The University of Montana has announced a $3.5 million grant from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation to continue an innovative statewide math readiness program.

The grant will enable Montana Digital Academy to strengthen and expand its EdReady Montana program, a program launched in 2014 with a $2.4 million grant from the Washington Foundation. Designed by the National Repository of Online Courses, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the online suite of math courses helps college-bound students avoid remedial coursework in college and is made available to students, teachers, and administrators in Montana for free.

During the first three years of its implementation, EdReady Montana has helped incoming college freshmen boost their scores on college math placement exams, been used to determine algebra readiness among middle school students in the state, and helped high school students stay on track in their math classes. The program also has helped adult learners across the state in preparing for the high school equivalency test and college-level math courses. Since its inception, MTDA has implemented EdReady Montana in more than two hundred and ninety schools, including higher education, secondary and adult learning centers, enrolling more than fifty-one thousand students and adult learners across the state.

"The first three studies tracking more than a thousand students who completed the EdReady program clearly show faster and higher math achievement gains than any other tutoring tool," said Roberta Evans, dean of the university's Phyllis J. Washington College of Education and Human Sciences. "We must remember that each data point represents a real Montana student who has overcome the barrier of previous math struggles to advance successfully and with newfound confidence toward his or her dreams."