Heartbeat
Product by Shmoop
Facts checked: Not yet checked
Our take (not a Learning Standard rating). This label applies to learning-science judgments throughout this overview.
Our take (not a Learning Standard rating)
Heartbeat does not teach traditional academic subjects directly. Instead, it measures the non-academic cognitive and emotional factors that affect a student's capacity to learn. While it relies on valid metacognitive frameworks to identify barriers to focus and engagement, its actual effectiveness relies entirely on how schools implement its recommended interventions.
Pros
- Promotes metacognitive awareness by prompting students to reflect on their emotional state and learning habits.
- Provides educators with aggregate data to identify systemic engagement issues within a classroom.
- Bridges the gap between social-emotional well-being and working memory capacity.
Cons
- Relies heavily on self-reported student data, which is frequently subject to response bias.
- Does not provide direct academic instruction or practice.
- Requires substantial teacher intervention to make the data actionable for individual students.
What Do We Know About Heartbeat?
Heartbeat by Shmoop does not teach academic content, but rather serves as a diagnostic tool for the social and emotional factors that dictate your child's readiness to learn. If your child's school uses Heartbeat, they will not use it to practice math or study history. Instead, the platform surveys your child on various non-academic factors, such as their stress levels, study environment, and emotional regulation. Cognitive science dictates that a high cognitive load driven by anxiety or stress severely impairs working memory, making it impossible to encode new information. Heartbeat attempts to identify these barriers before they result in failing grades. Your child will answer questions about how they feel and how they approach learning. The system then generates a profile intended to help teachers understand your child's specific roadblocks. However, parents should know that this tool is only as effective as the school's response. The app provides data, but the teachers and counselors must actually intervene to change the learning environment. Because Heartbeat relies heavily on self-reported surveys, its accuracy also depends entirely on whether your child answers the prompts honestly.
How Does Heartbeat Work?
Heartbeat uses a social-emotional learning and metacognitive assessment approach to identify barriers to student engagement. Students log into the platform and complete short, interactive assessments that measure dozens of non-academic variables, such as sleep habits, motivation, and emotional well-being. The system maps these responses against a rubric of cognitive and environmental factors known to impact learning. Once the data is collected, Heartbeat generates dashboards for both the student and the educator. For the student, it provides immediate feedback and suggestions designed to build metacognition, which is the ability to think about one's own thinking and learning processes. For the teacher, it aggregates classroom data to highlight trends and flags individual students who may be at risk of disengagement. The platform then recommends blended and cooperative learning strategies for the teacher to implement during class time. It is a diagnostic engine, not a curriculum delivery system.
Strengths and tradeoffs of Heartbeat
Heartbeat's biggest strength is its systematic approach to making invisible cognitive barriers visible, while its biggest weakness is its reliance on subjective, self-reported data. Addressing Cognitive Load: The platform aligns well with cognitive load theory. By identifying external stressors, it helps educators understand why a student might be struggling to process and retain information. A student paralyzed by anxiety has little working memory available for complex problem-solving. Heartbeat flags these issues early. Building Metacognition: When students are asked to reflect on their learning habits, they engage in metacognitive evaluation. This practice alone can prompt older students to self-correct poor study environments or recognize their own procrastination patterns. The Flaw of Self-Reporting: However, self-reported surveys often suffer from the Hawthorne effect or simple survey fatigue. Teenagers may click through the questions randomly or answer how they think the teacher wants them to answer, generating invalid data. Execution Dependency: Furthermore, Heartbeat does not solve the problems it identifies. It provides actionable insights, but if an under-resourced school does not have the capacity to act on those insights with personalized interventions, the data serves no functional learning purpose.
Who Might Benefit From Heartbeat?
Heartbeat is best for secondary school administrators and educators who need a systematic way to monitor the social-emotional well-being of their student body. Targeting students in grades 7 through 12, it works best in districts that already have strong intervention frameworks in place. It is not designed for individual parents looking to help their child at home, as it is strictly a campus-wide tool. It serves schools implementing personalized or blended learning models that need qualitative data on student readiness to guide their daily instructional strategies.
Data Transparency
Meets Data Transparency Standard
Heartbeat meets our data transparency standard at Level 2 of 3 (Parent control). Level 3 needs the policy to document an API for retrieving their own data and a named export format.
23 of 35 checks passed
Evaluated September 2026
Privacy Policy →Level 1 · Basic protections
Does not sell data or target ads at students, limits sharing, and lets parents see and delete their child's data.
Level 2 · Parent control (meets the standard)
Families can get their data out, know who processes it, and know how long it is kept.
Level 3 · Direct data access
Families or schools can pull their own data through an API, in a stated format.
Not documented: an API for retrieving their own data, a named export format
View all 35 checks
Parent Access8/8
Does the policy mention parents specifically?
“If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child has a registered account with the Site without your consent, please email Shmoop at”
Can parents view their child's data?
“Parents can contact us to request access to, change, or delete their child’s personally identifiable information at”
Can parents modify their child's data?
“Parents can contact us to request access to, change, or delete their child’s personally identifiable information at”
Can parents delete their child's account?
“At any time, parents can refuse to permit us to use and collect further personally identifiable information from their children in association with a particular account, and can request that we delete from our records the personally identifiable information we have collected in connection with that account.”
Is there a dedicated Children's Privacy section?
“We are committed to protecting the privacy of persons less than 13 years of age (“child” or “children”) who use our Site or Services.”
Does it reference COPPA compliance?
“This policy explains our information collection, disclosure, and parental consent practices with respect to information provided by children and is in accordance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).”
Does it reference FERPA compliance?
“To the extent that Shmoop has access to “education records” subject to FERPA, it does so as a service provider to educational institutions.”
Is parental consent required for child accounts?
“Shmoop does not knowingly permit any child to register directly for the Site or Services unless we reasonably believe, or have received assurances from the subscribing user or in the case of use under a plan with an educational institution, the administrator, that the child’s parent has consented to such registration and use of the Site and Services.”
Data Portability3/5
Can users access their personal data?
“You can access or change your personal profile and contact information or delete your account by either logging into your account or contacting customer service at”
Can users download/export their data?
“You have the right to request that we provide you or a third party that you designate with certain of your personally identifiable information in a commonly used, machine readable format.”
Is there a self-service data access tool?
“You can access or change your personal profile and contact information or delete your account by either logging into your account or contacting customer service at”
Is a specific data format mentioned for export?
The policy says only "commonly used, machine readable format" and names no specific format.
Is there an API for data access?
The policy does not mention an API for data access.
Data Minimization2/6
Is data collection itemized?
“This information includes, but is not limited to, internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, mobile device ID, advertising identifiers, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.”
Can the app be used without a real name?
The policy says it collects names at registration and a child's first name.
Can the app be used without an email?
The policy says it collects email addresses at registration.
Does it state collection is limited to what is necessary?
“We will not require a child to provide more information than is reasonably necessary in order to participate in an online activity.”
Is IP address anonymized or truncated?
The policy says it collects IP addresses and does not mention anonymizing or truncating them.
Is location tracking explicitly excluded?
The policy says it collects geographic location, including through IP addresses, and rules out only mobile device location tracking.
Third-Party Protection5/7
Does it explicitly state no selling of data?
“Shmoop respects your privacy and will not sell or share your personally identifiable information with another party without your expressed consent, other than as described in "Exceptions to Sharing Personally Identifiable Information" below.”
Are third-party providers named?
“Shmoop uses third-party products called Google Analytics, Google AdSense, HotJar and Rhapsody that use cookies and/or other tracking mechanisms embedded in our pages”
Are providers contractually restricted?
“When we disclose personally identifiable information for a business purpose to a service provider, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personally identifiable information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.”
No-targeted-advertising commitment?
The policy says third-party ad companies like Google DFP serve interest-based ads on the site and gives no no-targeting commitment for student users.
Is AI/ML data sharing addressed?
The policy does not address AI or machine learning.
Child-specific sharing restriction?
“We will not post a child’s personally identifiable information or content publicly or except as permitted by law or as stated in the section entitled “When Information Collected From Children is Available to Others,” share such personally identifiable information or content with a third party for their third party’s own use without first obtaining verifiable parental consent.”
Cookies/tracking limited or opt-out?
“Using the Ads Settings, visitors can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads.”
Deletion & Retention4/5
Can users delete their account?
“You can access or change your personal profile and contact information or delete your account by either logging into your account or contacting customer service at”
Self-service deletion mechanism?
“You can access or change your personal profile and contact information or delete your account by either logging into your account or contacting customer service at”
Specific data retention timeline?
“We retain information for active Shmoop accounts as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations, which is usually up to 90 days, unless otherwise specified in an individual agreement.”
Auto-deletion of inactive accounts?
The policy does not mention automatically deleting inactive accounts.
Post-deletion handling described?
“In addition, we may retain information from closed accounts to comply with the law, prevent fraud, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigation, and take other actions permitted by law.”
Advertising1/4
Advertising model explicitly disclosed?
“Some advertisements appearing on our Site are delivered by Google Inc. (“Google”).”
Free from third-party advertisements?
The policy says Google and Playwire deliver third-party ads on the site.
Children excluded from ad targeting?
The policy does not say children are excluded from ad targeting.
Ad-free option available?
The policy does not describe an ad-free option, and the site shows ads.
Meets Data Transparency Standard
The reviewed policy met our data transparency standard. This result describes the policy disclosures we assessed. Actual practices and legal compliance were not verified.
About this evaluation: Based on automated analysis of Privacy Policy against 35 policy-disclosure questions, including questions adapted from the Common Sense Privacy Program's published evaluation questions. TLS is not affiliated with Common Sense Media, and this is not a Common Sense rating. Quoted text is copied from the policy; unquoted notes are our summary. Results describe what the policy documents, not the company's actual practices. Privacy policies can change: this review reflects the version we analyzed and does not determine legal compliance.
Sources and review method
TLS combines product information and editorial analysis to explain how Heartbeat works, its tradeoffs, and the questions to ask before choosing it. Product features, an instructional rationale and evidence of learning outcomes are different kinds of information.
Formal Learning Standard assessment: not yet completed. Data Transparency findings are reported separately and do not establish learning effectiveness. Read our methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions About Heartbeat
Is Heartbeat free?
No, Heartbeat is not free for individual users. It is an enterprise product sold directly to schools and school districts. Parents cannot purchase an individual subscription for their child. Districts pay a campus-level fee to implement the software across their student body, granting access to teachers, counselors, and students.
Is Heartbeat good for middle and high schoolers?
Yes, Heartbeat is developmentally appropriate for middle and high school students in grades 7 through 12. At this age, adolescents have developed the necessary cognitive capacity for metacognition, which is the ability to analyze their own emotions and learning habits. Younger children typically lack the self-awareness required to provide accurate data on the complex emotional factors Heartbeat measures.
What does Heartbeat teach?
Heartbeat does not teach traditional academic subjects like math, science, or reading. Instead, it trains students in metacognition and self-awareness. It guides students to recognize how non-academic factors, such as sleep, stress, and motivation, impact their ability to succeed in the classroom. The goal is to teach students how to optimize their own readiness to learn.
Has Heartbeat been evaluated by The Learning Standard?
No, Heartbeat is pending evaluation by The Learning Standard. We have not yet rated its specific efficacy in improving student outcomes. When evaluated, we will apply our standard methodology to determine if the metacognitive prompts and teacher interventions generated by the platform lead to statistically significant improvements in academic engagement and performance.
How does Heartbeat compare to academic assessments like NWEA MAP?
Heartbeat and academic assessments serve entirely different purposes. Tools like MAP or i-Ready measure what a student knows academically and identify curriculum gaps. Heartbeat measures why a student might be struggling to learn in the first place, focusing on social-emotional readiness and cognitive load. Schools typically use Heartbeat alongside academic screeners to get a holistic view of the student.
Has The Learning Standard evaluated Heartbeat?
TLS has not yet completed a Learning Standard evaluation of how well Heartbeat teaches. Its privacy policy has been reviewed for Data Transparency and reaches Level 2, Parent control.
Is Heartbeat COPPA compliant?
The reviewed privacy policy references COPPA. A policy reference alone does not establish COPPA compliance. Policy review note: The policy states that it follows COPPA.
Is Heartbeat FERPA compliant?
The reviewed privacy policy references FERPA. A policy reference alone does not establish FERPA compliance. Policy review note: The policy has a FERPA section describing how it handles education records.
Does Heartbeat have a children's privacy policy?
The reviewed policy includes a dedicated children's privacy section. Policy review note: The policy has a section headed "Children's Privacy".
Does Heartbeat sell student data?
The reviewed policy states that the app does not sell data. This is a policy statement; actual data practices were not verified. Policy review note: The policy states that Shmoop will not sell personal information.
Can you delete your data from Heartbeat?
The reviewed privacy policy describes account deletion. We have not tested the deletion process. Policy review note: Users can delete their account.
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- Campus-level pricing for schools & districts.
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- 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
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