Pixton is Research and Evidence Based

ESSA Tier 2

Pixton has earned an ESSA Tier 2 rating across multiple studies, showing Pixton strongly improves students’ writing quality, reading comprehension, and engagement with literacy tasks, including for multilingual learners and students who benefit from visual scaffolding.
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Digital Promise Certification

Pixton is proud to carry the Research-Based Design for Instructional Learning product certification by Digital Promise, signifying our commitment to using rigorous research to build the best, most effective product for learners.
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Learner Variability Certification

Pixton has earned Digital Promise’s Learner Variability Product Certification, recognizing that we’re designed to support the whole learner and the real variation in how students learn. The certification signals that Pixton provides meaningful voice, choice, and flexible supports to meet diverse learner needs.
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Studies Featuring Pixton

Pixton dramatically boosts student motivation and descriptive writing performance

Students using Pixton showed significantly higher writing gains by increasing motivation through visual storytelling.

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Pixton STEM comics boost achievement, engagement, and long-term learning recall

Comics increased STEM interest, improved understanding, and supported stronger recall and transfer of learning.

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Comics help middle schoolers humanize data and explore friendship emotions

Students analyzed graphs and created narratives, strengthening data reasoning and social-emotional understanding together.

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Pixton improves grammar and vocabulary by boosting student motivation

Students using Pixton achieved higher post-test scores while enjoying grammar and vocabulary learning.

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Student-made Pixton comics doubled Shakespeare learning scores and engagement

Students created comics to build meaning, boosting Hamlet post-test results and positive attitudes.

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A growing body of peer-reviewed international research demonstrates measurable impact in:

Pixton improves writing quality, organization, coherence, and vocabulary use. Visual storytelling supports planning and revision, making it especially effective for reluctant writers and multilingual learners.
Studies show that digital comics support vocabulary acquisition, retention, and meaningful grammar use through multimodal learning. Comics outperform text-only instruction for both short-term learning and long-term retention.
Comic-based learning improves conceptual understanding, creative thinking, and problem-solving. Effects are strongest when paired with Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Realistic Mathematics Education (RME).
Students develop a deeper understanding of historical concepts and complex texts, like Shakespearean drama, by actively constructing meaning through comics.
Pixton promotes creativity, collaboration, and learner ownership while supporting social-emotional reasoning, empathy, and data literacy.
Proven effective in remote and blended learning contexts, increasing engagement and depth of understanding.