and neither sees the other's thread. Parents pick whom to write to (the homeroom teacher first). The school office is a separate channel: parents write to it about a day off or a question, any school admin answers from the school page's Messages from parents, and the office can write to any family — "it looks like Mia hasn't been picked up yet". Teachers don't see the office's messages.

School-wide announcements

School admins send an announcement to every family, one grade, or chosen classes from the school page: "Tomorrow is a minimum day: school ends at 12:30." Each family gets it as a note about their own child, in the app, by email and as a push notification; the teachers of those classes get a copy. Class-wide announcements stay with the homeroom teacher (section 4).

Notes

A note reaches the other side the same day: in the app, by email, and as a push notification on their phone. To write to every parent of the class at once, use A note to every parent on the class page: each family gets it as a note about their own child, and replies come back one by one. Notes stay civil: a message with abusive language is refused before it is sent, and the writer is asked to reword it. Disagreement is fine, in civil words.

Student → Notes tab → Notes to the parent. Tick Ask for practice at home and the parent's Portal shows your note with a "Start today's lessons" button. Parents can reply; you'll see a badge on the class. Notes are also emailed.

7. Progress, reports and the school overview

A student

Each student's page shows their routine, the lessons practised and mastered (with dates), right and not-quite answers per session, and a weekly report every Sunday — practice days, lessons, right answers, words read — beside the week before. Reports are about the student's own progress; there are no class rankings.

The school overview (admins)

School overview shows the school as a whole: students, how many practised this week, lessons per student, practice days (median), lessons mastered per student, and how many have a parent linked — each beside the figure for all learners on Steady Learners. Figures appear only when the school has 10 or more students, so no one can be picked out. Admins never see a class's or a student's numbers.

8. Common Core standards and measuring results

Which standards each lesson teaches

Math: every Kindergarten to Grade 5 lesson was checked against the text of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, standard by standard. The 144 math lessons fully teach 143 of the 148 K–5 standards, 4 in part, and leave out 1 (K.G.1, position words); the full list, lesson by lesson with the standard codes, is at steadylearners.com/common-core/math-standards. A few lessons teach a skill a grade early or late so that skills build in order; the list marks them.

Reading, phonics, spelling and writing are built around the Common Core English strands rather than mapped one lesson to one standard: Letters & Sounds and the Spelling Bees follow Reading: Foundational Skills (RF) and Language (L); the read-along books and story questions follow Reading: Literature (RL); the true books follow Reading: Informational Text (RI); the writing lessons follow Language (L) and Writing (W). Each lesson page in the Teacher Portal shows the codes it is built around.

In the Teacher Portal: open a class's or a student's lesson (Routine → the lesson, or Edit routine → a lesson) and the standard codes are under the lesson's description, for example Common Core: 3.NF.2. States that use their own standards (Texas TEKS, Virginia SOL, Florida B.E.S.T. and others) cover the same K–5 skills in a different order; we can send a crosswalk for your state on request. No organization certifies apps for Common Core; the check is the list itself.

Pilots: measuring results

Every pilot is set up to measure, honestly, whether daily practice in Steady Learners helps your students — using the measures you already have, and never a student's own data. The pilot agreement says exactly this:

• What you share: at the start and end of the term, aggregate results from the reading and math screener or benchmark you already use (DIBELS 8 or Acadience, NWEA MAP Growth, i-Ready, STAR, or district unit tests) for each pilot class — the class mean or median, or the share at or above benchmark — and, where you can, the same figures for a comparison class of the same grade that didn't use the app.
• Never a student: no names, IDs or individual scores, and no figure for a group under ten. You decide what your policies allow; sharing less is fine.
• What we add: the school overview's usage figures for the same classes and dates, so use and results are read together.
• The report: a short write-up within 30 days of the end of the term, which you check for accuracy before it's final. We publish anything from it — a case study, a line on our website — only with your written approval of the exact text, naming your school only if you choose.
• What we claim: only what the figures show. State tests start in grade 3; for K–2 the screeners schools already use are the measure. We don't say Steady Learners raises scores until pilots have shown it. What it does, from the first day, is the practice research links to achievement: about ten minutes a day per subject, mastery before moving on, spaced recall, and reading aloud with correction.

9. Districts

A district admin sees the district overview and each school's overview (never a class or a student). District page → Add a school, then Invite a school admin for it by email; that admin sets up the school as in section 3. The district's plan covers all its schools' students; seats are shared across them.

10. Privacy and data

• What we hold on a student: first name, grade, class, the picture chosen, and learning data (lessons, answers, words read). No student emails, addresses or birth dates.
• Who can see it: the class's teachers and the linked parents. School and district admins see aggregates and a roster of names. We don't look at student data except to run the service.
• No ads, no trackers. Read-along books listen on the device; no child audio leaves it.
• Ownership: the district owns the records. We sign the Student Data Privacy Consortium's National Data Privacy Agreement with your state's exhibit; COPPA (school consent) and FERPA (school official) terms are in it.
• At the end of the contract: records are erased 90 days after archiving. A child who came from a family's own account goes back to them.
• Accounts for staff are ordinary logins (email + password, or Google/Apple). Teachers see only their own classes.

The full picture — data inventory, COPPA / FERPA / state laws, the DPA, security, subprocessors, export and deletion, breach notification — is in the Student Data Privacy and Security Overview (PDF), written for privacy officers and procurement.

11. Seats, plans and renewals

A plan is a number of seats for a school year — 12 months, summer included: $25 per student per year, by invoice or purchase order (never the app stores). One active student uses one seat; archiving frees it. The student record carries over from year to year.

The school year

School overview → The school year: enter the last day of school and the first day of the new year. The day after the last day, every linked parent gets one note from the app: school's out, and the lessons carry on at home (nothing about plans, ever). As the first day nears, the page reminds you to start the new year.

New school year, in the same card, moves the school on in one step: each class moves up a grade (a new class with the same name and teachers; every student keeps their own lessons and progress), graduates (its students are archived, kept 90 days, then erased), or is left as it is. Grade 5 graduates by default. Nothing is deleted on the day. The same card lists students with no practice in 120 days, with an Archive button, for you to decide — we never archive anyone ourselves. The Teacher Portal shows the plan's end date and seats left. To add seats or renew, email us; we update the plan the same day. Pilot schools have the first term free.

12. Questions schools ask

13. Getting help

Email [email protected]. For a pilot or a plan, see Steady Learners for Schools. This guide is kept in step with the app; the date at the top is the last change.