What are the mastery thresholds for each app?
Here is the sheet that outlines the Mastery Threshold for each app by grade level.
Why do we need a mastery ring?
We learned last year that students who worked to 100 Smartscore learned 2.3X while students who worked to 80 Smartscore learned 1X or less on MAP tests. Mastering units is Learning!
Last year, when there was no mastery ring, some students would stop answering questions (stop learning!) when they achieved 80% accuracy, earning 2X sessions without getting to 100 Smartscore.
Of all the 2x sessions awarded last year, ⅔ of them would have met the current mastery standards, and ⅓ would not (no units mastered)
Why do I need 80% accuracy and mastered units in IXL? Isn't just mastering units enough?
Think of it this way: Mastered units show you're making progress, but the 80% accuracy shows you're doing it really well. We want you to learn fast and effectively in just 2 hours each day. If you get to a 100 smartscore with less than 80% accuracy, it means you might have missed some chances (wrong answer explanations) to learn even more!
In eGUMPP, it shows my accuracy as 82% but Dash shows 78%?
In the eGUMPP app, the 82% just shows the accuracy on your last attempt of the unit. In Dash, the accuracy reflects your combined accuracy for the whole session. In this case there were 2 attempts, one at 75% and one at 82% which yields a combined accuracy of 78%.
If I do 50 minutes do I need to do double the mastery unit threshold?
No. As long as you meet the mastery threshold and the time threshold (25m) you will earn the 2X session for the day.
When we introduce the ability to earn 2 Math sessions in a single day you will need to put in double the time and the thresholds may increase, but right now, with only a single math session up for grabs in 2hr learning we’re giving you an additional 25 minutes to meet the single session math mastered units target.
I can't find any articles to work on in NewsELA. What should I do?
To find your NewsELA assignments easily, go to the Dash, look for the reading section and you'll find the direct link to your articles there. No extra steps needed. If you can't see your recent assignments on NewsELA's website, they might be in the "Older Assignments" section.
Why 3 articles in Newsela? That feels impossible.
We are doing a temporary experiment and changing the threshold for NewsELA from 3/day to 2/day for all reading difficulty levels.
We base these thresholds on the average amount of time it takes to complete a unit at the right level when the app is used correctly. In other words, we look at students (of all abilities) who use the apps correctly and see how long it takes them to master units.
How should I go about handling questions that refer to images?
Each article and question in NewsELA is curated by an external specialized team. Images in articles contain a caption that indicates the number of the image. But sometimes, mistakes can happen. If you find something confusing, like a wrong picture or a picture with the wrong number, you can notify the support team. They will then let the experts know so they can fix it.
Dash shows that I need to get a 4/4 to get a mastered article credit in NewsELA. That seems hard. Why?
It is important to get 4/4 on NewsELA because the 4th question is the one that tests reading comprehension. The other three questions are “fact-finding questions” that do not assess comprehension. The core of learning is reading comprehension. Students need to be great at comprehension as early as possible if they want to spend only 2 hours per day on academics.
In NewsELA, I’m struggling to get 4/4 on 2 articles. What is your best advice?
A big mistake we've noticed from checking StudyReel films is that many students spend too little time actually reading and understanding the article. Instead, they jump straight to the questions. But if you don't fully grasp the article first, you'll just end up going back and re-reading bits and pieces for every single question.
Here's a better approach:
Read Slowly and Steadily: Don't rush. Read the article one paragraph at a time.
Check Your Understanding: After each paragraph, pause. Say out loud what that paragraph was mainly about. Maybe even jot it down. This helps make sure you've really got it before moving on.
Balance Your Time: Aim to spend around 60% of your time reading and understanding, and the other 40% answering questions. If you're only spending a tiny bit of time reading and most of your time on the questions, you're probably not practicing reading comprehension the right way.
Remember, the goal is to get the main ideas from just one reading, rather than going back over and over for each question. This will save you time and boost your understanding!
Why don't I receive credit for mastering a unit that I've already completed?
Great question! Here's the deal:
When you master a unit, it's like earning a badge of honor. It means you've grasped the concepts and are ready to move forward. Now, let's say you take a science test and miss a few questions. If our post-test coaching identifies that you have a genuine knowledge gap (and it's not just a simple mistake), you might be asked to revisit that unit. This is to ensure you truly understand the material.
But here's the catch: you won't receive credit for mastering it a second time. Why? Because we want to encourage you to truly master the material the first time around. Giving credit for re-mastering a unit could paint a misleading picture of your progress. It might seem like you're advancing when, in reality, you're revisiting old material.
Remember, sometimes you might be assigned units you've already mastered. This isn't a mistake! It's a way to refresh your memory or fill in any gaps in your understanding. Think of it as a refresher course. But just like in school, you don't get extra credit for reviewing what you should already know.
In short, our goal is to help you learn and grow. We want to ensure you're truly mastering material, not just breezing through it. So, while it might be a bit frustrating not to get credit the second time around, know that it's all in the name of your education. Keep up the hard work, and always strive for mastery the first time!
I keep hearing “slow down to speed up” from the coaches. If I slow down, how does that make me go faster?
When a student rushes through the material, they actually take longer to get to 100 smartscore than a student who slows down and engages in active learning. Why? Because students who don’t slow down to go through each wrong answer, explanation, or watch the video keep making the same mistakes over and over as they try to get 100 smartscore.
Interesting Fact: every time you skip a wrong answer explanation in IXL but don't learn why you got it wrong, that adds at least 2 more questions you have to answer correctly before you get to 100 smartscore
Why do I need to attend post test coaching?
Post test coaching saves you time. Without post-test coaching, we would assume that every question you got wrong on the test was because of a knowledge hole. We’ve done hundreds of post-test coaching sessions, and we’ve found that when a student gets a test question wrong 50% of the time it was a “careless” error.
By attending post test coaching we can identify which questions were knowledge gaps and therefore need an assigned lesson and which were careless mistakes. We do not want to waste your time on mastering skills for questions that were careless mistakes.
If or when you do make a careless mistake while testing (it happens to everyone) we can coach you on specific “attention to detail” standardized testing techniques so you can master your next test!
- "Why are there no videos for Language and Science on IXL?"
There are two schools of thought on learning: Passive Learning and Active Learning. Passive learning focuses on the teacher in front of the classroom. Active: Answering questions, getting immediate feedback, learning from wrong answer explanations, try again, …
Active learning is more efficient than passive learning, and it's necessary if you want to spend only 2 hours per day on academics.
I can’t speak to IXL’s business motivations, but I can guess that IXL spends more of its time and money focusing on the quality of its wrong answer explanations (required for a great active learning app) than it does on its passive learning videos.
Just like a great workshop, we have found students are more engaged when they get to try something, learn from it and try again. The most boring workshops, classes, courses are ones that simply require you to sit back and listen to a lecture or a video.
- "Why can't IXL tell me where I went wrong in a question and just give me what they want the answer to be?"
On a wrong answer, IXL provides clear step-by-step instructions on how to reason through and complete each problem. Best practice is to compare the steps you wrote down, step by step to IXL’s steps to see where you went wrong.
We also are working on an AI based Alpha Tutor that will analyze your work and provide direct feedback!
Why do we have to get to 100 smartscore? IXL says 80 is proficient? Wouldn’t we learn faster if we just get to 80?
IXL asks the just the basic questions between 0 and 80 Smartscore. Students learn and truly prove mastery of a concept when they complete the questions from 80 - 100 smartscore.
When you complete a lesson to 100 smartscore, you are more likely to answer those questions correctly when asked on standardized tests.
Essentially, It's more efficient to just get to 100 smartscore the first time. The alternative is to miss questions on a mastery test and be continually reassigned IXL lessons.
"Why can't a video or explanation pop up first when I start a skill, instead of the question and I have to go look for a video or example?"
IXL videos or examples are available anytime at the top of the skill. We leave it to students to choose for each skill whether they want to start by watching the video, or to jump right in answering questions.
It is up to you whether you would like to get context first or learn as you go from wrong answer explanations. We recommend you reference the video or explanation as you hit specific difficulties throughout the lesson.
I don’t want to spend time filling holes. I want to learn new content. I don’t see how I can improve my NWEA MAP test scores at the end of the year without learning new content. Coaches say “go backward to go forwards” but that doesn’t make any sense.
Learning new content requires a solid foundation. Common core standards are designed to build on top of each other. The number one reason a student doing everything right (engaging for the right amount of time, and using the app correctly) struggles to learn new content, is because that content is dependent on the knowledge that the student never mastered.
It's much faster for the student to go back and fill that knowledge hole, and then re-attempt the skill than it is to continue pushing forward without foundational knowledge.
It took my friend three hours to complete this one IXL lesson. How do you expect me to complete it in 25 mins?
When a student is working at the right difficulty level, and using the app correctly, there are less than 5% of skills that take more than 25 minutes to master.
The average IXL skill across all subjects and grade levels is 15 minutes. The average time to complete a unit is 20 min in Math and Language, 15 minutes in Science, and less than 10 minutes in Reading.
We’ve reviewed game film from hundreds of students and found that in the majority of cases where students took more than 25 minutes to master a skill, the student was not using the app correctly.
App coaching can ensure you use the app correctly and overcome the most common app use mistakes:
- Not engaged - taking breaks, distracted, no eye contact with material
- Skipping wrong answer explanations - continuing to get questions wrong for the same reason
- Not using pencil and paper (Math) - trying to do everything in working memory
- Not taking notes - this is especially common in the more difficult skills in Language and Science
- Ignoring app resources - not watching videos, not using lessons, and not using “learn from an example”
- Doing every question end-to-end twice - while you are learning, it's not a good practice to do every question twice. It is better to submit after a quick sanity check, and then if you get it wrong, figure out specifically where by going through the wrong answer explanation.
There are a few IXL skills (<5%) that take more than 25 minutes even if the student is doing everything right and the skill is at the right difficulty level.
If you think you’ve found a skill, we’ll be happy to review the “game film” of your core skills session.
How did you determine the mastery thresholds for each app?
The daily targets are set based on what a student at the right difficulty level, using the app correctly, can accomplish in the daily learning time. They are not personalized by student. They are set by subject and common core grade level of the material that the student is working on.
In other words, we look at students (of all abilities) who use the apps correctly and see how long it takes them to master units.
Proposed Alternatives to a Mastery Ring from Students:
Could we have a mastery threshold for the week instead of by 2X session?
We set daily 2hr session goals because learning science (specifically the science behind spaced repetition and interleaving) says that students learn significantly better doing every subject every day. Having only weekly thresholds would lead to endorsing “batched learning” which we know doesn’t help kids.
Could we just make it CQPH (correct questions per hour) again but you can’t do another unit until you master the one you are on?
CQPH is NOT part of 2hr sessions this year for 2 reasons:
- When we focused on correct questions per hour it resulted in students rushing through questions which is the opposite of our “slow down to speed up” value. Students who rush don’t go through their wrong answer explanations, continue to make the same mistakes, and don’t learn.
- The number one metric to predict test score growth (besides test scores) is the number of mastered units at the right difficulty level. There is no useful correlation between CQPH and improvement in test scores.
Could we make the threshold gaining a certain amount of IXL Smartscore instead of mastering an entire unit?
Within each IXL skill, there are multiple difficulty levels. The easiest questions (level 1) get you from 0-50 Smartscore, the next (level 2) get you from 50 to 80, then level 3 gets you from 80 to 90, and then level 4 gets you through the “challenge zone” from 90 to 100.
Standardized tests (like STAAR, ISEE, SAT) primarily contain level 4 questions.
That means if you want to perform well on tests, only a fully mastered unit (Smartscore 100) means something.
Why does my IXL time say 26 minutes but then in Dash it says 23 and I don’t get the 2hr session?
As students work in IXL, IXL tracks and displays time spent to students. However, overnight the study reel films are analyzed and 1-minute blocks of idle time (that IXL doesn’t detect) are subtracted out. A student with 26 minutes show 23 minutes in dash because the student had 3 idle minutes that IXL didn’t detect.
Priyanka Bhotika
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