Algorithm Transparency - Daily Maths Review

Short Version

Teachers stay in control

Suggested reviews are draft plans. Teachers can save, change, ignore or launch them, and the system stores the reason and score when a suggested review is saved or launched.

Parents can see the logic

Home recommendations are based on the child's maths progress, placement results when available, recent accuracy and topics that need another look.

No hidden AI ranking: recommendations do not use advertising data, payment data, unrelated browsing behaviour, or hidden machine-learning profiles.

What Data Is Used

Student work

Activity completed
Settings used, such as denominator 8
Questions attempted and correct answers
Recent scored attempts
Correct streak for auto-marked answers

Teacher setup

Assigned work
Class and student progress summaries
Recent suggested-review history
Saved or launched suggestion reasons

Placement

Area checked, such as number or operations
Estimated level
Next step
Recommended activity for that step

Progress is tracked at activity level and, where the activity supports it, activity-plus-settings level. For example, fractions practice can be summarised as fractionsAndDecimals/barFraction/denominator=8, so a broad topic does not hide a specific setting that needs work.

How Mastery Is Worked Out

Mastery is current, not lifetime-only. The system keeps lifetime totals for history, but current mastery gives the strongest signal to the most recent scored questions.

Recent window

The main mastery calculation uses the last 30 scored questions for that activity when they exist. Older questions remain in the history but do not keep dragging the mastery label down forever.

Enough evidence

A student needs at least 10 recent scored questions before an 85% or higher recent accuracy can count as percentage-based mastered.

Mastery level	How it is interpreted
Support required	Current accuracy is less than 50%.
Partially mastered	Current accuracy is 50% to less than 85%, or 85%+ with too few recent scored questions.
Mastered	Current accuracy is 85%+ with enough evidence, or the student has 12 correct auto-scored answers in a row.

Example: if a student gets 97 wrong and then the last 3 right, they are not marked mastered. If the last 30 scored questions are 27 wrong and 3 right, the current accuracy is 10%, so it is still support required. If the student then gets 12 auto-scored answers right in a row, the streak shortcut can count that activity as mastered.

Teacher Suggested Reviews

Teacher review suggestions look across class progress and try to identify activities that are most useful for the next short review.

score = mastery need + accuracy gap + evidence + class reach - recent repeat penalty

Factor	What it means
Mastery need	Support required adds 90 points, partially mastered adds 58 points, and mastered adds 16 points only when mastered topics are deliberately included. Teacher suggestions normally leave mastered topics out.
Accuracy gap	Lower current accuracy increases the score by up to 42 points.
Evidence	More attempted questions give the system more confidence that the signal is real, up to 18 points.
Class reach	An activity affecting more students in the class receives more weight, up to 16 points.
Recent repeat penalty	An activity suggested recently loses 34 points so the same item does not keep coming back too often.

The teacher-facing panel beside suggested reviews explains why those activities were chosen, including the plain-language reason and recommendation score.

When there are more useful activities than can fit in a review, Daily Maths Review uses weighted random selection without replacement. Higher scores are more likely to be picked, but the final list can vary so teachers are not shown the same order every time.

The next DMR target-level layer is designed to make these drafts more exact. Where saved data includes a DMR code, activity option key, next review date and interval, suggested reviews should open as editable Review Builder drafts with the exact activity variant and a plain-language reason.

Student And Home Practice Suggestions

Student recommendations use the same current mastery thinking, then add two extra signals: placement and new-topic exploration.

Placement boost

If a placement result points to a starting point or next step, that activity receives a boost and the reason says that placement suggested it.

New-topic exploration

Activities with no saved practice can still appear with an exploration score of 28, so a student is not locked into only topics they have already tried.

Student signal	How it affects the recommendation
Progress score	Uses the same current-mastery score as the teacher tool, but can include mastered activities as low-priority spaced review. The DMR target-level model is designed to start with close review intervals, such as 1 day, 2 days and 4 days, then grow the interval after repeated secure evidence.
Placement result	Placement adds 72 points for support required, 46 for partially mastered and 18 for mastered next-step review. Combined placement boosts are capped at 140.
New topic	No saved practice gives the activity an exploration score of 28.

Signed-in students can receive progress-based suggestions. Guest practice uses selected year level, curriculum scope and light shuffling because there is no saved student progress to read.

Limits And Human Control

Not a diagnosis

Mastery labels are planning signals. They should be read with classroom observation, student confidence and the type of question attempted.

Self-check is weaker evidence

Drawing, visual or self-check questions can be recorded, but the 12-in-a-row shortcut only uses answers the system can auto-score confidently.

Adults can override

Teachers and parents can choose other work. Recommendations are there to explain a likely next step, not to force one.

Audit trail

When a teacher saves or launches a suggested review, Daily Maths Review stores the recommendation score and reason so the choice can be reviewed later.