Dear Mr. Yang:
I just wanted to write a letter and tell you how pleased I am with your product. I teach 7th grade, basic math. It is a very difficult year of math for the basic students. Many of them come to 7th grade and still count on their fingers to add. Even if they know how to do a process, the computation is incorrect much of the time. Since we must teach grade level standards, there is not time to address any gaps in their mathematical understanding, including not knowing math facts. This is where Math Score comes in to save the day.
We only used Math Score for about three months last year. For the most part, students used it at home for at least one hour/week. When our standardized test scores came back in August, I was very pleasantly surprised. I am sending copies of those scores, with the student names blocked out for privacy, but you will easily see the tremendous gains made by my students. I believe this was due mostly to the work the students did on Math Score as I've never had such remarkable test score increases before. The 7th graders came to me mostly at basic or below basic and when they left 7th grade, 51% were proficient or advanced!
We are in the process of planning our math intervention (remediation) for the year and I plan on using Math Score for those programs. I believe the tips and sample problems allow students to work at their own pace to accomplish what they haven't been able to do in a classroom with direct instruction from a teacher. This will carry over to the classroom math they are doing at grade level and give them two important benefits: 1. the homework will take much less time to complete and 2. students' grades will improve as a result of improved accuracy. What student, parent or teacher wouldn't be happy with those results?
In addition, for the classroom teacher, there is much to be said for saving paper and time of printing out and correcting math pages if students were to do "boring" worksheets. They really do enjoy working on the computer and against the clock. I want to thank you for creating such an effective program.
Anyone who has questions concerning Math Score and how we use it here at Ustach may feel free to give me a call at 209-571-1860 ext. 1043.
Sincerely,
Jann Spallina
Math Teacher
Ustach Middle School