KENTWOOD, MI -- Eight-year-old Cora Hovermale fires up a computer at Kentwood's Meadowlawn Elementary and meets her chosen avatar - a casually dressed girl - ready to help tackle that day's lesson.

AMHERST — A K-5 mathematics program in the Amherst and Pelham elementary schools, being used in classrooms since fall 2022, appears to be succeeding in getting more students to their grade level, ...