As a BzzAgent, I was invited to a campaign for The Factor Tree, and given a month-long free trial in exchange for my honest opinion of the site. The concept for the site is great, so I had high hopes. It is designed to teach math at the level of an individual student, “[using] a skill-adaptive progression algorithm to pinpoint each child’s true skill level.” After adding your student, he takes an evaluation test designed to assess what he knows and “place” him properly. After this, he complete a worksheet each day that’s tailored to his own level of knowledge. I thought this would be great for Ariel, as she often struggles with doing things that aren’t “fun,” but she likes the computer.
Unfortunately, the implementation is pretty lousy. I watched her complete her evaluation, and only three skills were addressed: whether a number was greater than, less than, or equal to another; counting of objects; and addition of two-digit numbers with carrying. Because Ariel couldn’t remember how to carry (she’s learned this concept, but we haven’t practiced enough lately because of household circumstances) and, therefore, skipped those, the site decided she needs to work on counting and started her there. Never mind the fact that she got all of the counting questions right. (They were easy enough that Sophia – my three-year-old – could have answered them.) Her first worksheet was a counting worksheet. She got all of those right, as well, and the next worksheet assigned to her was still counting. There were no simpler addition problems. No single-digit addition. No double-digit addition without carrying. Just a jump straight from counting to complex addition. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s a jump of multiple grades.
I also didn’t see any questions about related topics, like place value (which I would think would be a pretty important concept if you expect a child to be able to carry properly). Just counting, equality, and complex addition. There doesn’t seem to be any way for me, as the parent, to adjust Ariel’s settings, either. As a result, many days of our trial (which would otherwise be many paid days) will be wasted, with Ariel’s having to fill out worksheets that are way too easy for her, in order to get to the concepts she actually needs practice for.
It would be more helpful for us to just visit sheppardsoftware.com (a free site) and pick out games for her to play for drill purposes.
If you’d like to check it out for yourself (maybe it will work more like it’s supposed to for you than it did for us), you can use code BZF to get a 2-week free trial. I’d love to hear what you think, and if the assessment worked better for you than for us.
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