About the Site

Problem-Attic is a product of EducAide Software, which has nearly three decades of experience developing standards-based questions and teaching/learning tools. Our motto says it all: Since 1990 we’ve been bridging the gap between instruction, assessment and technology!

We developed Problem-Attic for several reasons. First, we wanted to contribute to the education community by making a large database of questions available for free, for differentiated instruction, blended and self-paced learning, and real formative assessment (by which we mean classroom-level). A second reason, we have to admit, is a little more self-serving: we wanted to show off our company’s new web technologies.

For many years, EducAide published a database for teachers called Acces. It was loaded with sophisticated options for editing and formatting questions, creating tests and worksheets and other kinds of classroom materials, and exporting questions to other formats, such as slideshows for interactive whiteboards. But it had one big limitation: it was a desktop app, and not all of its capabilities could be ported to the web.

Thus we built Problem-Attic. And to make sure the system would scale up and offer a friendly and convenient way to select questions, we set a high bar for ourselves. We decided, as a first step, to build a database of tens of thousands of previously-published questions from state assessments, curriculum guides, U.S. and international tests like NAEP and TIMSS, and academic competitions.

More specifically, we began with about 35 years’ of Regents exams, which are freely available as PDF files but not so easy to search through or “re-purpose”. We also looked beyond them for other proven, well-respected sources. Then we entered the questions into a database, re-organized them by topic, and made them individually selectable and re-formattable. Now they can be inserted into all kinds of new documents: tests and quizzes, worksheets, flash cards, overheads, and problem-of-the-day calendars. Best of all, you get to create these documents. For free. Wow!

The New York Regents and state assessments cover all major subjects: math, science, social studies and ELA. The questions are very high quality, challenging, and rich with graphics. While the Regents Exams are most useful for grades 9 to 12, the state, national, and international assessments—now including PISA, PARCC and SBAC—provide great questions all the way down to third grade.

If you haven’t yet tried Problem-Attic, please sign up for a free account. We think you’ll love the program and find many uses for it, whether you are a teacher, homeschooler, parent, education researcher, tutor or anyone who wants to see the promise of a digital classroom!

Please note: although there is no charge for accessing any of the questions that we re-publish, they are still copyrighted individually or as a collection. Thus there are restrictions on what you can do with them and how you can use the website. The restrictions are explained in our Terms of Service. They won’t cramp your style, and they are important for keeping the New York Regents and other questions freely available in Problem-Attic.

When you get a chance, please tell us what you think of the site. We’ll keep trying to make it better. Thanks for visiting!

—EducAide Software, the maker of www.problem-attic.com