Intervention for Middle School Students with Poor Achievement in Mathematics

Poor mathematics achievement in middle school students is evident in many countries. While some of the difficulties can be attributed to student related factors, there is considerable evidence that computational automaticity is essential for mathematics achievement. A QuickSmart (QS) mathematics intervention program was trialled with a group of students in Grades 7 and 8, matched with a control group of similar underachieving classmates. A statistically significant decrease in mean response latencies was found for QS participants after lessons in multiplication only. Significant differences were also evident between the pre and post scores of the two groups on a standardised test of mathematics. This study confirms and extends previous findings of the efficacy of mathematics intervention for underperforming middle school students. [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]