Although MathProject primarily helps children achieve mastery and confidence in math, our team is also dedicated to giving back to our community in any way we can. Due to our commitment to uplifting our community, we are pleased to announce that MathProject has provided a $2,500 donation to the Mississauga Food Bank; an organization focused on alleviating hunger within Mississauga. One policy made the donation possible: our High School Homework Policy.
In 2018, our founder, Shehreen Zaman, realized that highschool students at MathProject could achieve even better results if there was more support and involvement from parents of the program. With that, she introduced a policy to engage high school parents in their children’s performance and learning.
High school students must submit homework on time for feedback, helping teachers address their weaknesses more effectively. Shehreen states, “My hope was to instill responsibility in my students, and prepare them for the unavoidable deadlines they would face in postsecondary education and the real world”.
Students with repeated issues faced a $50 fine for each late or incomplete homework submission, despite multiple reminders. The policy always intended to donate all fines to the Mississauga Food Bank, focusing on students’ improvement rather than profit. Responsive students and parents received extra time before fine implementation.
After introducing the policy, MathProject witnessed a significant increase in students’ progress.
However, the initial policy design had its flaws, leading to parental anger. To appease parents while maintaining student improvement, we halved the fine. We communicated the policy’s vision one-on-one with parents to ensure a high level of understanding and support. Those who gave it some time saw their children performing miraculously well in their school math.
“Not only did it produce excellent results for our program by improving students’ scores dramatically, it equipped our students with key life skills, such as time management, work organization, setting priorities, meeting deadlines, and above all, taking responsibility for their studies” says Shehreen.
Our High School Homework policy fosters student success while providing sustainable meals to the vulnerable members of our community.
For more on MathProject and how we’ve transformed our students’ capabilities and confidence in math, check out our results, student success stories, and testimonials from satisfied parents here!
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