# Students who fall behind

Throughout my mathematical education I came across a very common problem. Essentially what happens is that a student will fail to properly learn a certain concept and will fall behind. Each year that the student is in math classes he or she will fall further and further behind the rest of the class until, eventually, the gap between students is so wide that the student has too stop taking classes altogether. My question is: what can be done to stop this problem? How can a student be brought up to the correct grade level without making the rest of the class go through remedial course work as well? Assume that the school in question has very limited resources. (i.e. no special remedial classes or in- class assistants)

• I am in a standards-based grading environment. I created a class website with tutorial videos and extra practice sets. Students would then be able to apply for a reassessment by doing many different things (for example: do a ton of extra practice problems and show all work or fully explain the mistakes they made on quizzes and show a correct solution). If the application looks pretty solid (the student is only making minor arithmetic mistakes), then we set up a time for them to come in and prove their understand on that concept. I can then change their grade to reflect their knowledge. May 29 '16 at 1:41
• "How can a student be brought up to the correct grade level without making the rest of the class go through remedial course work as well?" Have the weak student go through remedial course work alone. This can be done outside regular class hours, either at home or during the student's free time in school. May 29 '16 at 5:33
• The solution is to abolish courses and curricula. But humankind is not yet so advanced. We're still primitive troglodytes in that regard. $\qquad$ Jul 22 '16 at 4:58