The Prodigy State Challenge Returns, Motivating Millions of Kids to become Math Champions
The world’s biggest math competition is back to transform math practice into a team sport - with prizes worth millions of dollars up for grabs
Toronto, Aug. 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The world’s biggest math competition is back, bringing more champions, more classroom excitement, school prizes valued at millions of dollars — and even more math fun and student motivation.
The Prodigy State Challenge™ returns on September 15, with 1st to 8th grade students across the United States putting their Prodigy Math skills to the test by correctly answering as many standards-aligned questions as possible each month—both in the classroom and at home.
The school whose students answer the most correct answers becomes monthly state champions, winning fun prizes and automatic entry into the Prodigy National Cup™ finals in May. During that thrilling finale, qualifying schools will compete to become national math champions, with tech grants of more than $200,000 and many other rewards up for grabs.
Last season, teachers and students joined forces across classrooms at more than 70,000 U.S. schools as they battled for monthly prizes and a chance to compete for the national math champion title. More than 4.2 million students took part, submitting more than 625 million correct answers.
Students at Sinking Springs Elementary School in Pennsylvania became the first-ever winners of the Prodigy National Cup™, earning the title of national math champions and securing their school a $100,000 tech grant after recording an astonishing 730,000 correct answers during the finals.
Watch: How Sinking Springs Elementary School became national math champions
“Last season’s State Challenge took student motivation to another level, reinforcing Prodigy’s approach to inspiring a love of learning,” said Alex Peters, Co-CEO of Prodigy. “We heard and witnessed so many incredible, heartwarming stories from teachers about how State Challenge created a spirit of camaraderie and collaboration among students and staff across tens of thousands of schools in each and every state. So we’re thrilled to bring it back, including some updates to make the contest even more motivating and fun for schools, regardless of size.”
Enhancements to this season’s State Challenge include the introduction of a new tiered format, ensuring schools are competing with others with similar enrolment sizes—with the total prize fund also bigger than ever. Any school which finishes in the top five of its state each month will also automatically qualify for the May finale, where the school technology grants are among the top prizes.
During the two-week long Prodigy National Cup™ final, the Titan (large-sized) tier schools will compete for the top prize of a $100,000 tech grant. The top school in the Mythical (medium-sized) tier will win a $50,000 tech grant, with the winner of the Heroic (small-sized) tier claiming a grant of $25,000. There will also be runners-up prizes and, for each monthly State Challenge contest, the top schools in each tier will win Prodigy merchandise, in-game digital rewards for Prodigy Math, and certificates for student participants.
For a full list of rules, prizes, and other details about the Prodigy State Challenge™, visit here.
Michaela Sicuranza, a 5th-grade teacher at Sinking Springs Elementary, played a central role in motivating her class — and subsequently the entire school — towards victory in the Prodigy National Cup™ last season.
“Participating in the Prodigy State Challenge™ was such a powerful motivator for our students,” she said. “It truly made math practice a team sport, adding another layer of excitement and really uniting us as a school. The friendly competition we had between classes pushed us to new heights, helping us to reinforce the skills we were teaching in class in a fun and exciting way. The reaction of the students when they learned they were national math champions was incredible. We can’t wait to try and defend our title.”
Prodigy Math is a research-based, standards-aligned math practice tool for 1st to 8th grade students. Twenty million students learned with Prodigy in the last school year, exploring different worlds across Prodigy Island, going on quests, meeting magical characters, and rescuing and collecting pets — all while practicing teacher-assigned math skills. There is zero cost for teachers to use Prodigy, including access to a free teacher portal that delivers engaging assessments and detailed reports to track student progress and comprehension.
About Prodigy Education
Prodigy Education is a global leader in game-based learning. Our mission is to help every student in the world love learning, motivating 20 million students a year to practice standards-aligned math and English. Prodigy maximizes student engagement and is completely zero-cost for all educators. More than 800,000 teachers use Prodigy as a free instructional tool which adapts to individual student needs while supporting differentiated instruction. Fun, motivating, and research-based, Prodigy is the EdTech platform students actually ask to use. Visit www.prodigygame.com to learn more.
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James Bigg Prodigy Education 6476389281 james.bigg@prodigygame.com
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