The Achievery
by AT&T
This app has not yet been evaluated against our instructional invariants. The analysis below is based on independent research.
The Achievery does not meet our data transparency standard. Its privacy policy does not reference COPPA and does not reference FERPA.
The Bottom Line
Partially. The Achievery effectively hooks student attention by anchoring lessons to popular movie and television clips, leveraging the multimedia principle. However, because it relies heavily on external video consumption rather than active retrieval practice or interactive problem-solving, its direct impact on long-term retention remains limited without heavy educator facilitation.
Pros
- Uses high-interest popular media to activate prior knowledge and increase engagement.
- Provides fully developed lesson plans that reduce cognitive load for educators planning project-based learning.
- Aligns content clearly to academic standards across seven distinct subject areas.
- Removes financial barriers entirely by offering all K-12 materials for free.
Cons
- Relies primarily on passive video consumption rather than active retrieval practice or interactive problem-solving.
- Lacks embedded formative assessment tools to measure your child's immediate comprehension.
- Requires significant adult facilitation to translate video viewing into tangible learning outcomes.
- Does not adapt content difficulty based on individual student performance.
Does The Achievery Actually Teach?
The Achievery serves better as an engagement tool to spark your child's interest than as a standalone instructional platform. Because AT&T anchors academic concepts to popular entertainment clips, the platform excels at capturing attention and contextualizing abstract ideas. However, parents must understand that watching videos does not automatically equate to learning. Cognitive science dictates that true mastery requires active recall and deliberate practice. The Achievery provides excellent project-based activities and discussion prompts, but your child cannot complete these independently within an app interface. You or a teacher must print the lesson plans, guide the discussions, and facilitate the offline projects. If you are looking for a program to automatically teach and assess your child in math or reading, this will not meet your needs. Instead, view this as a high-quality, free digital library that provides you with the raw materials needed to run engaging, standard-aligned lessons at home or in a classroom setting. Keep in mind that The Learning Standard has not yet formally evaluated this platform's efficacy data.
How Does The Achievery Help Students Learn?
The Achievery relies on anchored instruction and project-based learning by pairing entertainment media with structured academic activities. Users search a digital catalog categorized by grade level and subject area to find specific lessons. Each module centers around a short video clip from a popular movie, television show, or educational partner. This video acts as the anchor, establishing a real-world or highly engaging context for the academic standard being taught. Below the video, parents and educators will find downloadable lesson plans. These documents outline pre-watch discussion questions to activate prior knowledge, active viewing strategies to focus attention, and post-watch collaborative projects. The platform requires learners to transition from the digital screen to offline, hands-on activities to complete the learning cycle. Because the platform does not include built-in quizzes, spaced repetition algorithms, or adaptive learning paths, the responsibility for guiding the student through the problem-based learning process falls entirely on the facilitating adult.
Where Does The Achievery Excel and Fall Short?
The biggest strength of The Achievery is its use of high-production-value media to contextualize learning, while its biggest weakness is the absence of active, software-based retrieval practice. Activating Student Interest: By utilizing clips from recognized movies and shows, the platform leverages the multimedia principle to reduce the extraneous cognitive load often associated with introducing new, complex topics. This makes abstract concepts in science or humanities feel immediate and relevant. Comprehensive Educator Scaffolding: The provided lesson plans offer robust problem-based learning frameworks, ensuring adults have structured guidance rather than just a playlist of videos. Lack of Active Digital Engagement: Learning science clearly shows that passive consumption yields poor long-term retention. Because the app itself does not prompt the user to answer questions, solve problems, or recall information interactively, the software alone cannot guarantee mastery. High Facilitation Demand: The effectiveness of these lessons depends entirely on the adult's ability to execute the offline projects and discussions. Without this active facilitation, the platform functions simply as a video streaming service rather than an educational tool.
Is The Achievery Right for Your Child?
Best for educators and homeschooling parents who need high-quality, engaging lesson hooks to supplement their existing curriculum. Because the platform spans grades K-12 and covers subjects from early childhood education to career and technical training, it serves as a versatile supplementary library. It is ideal for adults who have the time and expertise to facilitate offline project-based learning. It is not suitable for parents seeking an independent, self-paced learning app that their child can use without supervision, as the platform lacks automated practice and assessment features.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Achievery
Is The Achievery free?
Yes, The Achievery is completely free to use. AT&T provides the platform as a public educational initiative, meaning parents and educators can access all videos, lesson plans, and project materials without any subscription fees or hidden costs. Users simply need to create an account to unlock the full library of resources. This removes financial barriers, making high-quality, standard-aligned multimedia lessons accessible to any family or school district with an internet connection.
Is The Achievery good for elementary and high school students?
Yes, the platform provides content categorized for all K-12 grade levels. However, its effectiveness depends heavily on adult facilitation. Younger students in early childhood programs will need significant guidance to connect the video clips to the offline learning activities. Older high school students can tackle the problem-based projects with more independence, but they still require a teacher or parent to assign the work, grade the final projects, and provide substantive feedback.
What does The Achievery teach?
The Achievery provides supplementary lessons across seven subjects: Early Childhood Education, Humanities, Science, Math, Applied Science, and Career & Technical Education. It focuses on project-based and problem-based learning rather than rote memorization or foundational drill practice. Instead of teaching basic addition or phonics through repetition, the platform uses entertainment clips to anchor larger conceptual discussions, requiring students to apply academic standards to real-world scenarios through offline assignments.
Is The Achievery safe for kids?
Yes, The Achievery is safe for children. All video content is curated, and the associated lesson plans are reviewed by educational experts at ASCD to ensure they are age-appropriate and directly aligned with academic standards. The platform operates as a closed resource library, meaning it does not feature open social networking, direct messaging, or user-generated content that could expose your child to unmoderated interactions online.
Has The Learning Standard evaluated The Achievery?
No, The Achievery is currently pending evaluation by our research team. We have not yet run this platform through our rigorous testing methodology to analyze its direct impact on student achievement data. While the platform utilizes sound pedagogical strategies like anchored instruction and project-based learning, The Learning Standard requires empirical evidence of verifiable learning outcomes before issuing an official efficacy rating. Until that data is available, we consider it a supplemental engagement tool rather than a proven instructional intervention.
How does The Achievery compare to Khan Academy?
The Achievery focuses on project-based lesson plans anchored by entertainment media, which requires heavy adult facilitation and offline work. In contrast, Khan Academy provides mastery-based, independent digital practice with immediate feedback, spaced repetition, and adaptive algorithms. They serve entirely different purposes in a student's learning routine. Use The Achievery to spark interest and run collaborative classroom projects, and use Khan Academy to independently build and drill foundational academic skills.
Is The Achievery COPPA compliant?
No — its privacy policy does not reference COPPA. There is no mention or reference to COPPA compliance in the provided text.
Is The Achievery FERPA compliant?
No — its privacy policy does not reference FERPA. There is no mention or reference to FERPA compliance in the provided text.
Does The Achievery have a children's privacy policy?
Yes — it has a dedicated children's privacy section. AT&T Privacy Notice for Children’s Products and Services
Does The Achievery sell student data?
Its privacy policy does not clearly state that it refrains from selling student data. There is no explicit statement denying the sale of user personal data.
Can you delete your data from The Achievery?
No — its privacy policy does not describe how to delete your account or data. The text does not state whether users have the option to delete their account.
Data Transparency
The Achievery does not meet our data transparency standard. Its privacy policy does not reference COPPA and does not reference FERPA.
2 of 35 checks passed
Evaluated June 2026
View privacy policy →View all 35 checks
Parent Access2/8
Does the policy mention parents specifically?
“Parental controls and online resources Find more information about parental controls”
Can parents view their child's data?
“The policy is silent on whether parents can view their child's data.”
Can parents modify their child's data?
“The policy is silent on whether parents can modify their child's data.”
Can parents delete their child's account?
“The policy is silent on whether parents can delete their child's account.”
Is there a dedicated Children's Privacy section?
“AT&T Privacy Notice for Children’s Products and Services”
Does it reference COPPA compliance?
“There is no mention or reference to COPPA compliance in the provided text.”
Does it reference FERPA compliance?
“There is no mention or reference to FERPA compliance in the provided text.”
Is parental consent required for child accounts?
“The text is completely silent on parental consent requirements for accounts.”
Data Portability0/5
Can users access their personal data?
“The policy mentions choices but does not explicitly address data access rights.”
Can users download/export their data?
“There is no mention of users being able to download or export their data.”
Is there a self-service data access tool?
“A self-service data access tool is not mentioned in the provided policy.”
Is a specific data format mentioned for export?
“The policy does not specify any formats for exporting user personal data.”
Is there an API for data access?
“An API for user data access is not mentioned or described in the text.”
Data Minimization0/6
Is data collection itemized?
“The text lists links but does not provide an itemized list of collected data.”
Can the app be used without a real name?
“The policy does not address using the application without a real name.”
Can the app be used without an email?
“The text does not state whether the app can be used without an email address.”
Does it state collection is limited to what is necessary?
“The text does not state that collection is limited to what is necessary.”
Is IP address anonymized or truncated?
“Anonymization or truncation of IP addresses is not addressed in this text.”
Is location tracking explicitly excluded?
“The text does not explicitly exclude or address location tracking practices.”
Third-Party Protection0/7
Does it explicitly state no selling of data?
“There is no explicit statement denying the sale of user personal data.”
Are third-party providers named?
“Third-party providers are not named or listed in this privacy policy text.”
Are providers contractually restricted?
“Contractual restrictions on third-party providers are not addressed here.”
No-targeted-advertising commitment?
“The policy does not contain a commitment against targeted advertising.”
Is AI/ML data sharing addressed?
“AI or machine learning data sharing practices are not addressed in the text.”
Child-specific sharing restriction?
“Child-specific data sharing restrictions are not described in the text.”
Cookies/tracking limited or opt-out?
“The text lists tracking technologies but lacks explicit opt-out details.”
Deletion & Retention0/5
Can users delete their account?
“The text does not state whether users have the option to delete their account.”
Self-service deletion mechanism?
“No self-service deletion mechanism is described or mentioned in the text.”
Specific data retention timeline?
“The policy has a header for data retention but specifies no timelines.”
Auto-deletion of inactive accounts?
“The policy is silent on the auto-deletion of inactive user accounts.”
Post-deletion handling described?
“Post-deletion handling of data is not described in the provided text.”
Advertising0/4
Advertising model explicitly disclosed?
“The policy does not explicitly disclose an advertising business model.”
Free from third-party advertisements?
“The text does not state that the services are free from third-party ads.”
Children excluded from ad targeting?
“Excluding children from ad targeting is not addressed in this policy text.”
Ad-free option available?
“An ad-free subscription or option is not mentioned in the provided text.”
What This Means
This app does not provide adequate data transparency for parents. This may mean you cannot easily access your child's data, understand what information is collected, or request deletion of personal information. We recommend considering alternatives that provide better data transparency, or using our template letters to request your data rights be honored.
About this evaluation: Based on automated analysis of The Achievery's privacy policy using the Common Sense Privacy Program framework. Evaluation covers 35 binary checks across 6 dimensions. Privacy policies can change — this evaluation reflects the most recent version we analyzed.
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For The Achievery
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- Pricing
- Free
- Platforms
- iOS (Apple mobile), Android (Google mobile)
- Grade Levels
- 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
- Website
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