Reading · Grade 4
National average score · 0–500 scale
2015223
2024215
At or above NAEP Proficient:
36% → 31%
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Knowledge Today A Brighter Tomorrow
Still waiting for school
to make a difference?
You’ve asked for help. Your child is still struggling. You deserve a clearer next step, with someone who understands how children learn.
The scores show why parents are looking for more.
Reading · Grade 8
National average score · 0–500 scale
2015265
2024258
At or above NAEP Proficient:
34% → 30%
Math · Grade 4
National average score · 0–500 scale
2015240
2024237
At or above NAEP Proficient:
40% → 39%
Math · Grade 8
National average score · 0–500 scale
2015282
2024274
At or above NAEP Proficient:
33% → 28%
More children are learning at home.
3.7% → 5.2%
The share learning at home rose about 41% from 2018–19 to 2022–23, including homeschool and full-time online school.
Learning has a lot to compete with.
Phones are almost everywhere
95%
of U.S. teens have access to a smartphone.
Hours of entertainment
5½ hours · nearly 9 hours
A day of entertainment screen media for tweens and teens, respectively. The reported averages were 5h 33m and 8h 39m.
School leaders see the impact
53%
of public school leaders say cell phone use hurts students’ academic performance.
Distraction in math class
About 1 in 3
students across OECD countries reported distraction from their own device use in most or every math lesson.
Every switch from homework to a message takes time to recover. Notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll are built to keep attention on the app. A lesson is competing with quick rewards, so “just concentrate” isn’t much of a plan.
APA · task-switching research, 2001; U.S. Surgeon General · 2023; Lindström et al. · 2021.
She taught teachers how to teach. Now she’s here for your family.
Dr. Nancy Barker, Ed.D., designed Read Like Rocky herself. Her approach was the basis of her doctoral dissertation at Pepperdine University. After 49 years in education, she understands that a child’s behavior can tell you as much as a test score: boredom, frustration and a loss of confidence all deserve attention.
49 years in educationTrained teachers and educational leaders.
Pepperdine Ed.D.Educational Leadership, Administration & Policy.
Curriculum leadershipFormer Director of K–12 Curriculum & Instruction.
University educatorAdjunct professor at Pepperdine and California Lutheran University.
Read Like Rocky credentials · About Dr. Nancy
Nancy has spent her career challenging what she calls the “prison system” of rigid schooling. When her grandson came into her life, the mission became even more personal: help children learn in a way that fits them.
She tried to change schools from the inside. Here, she can act.
After years of working to change the school system, Nancy built something she could shape herself. Read Like Rocky lets her put her approach into practice and respond directly to the families using it.
Nancy believes schools can build a child’s self-esteem or take it away. In her view, many gifted children end up in prison after being told they were failures, when they were really being taught the wrong way.
Here, the educator behind the program is part of the parent community. We update the program daily using feedback from real members.
Give your child a reason to lean in.
A trip through the woods or an adventure at the beach? Your child makes choices and goes with Rocky. Quizzes, puzzles and games connect the lessons into a challenge they help move forward.
Dr. Barker designed it to get children involved in learning, rather than simply waiting for the next question.
Learning takes more than books.
A bright child can lose so much confidence that they look in the mirror and see someone they don’t recognize. Learning takes self-esteem, confidence and perseverance as well as books. We want those qualities to grow alongside their Reading, Writing and Math skills.
Teaching from books without building confidence is like giving someone a car with no engine.
Every small success can become a reason to try the next challenge.
More practice where it helps. Less repetition where it doesn’t.
If your child understands stories but struggles with phonics, more comprehension questions miss the point. We start with a free assessment, then follow their progress.
- Check along the way. Progress checks during and between courses help us see what needs attention.
- Adjust the practice. We give extra assignments in weaker areas. Tell us if a course is too easy or too hard, and we’ll make changes.
- Try again for free. If your child doesn’t pass, they can retake the course with different lessons at no extra charge.
Look beyond another hour of tutoring.
Your child needs more than someone remembering what was difficult last week. They need a skill-by-skill picture of their progress and a clear decision about what to practice next.
That is what we focus on, backed by Dr. Barker’s 49 years in education and experience teaching teachers. You also get to learn directly from her.
You know your child. We help you help them.
You know what makes your child laugh, when they’ve had enough and what helps them try again. Learn how to support the homework, and practice can become something you do together instead of another argument.
Bring the questions to Dr. Barker. Take what you learn home. Celebrate the small wins together.
Rocky needed the right training, too.
After Nancy’s son Daniel lost his previous dog, he was sad and lonely. Then a new dog appeared in his life, already named Daniel. Nancy called it fate. Daniel decided sharing a name with his dog would be confusing, so Rocky got a new name.
He wasn’t easy to train, but he loved learning when the training fit. We want your child to feel that same excitement about trying again.
A little surprise in the mail
After every lesson, your child will receive a little surprise signed by Rocky. We’ll need a parent’s mailing address to send it. It’s another way to celebrate showing up and trying.
Help us build the learning experience your child deserves.
We’re new, and there will be kinks to fix. Tell us what works, what doesn’t and what your child needs. Real members’ feedback shapes our daily updates.
Three months from now, we want you to see a better platform because your family helped shape it. Nancy’s dream is to reach one million children, then bring Rocky to underserved communities around the world.
Dr. Barker is your biggest reason to join.
Every Reading, Writing and Math membership includes FREE Skool membership, where we teach you, the parents.
- Meet Dr. Barker every Friday. Ask questions and learn what to try at home. She may also drop in when parents are there.
- Watch again in the vault. Skool videos are saved so you can revisit the guidance.
- Help choose the guests. Tell us which learning experts you’d like to meet. We may email you about special sessions and guests.
- Find other parents. Meet families with children around the same age and share what you’re learning.
Daniel never gave up on his dream.
Daniel grew up being told he wasn’t good enough. His dream was to become an entrepreneur and motivational speaker, and he never gave up on it. He left school, where he was training to be a therapist, to build Read Like Rocky with his mom so they could both pursue their dreams.
“If it wasn’t for my mom, I would be in prison. They thought I wasn’t smart.”
“The only thing 100% for certain is the belief I have in myself.”
— Daniel, founder and CEO
Today, Daniel also teaches the AI Bootcamp. Bring him your questions about AI and your child’s future. He wants to help you understand the tools and keep going after what matters to you.
Your child’s report card is not their limit.
Your child may be capable of far more than school has shown you. They need a starting point that fits, practice that responds to their progress and someone who believes they can learn.
Dr. Barker designed the program. She teaches the parents. Your feedback helps us make it better every day. Let’s find where your child should begin.
Start with a free assessment.
Plans start at $89 a month, with FREE Skool membership included. Paid plans have a 7-day money-back guarantee: cancel within 7 days for a full refund.
Rocky can’t wait to meet your child.
Let’s find where to start.
Choose Reading, Writing, Math, or more than one. Enter your name and email, then start the free assessment. We’ll show your child’s results and email you a copy.
Plans start at $89 a month. Tell us what your child is struggling with, and we'll show you the plan that fits. Where should we email your child's results?
Plans
Pick the plan that fits your family
Every plan includes the course your child’s assessment points to, Dr. Nancy’s lessons, and Skool Parent Community access. 7-day money-back guarantee. Secure checkout on Stripe.
Two courses
$129/month
Two courses at a time (for example reading + math). Cancel anytime.
One course — one-time
$597 once
No subscription. Includes 12 weeks of Skool Parent Community access.
Yearly options: one course $961/yr · two courses $1,393/yr. Not sure where to start? Take the free assessment — it picks the course.
Sources & notes
- NAEP: National public/private-school averages on a 0–500 scale, 2015 versus 2024. Proficient is a NAEP performance standard, not the same as state grade-level proficiency. Estimates are rounded as published and compare different student cohorts. Score bars start at zero. 2024 reading; 2024 math; official 2024 score charts; 2015 reading; 2015 math.
- Learning at home: NCES estimates for students ages 5–17 with a K–12 equivalent: 3.7% in 2018–19 and 5.2% in 2022–23. This includes homeschooling or full-time virtual education. The change is 1.5 percentage points, about 40.5% relative growth in the student share, rounded to 41%. It is not a count of families. Homeschooling alone was 2.8% versus 3.4%, a difference that was not statistically significant. NCES 2023 survey; NCES 2019 report; Pew comparison, 2025.
- Phones and screens: Pew’s 95% measures smartphone access at home among U.S. teens ages 13–17, not individual ownership or all children. Common Sense reports entertainment screen media across devices, excluding schoolwork/homework: ages 8–12 average 5h 33m and ages 13–18 average 8h 39m in 2021. The headline rounds these to 5½ and nearly 9 hours. Activities and screens can overlap. These are dated snapshots, not 2026 measurements. Pew, 2024; Common Sense Census 2021, published 2022.
- Classrooms: NCES’s 53% represents public school leaders’ perceptions in December 2024, not an experiment or a measure of individual students. The same survey found 77% of public schools prohibited cell phone use during classes; restrictions do not necessarily mean consistent enforcement. PISA’s “about 1 in 3” rounds roughly 30% of 15-year-old students across OECD countries reporting their own device distraction in most/every mathematics lesson. It is not a U.S.-only statistic. NCES, released February 2025; OECD PISA 2022, published 2023.
- Focus and engagement: APA summarises task-switching experiments, including young-adult research from 2001; switching time costs vary with the task. The Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory identifies engagement-maximising features including notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll. Lindström and colleagues’ 2021 behavioral research supports reward learning as an explanation of social-media posting; it does not establish a child-specific diagnosis or demonstrate Read Like Rocky’s effectiveness. These sources do not prove devices caused national score changes. APA; Surgeon General, 2023; Lindström et al., 2021.
- About Dr. Barker and the program: Credentials are listed on the homepage and About page. The dissertation connection, program design, daily member-driven updates, family story, Friday meetups, retakes, mailed surprises and future goals are owner-supplied program statements. No university endorsement, dissertation findings, individual outcome guarantee or independent evaluation is claimed.
Quick & Easy Less Than 10 Min Assessment To Find Where Your Child May Be Falling Behind
Fill out the form and we’ll send you a free assessment to help you identify your child’s strengths and possible areas for growth.
Knowledge Today A Brighter Tomorrow