Kamehameha Schools Hawai’i
Course Syllabus for the Math Mastery Program
Teacher: Mr. Dan DeMattos Room Number: 1104
Phone Number: 982-0437 E-mail: dadematt@ksbe.edu
Aloha e nä mäkua,
Kamehameha Schools Hawai’i Kula Waena is deeply committed to helping our haumana reach their fullest potential. We are also aware of our duty to prepare our haumana for high school and beyond. The mathematics department at our middle school utilizes many strategies to assist your child in achieving these two goals. One of our strategies for holding our students accountable for their learning is the Math Mastery Program.
The Math Mastery Program attempts to address some of the standards, topics, and skills for each grade level that your child needs to be able to do with mastery. Each trimester, your child will be responsible for demonstrating mastery of the standards, topics, or skills assessed on the Math Mastery Assessment. The score that your child receives will be included in your child’s math grade. Please see the schedule below.
- Trimester 1: Summer Session of Math Mastery
- Trimester 2: Trimester 2 Session of Math Mastery (standard, topic, or skill to be determined by teachers)
- Trimester 3: Trimester 3 Session of Math Mastery (standard, topic, or skill to be determined by teachers)
Students will have opportunities to demonstrate mastery of the standards, topics, or skills for their grade level. All students are to demonstrate mastery of the standards, topics, or skills that are assessed on the Math Mastery Assessments by the following deadlines:
- Trimester 1: Thursday, October 23 at 3:30 pm
- Trimester 2: Thursday, February 5 at 3:30 pm
- Trimester 3: Thursday, May 14 at 3:30 pm
The math department will follow this process to prepare your child for success in the Math Mastery Program:
- For the Summer Session, a packet of problems was sent home with problems very much like those on the Trimester 1 Summer Session of Math Mastery test. For the Trimester 2 and Trimester 3 Sessions, the Math Specialist, Dan DeMattos, or your child’s math teacher will give instruction on the topics assessed by the Trimesters 2 and 3 Math Mastery Assessments in your child’s math class. This instruction will include notes, examples, and, possibly, homework problems.
- Practice tests, review sheets, ixl.com alignments to the skills and topics assessed on the test, and links to khanacademy.org, a video website that teaches math topics and skills, are posted on my blog at http://blogs.ksbe.edu/dadematt/.
- All students will take Round 1 of the Math Mastery test in their math classes.
- All students will Round 2 of the Math Master Assessment regardless of how they performed on Round 1. The Round 1 and Round 2 Assessments assess the same topics and skills.
- If your child did well on both Rounds 1 and 2, your child’s grade for the Math Mastery Assessment for his/her math class will be the better of the two scores. Your child will not need to take Round 3. However, your child may choose to take Round 3. His/her grade for the Math Mastery Assessment will be the best of the three scores. If your child did poorly on Round 1, but well on Round 2, your child’s grade for the Math Mastery Assessment for his/her math class will be the score for Round 2. Your child will not need to take Round 3. However, your child may choose to take Round 3. His/her grade for the Math Mastery Assessment will be the better of his/her Round 2 or Round 3 score. If your child did poorly on both Rounds 1 and 2, he/she will take Round 3. Your child’s score for the Math Mastery Assessment will be the best of the three scores. If your child did well on Round 1, but did poorly on Round 2, he/she will take Round 3. If your child does poorly on Round 3, your child’s score for the Math Mastery Assessment will be the better score from Round 2 or Round 3. If your child does well on Round 3, his/her grade for the Math Mastery Assessment will be the better score from Round 1 or Round 3.
- Round 3 Math Mastery Assessment will occur before school or during recess in Room 1104. If your child’s math teacher is available, your child may take Round 3 in his/her math teacher’s classroom before school, during recess or Ho’oulu, or after school. Please have your child ask his/her math teacher beforehand for permission and availability to do this.
- Note: Teachers may use Math Mastery Assessment scores as formative assessment grades at their discretion.
Please support the math department by encouraging your child to use the supports provided and to take these Math Mastery Assessments seriously.
Students with Internet access will benefit from utilizing online resources such as ixl.com, ALEKS, phschool.com, khan academy.org, aaamath.com, or thatquiz.org on a regular basis. Please contact us if you have any questions about any of these programs.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Mahalo,
Dan DeMattos
Kamehameha Schools Middle School Math Specialist