Catchup Math Teacher FAQ

  • What is the best way to get started with Catchup Math?

    • Watch the Home Page Video Tour
    • Try the Home page Sample Student Session
    • Read the Getting Started Guide
    • Scan these FAQs.
    Then, feel free to give us a call and tell us your goals. We will work with you until you are confident that you are giving your students the best chance to succeed with Catchup Math.

  • How do I register students?

    There are three basic ways to get students registered and ready to work:

    • Manual Registration - You enter each student name and assign an individual password which you then give to the student. This works best when you have a small number of students to register. (This is the Register One Student option under Student Registration on the Admin page.)
    • Self Registration - All students are given your school Login Name and a special Group password. When they log in for the first time they will be automatically assigned a unique password based on the registration data they enter. This is more efficient than manual registration as it eliminates the need for you to type in student names and create passwords.
    • File Upload - Student names and passwords (which could be their student ID) can be uploaded from a two-column tab-delimited file with student name in the first column.

  • How does Self Registration work?

    Self Registration allows students to receive a computer-generated password and immediately start Catchup Math. You give all students the same Group password, which will be the name of the Group to which you want them assigned. Students log in the first time using your school Login Name and this Group password, and are prompted through steps that set up their personal password. From then on the student logs in under the school Login Name and their new personal password. You can create your Self Registration groups by using the Register Student button and then clicking the Self Registration option. Or, you can choose an existing Self Registration group from those listed in red in the Manage Groups listing.

  • How do I upload student names and passwords from a file?

    First, create a two-column tab-delimited text file where column 1 has student names (e.g., Smith, Robin) and column 2 has the password (e.g., student id). Then, click the Student Registration button, click the Bulk Registration option, and provide the requested information. Moments later, you are ready to tell students to log on using the school Login Name and their individual passwords.

  • How do I delete a student?

    Select the student from the list on the Admin page, then use the Student Registration pull-down menu and select the Unregister Student option. (Note: if you only want to change the password or the spelling of the name, you can use the Edit Student button and the student history will be retained.)

  • How can we group students into different classes or teachers?

    When you register students you are asked to create or use a Group Name that is appropriate. Most schools start group names with the teacher name followed by the class period (e.g., Brown3). The Manage Group button gives you some tools to make changes easily.

  • How can I find out what lessons topics are included in each of the Programs?

    On the Admin page, click on Program Details and select the Program and Section for which you want the list of topics.

  • How can I use Catchup Math to re-teach a specific Common Core Standard?

    See our document showing the correlation of Common Core Standards to Catchup Math programs on our Math Educators page.

  • What if I am not sure which Program a student should be enrolled in?

    When you register that student, select the manual registration option (Register One Student) and then select Auto-Enrollment from the Program pull-down menu. This option provides an entry-level diagnostic quiz that automatically places the student in the appropriate Proficiency Program based on the quiz results.

  • How can I limit the list of students on the Admin page to just one class?

    At the bottom left of the Admin page, choose the Group you want listed by using the Group pull-down menu box. You can further refine the listing with the text search box. For example, if you want to see all the students in the Brown1 group who are still in the Pre-Algebra Program, you would select that group and then type Pre-Alg in the text-search box.

  • Is it possible to sort the students listed on the Admin page?

    Yes, click any column heading and the students will be sorted using that column. This is an easy way to check recent logins, see who is falling behind, or see who is utilizing the online tutoring and how frequently.

  • What controls can I adjust for groups or individual students?

    • Passing percent: The default percent to pass a quiz is 70%. You may change that to 60% or 80% under Advanced Options when you set up Student Registration.
    • Show Work: You can require students to Show Work on the interactive whiteboard in order to proceed through the required practice problems. If you use this option, we recommend you do view the work (an option under Student Detail History) to ensure students are entering meaningful work and not making minimal entries to simply "get through the problem".
    • Limit Games: The Advanced Options under Student Registration allows you to decide whether or not to limit the use of games to one game per lesson. The games do have both a learning and motivational value; however, if you find students are spending too much time on games, at the expense of making progress through the assigned lessons, you may want to activate the limit either on the entire group (Manage Groups) or on individual students (Edit Student) as needed.
    • Stop at End of Program: Students are automatically advanced to the next Proficiency Program after completing all lessons in the assigned program. If you do not want this to occur (e.g. advancing to Algebra 1 when they complete all the Pre-Algebra lessons), select the Stop at End of Program Option under the Advanced Options.
    • Enable Tutoring: If your school subscribes to the Live Tutoring option, you can control which group(s) or which individual students may use it.

  • Can students change their password?

    Student passwords are assigned during initial registration either by you or by the computer (Self-Registration). The student does not have an option to later change this password, which prevents students from creating "inappropriate" passwords. However, if a student forgets their password, you can easily view it from the Admin screen. Also, if for some reason you did want to change a student password, you can do it under the Edit Student option on the Admin screen.

  • What reports are available?

    • Most Frequently Assigned Lessons: Under the Assessment option on the Admin page you can view the top 5 most frequently assigned lessons to identify the areas where most students are having difficulty.
    • Group Progress: Also under the Assessment option you can view how many students have progressed to each section of any of the Proficiency Programs.
    • Report Cards: Individual Student Report Cards can be viewed that include where a student is currently in their Program, how many quizzes have been passed and the average pass percent, how many times they have accessed the various resources, and a list of the topics they have been assigned. This feature is available under Student Detail History. These reports can be printed for your records or shared with parents.
    • Highlights Reports: the Highlights button provides reports on a wide range of metrics including Greatest Effort, Most Failures of Current Quiz, and Group Effort.

  • Can students view a summary of their own progress?

    • When students are given a new quiz, their current location in the program (e.g., "Section 2 of 6") is displayed in the upper left corner of the menu area.
    • When students are working on lessons, there is a pie-chart in the lower left of their screen that indicates how many lessons they need to complete before the next quiz.
    • As students complete required problems or activities, a check-mark appears on that item in the menu area
    • Students can review all their usage and scores since their account was created using their Help button and then the Student History button.

  • What can I do if I find students are just "paging through" the required practice problems?

    Students who are not taking advantage of learning from the tutorial practice problems will find they are not making progress and not passing quizzes. If they do not recognize this on their own, you will be able to identify them from the Admin reports and speak with them individually. Some options to consider might be requiring them to Show Work or pointing out some of the resources they are not utilizing, such as the videos and activities.

  • Why are some lessons missing a video or an activity?

    We do not have videos and activities for every lesson yet. We are working to fill in the gaps!

  • How much time will it take students to complete a lesson or a Proficiency Program?

    In 2009, we analyzed data from one month of usage in which students using the Catchup Math Proficiency Programs passed more than 28,000 quizzes. Each passed quiz in these programs demonstrates mastery of one-sixth of the full Program. (Each Proficiency Program is divided into 6 sections, with multiple topics in each section.) On average, students passed a quiz after 2.2 login sessions, which included an average of 4.5 remediation topics reviewed (about 2 topics per session). Based on this data, students using Catchup Math for two sessions per week could master all topics within a Proficiency Program in approximately seven weeks on average.

  • How can I view student work and answers for the required practice problems?

    You can view any work students have entered on the whiteboard by viewing Student Detail History for a particular student, then selecting a particular session from the list and clicking on Show Work. Note that answers which students type in the Enter-Answer option (during the required Practice Problems) is not saved for you to view. The Enter-Answer option is provided for some (but not all) Practice Problems for students who know the answer. If they get it right they need not click through the hints and steps to get the problem checked off. If their answer is incorrect, they will need to complete the tutorial section in order to get the problem checked off.

  • Do all students get the same quiz at the beginning of each Program Section?

    Students are rarely looking at the same quiz at the same time. Most of our programs have multiple quizzes that are randomly assigned for two reasons:
    • So students sitting next to each other in a computer lab are not taking the same quiz at the same time
    • So students who have not passed the quiz will receive a different quiz (on the same concepts) after completing all of the assigned review topics.

  • Is it possible to assign additional practice for students that need it?

    You can require students to utilize the Extra Practice Problems (and enter the Show-Work) or use the Skill Builders to get more practice in certain areas. Also, by viewing the most frequently assigned lessons under Assessment on the Admin page, you can determine if there are certain topics for which one or more students in your class may need additional instruction, outside of Catchup Math.

  • How do Custom Programs work?

    Teachers can create their own programs from our list of lesson topics by using our Custom feature. Also, teachers may create their own pre-tests, post-tests, quizzes, and exams by selecting from our complete online question bank, again by using the Custom feature.

  • What if I have a suggestion for Catchup Math?

    On the Student pages, if you press Help and then Feedback, you can enter a comment that will be associated with that particular lesson or solution and we will review it within a day or so. To make broader product suggestions, please send us an email.