Mathematics Site Offers Online Remediation Program for At-Risk Students

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 04/23/09

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Not all students learn at the same pace, and this is certainly true in mathematics courses. In an effort to give struggling middle and high school students a real opportunity to get the most from their math education, Hotmath.com has launched Catchup Math, an online diagnostic and review service aimed at helping math students understand troubling concepts and attack their exercises with a comprehension and vigor equal to that of their classmates.

Catchup Math is available for Prealgebra, Algebra 1 and 2, and Geometry courses, and for each level offers a series of diagnostic quizzes, with each quiz followed by a personalized assessment and review, as well as practice exercises, all designed to improve comprehension of concepts and proficiency at applications related to each course's curriculum.

Hotmath.com piloted Catchup Math in an after-school tutoring program at American Indian Public High School in Oakland, CA. Isaac Berniker, a math teacher at the school and organizer of the program, said his students' experience with Catchup Math was very beneficial. "The Catchup Math approach of quizzing to identify individual student weakness and then offering remediation in those areas is ideal for a student group with diverse learning gaps," Berniker said.  "Students appreciated the ease-of-use and flexibility of choosing the review and practice resources, as each student has an individual learning style."

The prescriptive approach used by Catchup Math allows it to personalize approaches to improvement based on the needs of the user. For each proficiency goal, the student will take a 15-minute quiz, and the program will analyze the results, determine the student's problem areas, and prescribe video tutorials, games and exercises, all immediately available on the site, to help the student overcome his or her obstacles to proficiency at the topic.

Students work at their own pace, and by achieving the goals for their respective problem areas, they can work their way to the proficiency levels needed to join and keep pace with mainstream math classes. The program also continually records each student's quiz scores, exercise comprehension, and review materials used, so that teachers can monitor progress. There is even an online whiteboard for teachers to see the work and determine where the student needs help.

Catchup Math is available to individual students starting at $99 per year, and to schools at $3 per student per year. Volume discounts are available to schools, tutoring centers, and supplemental educational service providers.