Students nationwide are struggling to keep up with their grade level in math. While this has often been an issue, the situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Research by NWEA has found that the average student will require over 4 months of additional schooling to catch up to pre-COVID levels.
Falling behind in math can be very difficult for a student. Regular classrooms are not designed to handle math remediation, as teachers need to keep the rest of the class on track. So students struggling with math, because they are missing key concepts from a grade level before, can tend to isolate themselves, become anxious and withdrawn, and suffer both academically and socially.
To help, there are math intervention programs — programs that are designed to get students back on track in their math education.
In this post, we break down the two main types of math intervention programs:
- Programs for students who need extra support with their current curriculum: For example, perhaps your child was doing well with the curriculum until just recently, and is now struggling with a new concept or chapter. Often for these students, a math tutor can help keep them from falling behind.
- Programs for students who need more significant math remediation: This is when a student has serious gaps in their math knowledge, potentially being a grade or more behind. For example, a 10th grader who is struggling with cross-multiplication.
The Top 8 Math Intervention Programs in 2024
Best Math Intervention Programs for Significant Remediation
The first four programs we discuss are for students who need significant additional support with their math. By “significant,” we mean that they’re behind a grade or more in their math skills.
1. Fusion Academy’s Math Intervention Program
Fusion Academy is a private middle and high school in which students work 1-to-1 with their teacher. Our 1-to-1 structure allows teachers to personalize classes to students’ individual learning needs — making it an ideal model for students who aren’t thriving in a more traditional classroom.
These can be students with ADHD, sensory processing disorder, or simply students who need to go at their own speed. Lessons can be in person on one of our 80+ campuses nationwide or online via Fusion Global Academy.
In addition to our full-time and part-time programs, Fusion offers several other learning programs for students, including tutoring, post-secondary counseling, and a full-fledged math intervention program, which we’re talking about today.
Our flexible, 1-to-1 learning environment is perfect for math remediation. At Fusion Academy, students get 1-to-1 learning with their teacher, combined with an adaptive online learning platform that creates custom learning paths for each student based on their individual level. This creates an organized and structured learning path that’s still incredibly flexible and adaptive to each student.
Our math remediation program is aimed at students in 6th grade or higher who have reached a minimum of 4th grade level in math. This program is best suited for students who are a year or two behind their grade level and need a supplement to regular school.
You can contact us to learn more, or keep reading for a more detailed breakdown.
Personalized Instruction Combined with Adaptive Math Learning Software
Often math intervention programs are either after-school tutoring classes or self-paced math software programs, and while there are merits to both of those (as discussed in our sections below), some students won’t fully benefit from either.
After school tutoring programs often can’t adapt to a student’s specific learning style or fully cover the mathematical concepts the student is missing. Self-paced software is a good tool, but without accountability and support from a teacher, students can still struggle to understand concepts, stay on track, or do the work at all.
At Fusion Academy, we combine 1-to-1 learning with ALEKS, an adaptive online learning platform that uses a machine learning algorithm to create custom learning paths for each student.
With our 1-to-1 learning, teachers work exclusively with one student at a time, so they can give them their undivided focus and attention, and adapt their teaching style to the needs of their student.
These learning paths continuously adjust based on student progress through the program.
This is key because it keeps track of a student’s progress — and makes sure they’re not going to get bored or overwhelmed with the curriculum. Often in math remediation, it’s not entirely clear at the start how significantly behind a student is in their learning. Or, on the flip side, a student can be stuck in a slow-moving math remediation program when they just had a few blind spots in their understanding of mathematical concepts that needed to be addressed.
When students are working on their math problems, they’ll work with their teacher (using a whiteboard to work out / solve the problem) and on their own.
The process looks a bit like this within ALEKS:
Students can solve the problem and check their work after typing the answer into ALEKS.
From there, they’ll get a more detailed explanation of how the math problem was solved.
By pairing adaptive online learning software with one-on-one teaching, Fusion Academy is able to give students the tools they need to get back on track in their math education in the most effective way possible.
How Our Math Intervention Program is Structured
Fusion Academy offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to:
- How often a student meets with a teacher per week.
- How the classes are conducted (indoors, outdoors, what tools and resources are being used, etc.).
- How much study time is needed outside the classroom.
Our campuses also have a Homework Café where students can work on their studies in a quiet, productive space.
The duration of the program: Most students will meet with their teacher for 30 sessions, though students can choose an accelerated program which has them meeting their teacher for 25 sessions. How many sessions a student does per week will change from student to student.
That being said, students typically meet with their math teacher for 50 minutes twice a week, either on a Fusion campus or through Zoom at home. These 2 sessions start off with the teacher checking in with the student — how is the student finding the work? Where are they struggling? Then the teacher and student work through the curriculum together.
Classes are focused on solving practice problems together on a whiteboard, whether that’s a physical whiteboard or a Zoom one (for remote students). Our teachers work with your children inside ALEKS itself, and monitor their progress. This helps guarantee that both the student and teacher are working together toward a shared goal.
When math interventions take place on a Fusion campus, we encourage students to go to the Homework Café directly after class. This is a dedicated space for students to do homework together, allowing them to connect with peers and removing the need to take math problems home. We acknowledge that this solution doesn’t work for all families, and again, Fusion prides itself on being flexible to your needs.
But in general, it’s our recommendation that students do self-study — outside of the 1-to-1 teacher instruction — with ALEKS for 2 hours each week.
How Does Fusion’s Math Intervention Program Assess a Student’s Progress?
Our math intervention program is aligned to the Common Core State Standards, but our intervention program doesn’t assign letter grades. Instead this is a pass/fail class, based on a student’s effort and progress.
Ultimately, whether a student passes or fails our program is determined by two things:
- Have they spent enough hours in classes with the teacher? We require a minimum of 30 hours, or 25 hours for the accelerated option.
- Have they spent enough time on ALEKS (independent of the teacher doing self-study)? The minimum requirement here is 30 hours. The teacher can see how much time the student has spent in ALEKS.
We also track learning outcomes that relate to soft skill development. For example, we want your child to come away from the program with skills that will serve them into adulthood — this includes time management, planning, and critical thinking.
Here’s an overview of the soft skills that can come out of our math intervention program:
- Utilizing time management to progress throughout their intended modules.
- Communicating their own areas of opportunity within the program.
- Communicating their strengths throughout the program.
- Prioritizing areas of opportunity based on their progress within the program.
- Setting goals unique to their individual progress.
- Maintaining goals unique to their progress within the program.
- Discussing individual motivational or self-awareness goals.
- Activating prior knowledge towards learning new information.
- Applying meta-cognition strategies to their learning.
- Building awareness of motivating emotions.
- Practicing self-monitoring strategies towards progress of their goals.
How to Enroll at Fusion Academy’s Math Intervention Program
When a family brings in their child for math remediation, campus admins first assess the student’s needs. In particular, they try to find out what brought the student to remedial math classes.
We like to have the student take a standardized MAP test, which is one of the most widely used standardized tests currently in the K–12 space. This allows us to see where their math skill set is and how much time they’ll need to spend with us. The test gives both a score and also shows what percentile the child is in for their grade.
Fusion’s educational philosophy is highly flexible and accommodating to the needs of each individual, so if the student really hates math and a MAP test is the last thing they would want to do, the campus admins can assess the child’s math comprehension level on the basis of parental feedback or a recent standardized test report from their school.
If your student ends up attending a math intervention program with us, they’ll be placed into one of four different programs offered by ALEKS. They’re initially placed into a program depending on whether they’re in middle school or high school. Teachers can customize the placement and move students up or down a level as desired.
To learn more about our math remediation program, click here.
Other Fusion Academy Academic Programs
We’ve looked at how students can benefit from Fusion’s math intervention program, thanks to our 1-to-1 instruction and the software we use to give students a personalized learning plan.
We also offer several other types of programs, including:
- Full-time academic programs. You can enroll your student at Fusion full-time to complete their middle school or high school education.
- Part-time academic programs. Students can also attend Fusion Academy as a part-time student.
- Classes for credit. This is for students who need specific classes for credit, perhaps to make up for a class they previously did not pass or to get ahead in their curriculum.
- Tutoring & mentoring programs. In addition to our remediation programs, Fusion also offers tutoring and mentoring services for students.
- And more.
2. Khan Academy
Khan Academy provides free online math lessons for children from kindergarten all the way through college. Lessons are structured by grade, and there are also additional courses available if your child needs to get ready for a particular grade.
Khan Academy’s math curriculum contains thousands of practice exercises and hundreds of instructional videos. Children can learn at their own pace outside the classroom. The content is gamified to some degree, with students able to acquire mastery points for completing exercises.
If you’re going through Khan Academy with a teacher, they’ll be able to monitor your child’s dashboard, track performance, and intervene if they’re struggling.
3. Mathplanet
Mathplanet is an online platform that offers various online math courses. The bulk of the courses are aimed at high school students, including sample SAT and ACT questions for students who are preparing for college entry tests. This platform is especially helpful for students who are struggling with algebra.
Additionally, there is a Math Playground that’s designed to offer a more playful way of learning math for elementary school students. The platform also provides some entry-level material for students who are interested in computer programming.
Mathplanet was created by Mattecentrum, a Swedish non-profit, but the courses it offers are based on the US curriculum rather than anything European.
4. HippoCampus
HippoCampus is a website with thousands of free videos covering a wide variety of school subjects, including math. Their math videos cover all levels from middle school up to college.
The videos offered by HippoCampus are designed to be entertaining and engaging. Lots of them involve animation and a healthy dose of humor. For parents whose children have lost interest in math, this could be a good fit.
To give your child a custom curriculum to work through, it’s possible for you or your child’s teacher to create a playlist of all the videos you’d like them to watch. This is a degree of personalized learning that isn’t possible with many of the other Fusion alternatives.
Hiring a Private Math Tutor to Help with the Current Curriculum
When you work with a math tutor, you’re bringing someone in to support your son or daughter privately, on a schedule that works for your family. Normally, this takes the form of 1-to-1 lessons at home, with the tutor asking what your child is currently working on and focusing the class around that.
Tutors can be:
- Referrals from friends or family members.
- An additional service offered by your child’s school.
- Someone from a dedicated tutoring platform (see below).
The main advantage of private tutoring is the flexibility it offers. The 1-to-1 lessons can be tailored to your child’s needs in a way that it can’t be at a traditional school with larger class sizes.
But it’s worth noting that the success of private tutoring depends largely on the quality of the individual tutor hired.
Additionally, tutors are typically focused on what your child is working on right now, not on filling any gaps in their learning. In cases where tutors are college students, they’re unlikely to have received any specialist teacher training. It’s also hard for a tutor to gauge your child’s skill level and measure progress.
Popular platforms to find a math tutor include:
5. Yup Math
Yup Math provides access to expert math tutors 24/7. This means that you can book tutor sessions for your son or daughter whenever you wish.
Yup accepts fewer than 5% of the applicants who want to be tutors, and the site is backed by Stanford, both of which suggest that the quality of tutoring is high. Yup tutors are also given extra support and ongoing training from the platform.
You can track your child’s progress on the Yup Family Portal. This will give you access to tutoring sessions, data-driven insights, and other support resources.
6. Kumon
Another place where you can find a math tutor is your local Kumon Center. Students typically attend 1-to-1 math classes on site twice a week for 30 minutes and complete assignments in their own time on the other five days.
Tutoring is available at Kumon for all levels of math, from pre-school until the end of high school. Your child can work at their own pace and spend time building confidence with each math concept before moving forward.
Kumon’s learning model is based on students completing worksheets. For children who are easily bored by rote learning and being lectured by teachers, this more interactive solution could be a good fit.
7. Preply
Preply is an online marketplace that connects private tutors with individuals seeking learning support for themselves or their loved ones. They provide access to online tutors in numerous subjects, one of which is math.
This is a highly flexible platform that allows you to select tutors based on your chosen parameters. Preply will show you factors like where the tutor is from, how other students have rated them, and which areas of math they specialize in. Each tutor sets their own price, so the cost of a Preply tutor is also variable according to your budget.
You can then choose which tutor you want accordingly, and book as many or as few lessons as your child needs. If you don’t like your initial choice, it’s very easy to switch tutors.
8. Mathnasium
Mathnasium offers 1-to-1 math tutoring online and at 1000 in-person centers nationwide. The company specializes in math tutoring only and has developed its own math curriculum for children up until the age of 18. This curriculum can then be adjusted to your child’s math ability, as determined by an initial assessment.
Interestingly, Mathnasium has a policy of not giving students homework. They’ll work with your child on their existing homework, but they view assigning additional homework as a burden.
Mathnasium lessons are typically set up as a monthly subscription. It’s also possible to pay by the lesson, or for a batch of lessons in a dedicated summer camp. The latter seems like a good option for parents who want their child to meet like-minded students through their math lessons.
Discover the Best Math Intervention Program for Your Child
Fusion’s math intervention program is unique among these options in that it combines the best of both an online platform and private tutoring.
In other words, you can think of Fusion’s program as combining a personalized learning experience in 1-to-1 classes with an online platform that uses machine learning to match exercises to your child’s level.
To enroll your child in our math intervention program, contact us. We’d love to hear from you.
