Start with the basics

We gave our Study Tech students an online assessment that was targeted to material taught in the 6th-8th grades, and many of them did poorly on the test.  These are students who got a 1 on the MSP test at the end of 6th grade.  Because we want to clearly define where they are now in order to show improvement later, we also gave these students the online assessment for grades K-5.  Several of our students scored at the 3rd or 4th grade level in certain subjects, particularly working with fractions and finding equivalent fractions.  This topic is going to come up again in later math, so we really want to make sure they understand this basic idea.  Our realization that we need to go back to concepts they should have learned in 3rd grade opened our eyes to the level of basic math skills these kids are missing.