Flexible Fluency Replaces Rote Learning | Times Tables Games

When I looked into the Washington State 2026 Maths Standards, what struck me immediately is how deliberate the language is. Fluency is defined across three dimensions: efficiency (solving without unnecessary steps), flexibility (choosing smart strategies depending on the problem), and accuracy (reliably getting the right answer). Rote recall of times tables still matters, but it is no longer the finish line. It is one part of a bigger picture.

Layered on top of that, over 20 US states have now passed comprehensive maths bills requiring districts to use evidence-based interventions specifically for struggling elementary students. That is a meaningful shift in accountability. It means teachers and curriculum leads cannot simply point to a tool and say "the children practise here." They need to be able to say: this intervention builds genuine understanding, it responds to where each child actually is, and we have a rationale for why it works.

That is a higher bar. And honestly, I think it is the right one.

Here is what I am seeing in the conversations around this shift: there is a real risk of overcorrecting. "Rote memorisation" has become almost a dirty phrase in progressive maths education, but the research picture is more nuanced than that. Automaticity with number facts genuinely frees up working memory so children can tackle more complex problems. The question is never really "should children know their tables?" but rather: how do we get them there in a way that builds understanding alongside speed?

The 2026 standards answer that question by asking schools to develop both. A child who can rattle off 7x8 without thinking, but freezes when the same relationship appears in a word problem, has not achieved fluency in the new sense. Flexible fluency means a child can move between representations, spot relationships, and apply known facts to unknown ones.

That distinction matters enormously for how we design practice.

The phrase "evidence-based intervention" is used so often it has started to lose its edges. But in the context of the new state mandates, it has a specific meaning. It means the approach must be grounded in how children actually learn maths, must respond to individual need rather than applying a one-size approach, and must be demonstrably moving children forward.

For tools like XTables Champions, this is not a box-ticking exercise. From the early conversations we are having with schools, what teachers most want is something that adapts to where a child is, builds confidence alongside speed, and gives them real visibility into progress. They are not looking for a glorified worksheet that lives on a screen. They want something that actually changes the trajectory of a child who is falling behind.

As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, *"We started XTables Champions because we kept seeing the same thing: children who dreaded maths not because they lacked ability, but because they had never had the right conditions to build real confidence with numbers. That is the problem we are trying to solve."*

That framing, building confidence and genuine understanding alongside fluency, is exactly what the 2026 standards are calling for.

Let me make this concrete, because "flexible fluency" can sound abstract.

A child with flexible fluency does not just know that 6x7 = 42. They can also reason that if they forgot that fact, they could use 6x6=36 and add 6. They understand that multiplication is commutative, so 7x6 gives them the same result. They can apply that fact when they see it expressed as a missing number problem, a word problem, or an area model.

Building that kind of understanding takes repeated, varied practice with feedback. It takes a child seeing the same relationship from different angles over time. And it takes a system that knows when a child is struggling with a specific fact family and responds to that, rather than marching everyone through the same sequence at the same pace.

This is where adaptive, well-designed practice technology genuinely earns its place in a classroom. Not as a replacement for teaching, but as the space where children get the individualised repetition and feedback that a teacher simply cannot provide to thirty children simultaneously.

If you are a curriculum lead, a school administrator, or a class teacher thinking about your maths programme ahead of 2026, here is what I would suggest thinking through.

First, look at whether your current tools can tell you, clearly and specifically, what each child knows and what they are ready to learn next. Visibility into individual progress is not optional under the new evidence-based requirements. Second, consider whether the practice children are doing builds towards flexibility, not just recall speed. Are children encountering facts in varied contexts, or is the practice always the same format? Third, ask whether the tool you are using can serve as a genuine intervention for children who are struggling, not just enrichment for those who are already confident.

Those three questions are a reasonable starting point for evaluating any maths programme against the spirit of the 2026 standards.

XTables Champions was built from the beginning to do more than test recall. We are a young company and we are still learning alongside the schools we work with, but what we are building is grounded in the right question: how do children actually develop genuine confidence and flexibility with multiplication and number facts?

If your district or school is reviewing its maths intervention tools ahead of the 2026 standards, I would genuinely love to hear what you are grappling with. Whether you are in Washington, or in any of the other states currently updating their requirements, get in touch with the XTables Champions team. We can walk you through what our approach looks like in practice, and we will be honest with you about where we are and where we are going.

Visit xtableschampions.com to find out more, or reach out directly to start a conversation. No pressure, just a genuine chat about what flexible fluency looks like for your students.