Hikmah Research
We’ll show our work. Methods first, then results.
Your child’s progress deserves honest measurement, and you deserve to check our work. Our Ottawa centre hasn’t opened, so there are no results yet: here is what we’ll measure and how we’ll publish it.
Research agenda
From day one, we’ll measure what matters to you.
The first questions are yours: is it working, and how would we know? We’ll track these for every child, with their family’s consent, from the day we open.
Root found
Multiplication facts
Grade 3 · Rests on
What her mentor does nextThree short lessons on the 6, 7 and 8 times tables, with patterns she can see, then a fresh check.
Where does each child really start?
How well the diagnostic finds the true starting point, including earlier gaps, and how often the first plan changes.
How does mastery grow?
Each skill from first attempt to mastery check: how long real understanding takes, and what helps.
Does it stick?
What is retained weeks and months later, and which kinds of practice help learning last.
What is it like for families?
Whether parents and children feel known, informed and well served, reported honestly, hard parts included.
How do children use AI?
When AI helps learners think, when it thinks for them, and what good habits look like at each age.
Featured
Start with these three.
AI and attention · For parents
What AI can’t do for your child, and why that matters for school
AI can answer almost any question. It can’t decide which questions matter, and that is what school should be getting your child ready to do.
Mastery and math · Report
Root-cause diagnosis in practice
How we trace a missed question back to the skill that caused it, with worked examples from mathematics and reading.
For families · For parents
Mentors, not monitors
Software can keep track of every skill. That frees the adults in the room to do what only people can.
Reports
Our method, written down.
Reports on how we diagnose, check mastery and measure progress. Each is in preparation and will be published methods first.
- Mastery and mathRoot-cause diagnosis in practiceMethod report8 min · In preparation→
- Mastery and mathMastery checks and retentionStudy design7 min · In preparation→
- Mastery and mathThe diagnostic assessment, explainedMethod report6 min · In preparation→
- AI and attentionChildren, AI and good thinking habitsField notes7 min · In preparation→
- For familiesOur first year in OttawaAnnual report8 min · In preparation→
Insights
Read something useful in a few minutes.
Practical pieces on mastery, reading, AI, projects and family life, with their own home and filters.
How we publish
Four rules govern what we publish.
- 01
Methods first
We’ll publish how we measure before what we find, so anyone can check the question was fair.
- 02
Honest about limits
One centre is a small sample. We’ll report what didn’t work as plainly as what did, and never call an early result proof.
- 03
Privacy, always
Grouped, de-identified data only. No child is identifiable, and any family can opt out.
- 04
Independent review
We’ll invite researchers outside Hikmah to review our methods before we draw public conclusions.