From 1996-2009, Chartworld was a success in the classroom with students and their teachers. That success depended upon: the Boxer programming language, the Chartworld toolset (created by Andy diSessa), and the Chartworld learning materials (created by Don Ploger with the essential expertise of Andy diSessa, as well as crucially important feedback from students, teachers and administrators).

There were three stages in the development of Chartworld:

1. Proof-of-concept: Chartworld was introduced into a public school classroom, and students were enthusiastic. Michael Greenspan was the first teacher to work with the developers to make Chartworld a success in a classroom. Several teachers volunteered to participate. (1996)

2. School culture: In one public school, Chartworld became integrated into the program of mathematics instruction. The Chartworld lead researcher was a guest teacher at that school once a week. Mike Rooney, the math specialist, used Chartworld regularly with grades K-5. Several classroom teachers developed the skills to use Chartworld effectively on their own. Furthermore, more than a dozen students volunteered to study Chartworld in after-school math club. (1998)

3. Controlled studies: Two randomized treatment/control experiments were conducted in a public school district with 196 third-grade children. Results indicated that using Chartworld led to significantly greater understanding of divisibility and prime numbers (p < .001).
   (Research completed 2007; Don Ploger and Steven Hecht published the findings in 2009.)