A pilot project that helped local students crunch numbers with free online math tutorials is now being offered at schools across Ontario.
Lakehead Public Schools was one of 16 school boards to first use the Math Homework Help website for students in Grades 7 through 10. The website offers one-on-one assistance with math homework through interactive sessions with teachers.
Funded by the Ministry of Education, the site started in 2007 and expanded to all 60 English-speaking school boards in Ontario in 2011.
Gino Russo, e-learning resource teacher, said Thunder Bay school board was able to be one of the first to use the website when it was a pilot project in 2009.
He said many of the time students don’t have the opportunity to turn to someone for help after school if they have a question about their homework.
“If you’re stuck with a math question your parents may not be able to help you and there’s not a lot of places to turn after school,” Russo said.
“We were one of 16 boards that were lucky enough to be able to get it back then. It was something that really supplemented our goals to increase math help especially on the Grade 9 EQAO test. We have seen a lot of success with it in the last few years. It’s just one more place for the students to turn.”
Every single person that helps the student is a certified Ontario math teacher, he said. When the school board started the project, about 10 per cent of students used the website. A few years later, it’s has jumped to 20 per cent.
While students are anonymous online, Russo said they asked students who they knew used the website if it helped and were encouraged by what they told them.
“It’s really catching on like wild fire,” he said.
MPP Bill Mauro (Lib. Thunder Bay – Atikokan) said the government wanted to make sure that as many people as possible graduate high school and the website is one of the those steps to accomplish that goal.
“It’s all part of the bigger picture,” Mauro said.
“We’ve done a lot to see graduation rates increase significantly in Ontario from high school. That’s very important because you need that to go on to post-secondary education. We know that the new jobs, the new global economy are continuing to require higher and higher levels of education all the time. (The website) is just one of those bridges to help people graduate.”
