Family Plan Step 7: How Your Child Progresses

In MathFactLab, your child will take an assessment to show that they are ready to move on to the next level of the program. We call these assessments Level Lifters.

Unlike regular practice activities, Level Lifters do not include strategies or visual models. These assessments confirm that your child has internalized the current level's math facts and is ready to move on.

Table of Contents

1. Overview of Level Lifters
2. Unlocking Level Lifters
   1. How Children Unlock Level Lifters for the First Time
   2. How Children Unlock the Level Lifter for Subsequent Attempts
   3. How Parents Can Manually Unlock Level Lifters
3. Level Lifter Passing Requirements
   1. Retakes
   2. How to Adjust the Passing Requirements
4. Level Lifter Interviews: An Alternative Means of Assessment
5. Level Lifter Reports

Overview of Level Lifters

Level Lifters are the assessments your child takes to move up a level in both the Addition/Subtraction and Multiplication/Division programs.  

Level Lifters give your child the chance to show that they can efficiently use the strategies they have practiced at their current level and in previous levels. Along with the Placement Test, Level Lifters are the only time children solve math fact problems without being shown a strategy or visual model. 

Each Level Lifter comes in 3 parts: 

1. First operation fact problems: either addition or multiplication
2. Second operation fact problems: either subtraction or division fact problems
3. Results

Results include:

• If a child passes, they see a Congratulations message.
• If a child does not pass, they see their Level Lifter report, which helps show what skills still need practice.

Note: Your child's Level Lifter reports do not show response time. Instead, responses are grouped into three categories:

• Correct and fluent
• Correct but not yet fluent
• Incorrect

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Unlocking Level Lifters

Before your child can take a Level Lifter, they need to unlock it first. Children can unlock a Level Lifter in two different ways.

How Children Unlock the Level Lifter for the First Time

The first time your child unlocks a Level Lifter, they do this by completing all activities shown on their dashboard.

• A checkmark appears in the top-right corner of each activity when it is completed.
• Once all activities are completed, the Level Lifter button becomes available to click.

Good to know: Your child does not have to take the Level Lifter right away. Children can keep practicing until they feel ready  

How Children Unlock the Level Lifter for Subsequent Attempts

If your child needs to try a Level Lifter again, or if they are working in the advanced levels, they will need to reach a points goal before they can try again.

• If your child did not pass either part of the Level Lifter, they need to earn 900 points on two activities - one activity for each operation.
• If your child passed one part but not the other, they need to earn 900 points on one activity for the operation they did not pass.

The rationale for this requirement is that it allows your child the opportunity to focus on their preferred strategies, and earning 900 points gives them a good chance of passing the Level Lifter.  

Answering all of an activity's problems correctly and within the assigned fluency rate earns the child 1000 points.  Points are deducted for incorrect or not-yet-fluent responses.

How Parents Can Manually Unlock Level Lifters

If you feel your child is ready to take a Level Lifter, you can unlock the Level Lifter by doing the following:

1. Go to the Children tab on the Parent dashboard.
2. Select the Performance view.
3. Click the 3-dots action button on the child's row. 
4. Select Unlock Level Lifter.

The next time your child logs into their account, the Level Lifter will be available for them to take when they are ready. If your child is already using that MathFactLab when you make this change, they may need to refresh their screen for the Level Lifter to be available.

Note: Unlocking the level lifter provides one-time access to the Level Lifter.  If they fail to pass the Level Lifter after this attempt, the typical requirements will again apply.

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Level Lifter Passing Requirements

To move up a level, your child needs to demonstrate fluency with the newly-learned facts in their current level and the facts learned in previous levels.  

Fluency means your child answers correctly within their assigned time limit (called their fluency rate).   For example, if your child’s fluency rate is 6 seconds, any correct answer given within 6 seconds is considered fluent. The fluency rate may be adjusted from 2 to 120 seconds per problem. This article explains how to adjust the fluency rate.

Retakes

Just like adults, children sometimes make simple mistakes or typos. Because of this, Level Lifters allow limited retakes. Your child can reanswer up to 15% of the problems in each section of a Level Lifter.  For example, if a section has 20 problems, your child can retake up to 3 problems. 

If your child answers a problem incorrectly or takes longer than their fluency rate, the program may present those problems again at the end of the section (up to the retake limit).

The new answers will replace the earlier ones.

Your child will not be told which questions are retakes.

Passing Percentage: How to Adjust the Passing Requirements

To provide additional flexibility in Level Lifter passing requirements, parents can set their child's passing percentage.  This is the score required for a child to pass a Level Lifter. Click here to learn how to adjust the Passing Percentage.

Level Lifter Interviews: Another Way to Assess Your Child’s Progress

Some children, for a variety of reasons, may not show their full understanding on a standard Level Lifter. For these children, MathFactLab offers Level Lifter Interviews.

A Level Lifter Interview asks the same questions as a regular Level Lifter, but it is given on a parent’s device. Your child does not need to type any answers.

Your child can complete a Level Lifter Interview at any time. Your child does not need to unlock the Level Lifter first. (However, it is usually best if your child completes practice activities first so they feel prepared.)

To begin a Level Lifter Interview:

1. Go to the Children tab on the parent dashboard.
2. Switch to the Performance Tab.
3. Click the three-dot Actions button across from your child’s name   
4. Select Level Lifter Interview

How a Level Lifter Interview Works

A Level Lifter Interview is similar to a regular Level Lifter, with a few important differences:

• Your child answers questions out loud instead of typing

  The parent decides if the answer is correct:

• Press the spacebar if the answer is correct
• Press another key if the answer is not correct
• Each section of the assessment can be stopped at any time if needed
• After both parts of the interview are finished, your child’s Level Lifter report appears. The parent then decides whether your child is ready to move up by selecting:
  • Level Up! - Your child moves to the next level
  • Not Yet - Your child continues practicing at the current level

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Level Lifter Reports

To find a report for your child's most recent Level Lifter:

1. Start on the Children tab.
2. Go to the Performance view.
3. Click the letter of the child's current level.

Level Lifter reports for previously taken assessments can be found on the Individual side of the Usage Stats report.

Level Lifter reports are formatted similarly to the Placement Test reports:

• Green for correct and fluent
• Yellow for correct but not yet fluent
• Red for an incorrect response.
• The child's response time is provided for each question.

Level Lift reports can be exported as PDF or CSV files.

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