Lehighton Area School District will move forward with piloting the IXL online learning platform through the end of April after several directors questioned its online reviews Monday night.

The program will be piloted at a cost of $595 in grades 6-8 at Lehighton Area Middle School. An interactive learning site, IXL offers curriculum and interactive questions for a variety of subjects including math, English language arts, science and social studies.

“We’re really looking at it to give us baseline data regarding what we are teaching and then see how that aligns with our Classroom Diagnostic Tool testing,” Mary Figura, Lehighton’s assistant to the superintendent, said. “The goal is to use it through the end of the year and then decide on whether or not we want to continue with it.”

According to the IXL website, it provides each student with a personalized pathway for growth. As students learn, IXL uses insights from their work to generate personalized skill recommendations in real time.

Before Monday’s vote, however, directors Barbara Bowes and Joy Beers expressed concern over some reviews of the program they read online.

“The website I was on had 1,500 parent reviews and it received a 1-star rating,” Beers said. “There was a common theme of depression and frustration and kids becoming emotionally angry and acting out.”

Both Figura and Lehighton Superintendent Dr. Christina Fish said they used the program in previous districts with beneficial results and few parent complaints.

“There are always going to be students who struggle with any program we utilize,” Fish said. “We used it for several years in a previous district and I had a conversation with maybe four parents over the course of multiple years. It does challenge you.”

Figura said while all programs have pluses and minuses, IXL is one of the few programs she has used that supports academic growth and hits the curricular gaps missing from instruction.

“Our teachers have been very receptive and look at this as something they really want to use,” Figura said. “They are actually the ones who came to us with it.”

Board President Jeremy Glaush said he was comforted by the fact that Lehighton’s teachers believe IXL could be a beneficial tool in their classrooms.

“They are the ones with the students and know best what is happening in their classrooms,” he said.

Lehighton’s administration said it would review data and any concerns with the program following the end of the pilot period on April 30.