Employ strategies that appeal to multiple intelligences in the remedial classroom. For example, appeal to students who are gifted at music by studying the mathematics of music, or appeal to a budding artist by studying DaVinci's paintings.
Use technology as an assistive device. Graphing calculators are becoming commonplace in the classroom, especially for algebra-level and above. These calculators will solve linear equations and simultaneous equations, find the nth root of a number, and calculate complex statistical data without the student having to work the problem out by hand or read a single table.
Use behavioral techniques to encourage learning. According to Pereira et. al, behavioral techniques (for example, modeling the task, giving rewards, or role-playing) have been shown to improve students' performance in math. This includes antecedent procedure (thinking about the solution and working backwards to make sure it is the correct answer) and better problem design. Find out what motivates the student and reward successes, no matter how small.
Test the student for content area instead of for subject. For example, a student who is failing algebra may be failing because he or she is weak with order of operations. Moving that student back to pre-algebra will have no effect on the student's performance: a content area test will identify the student's weakness and ensure that he or she gets the targeted help needed to get back on track.
Give the student a modalities test. The three modalities are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. A student struggling in a primarily auditory environment (for example, lectures), may need to be moved to a more visual or kinesthetic environment (for example, a technology-based math class). Identifying the modalities that the student is stronger in will enable the student to know which learning strategies he or she needs to focus on to learn the subject. For example, a student who is strong in visual modality but weak in auditory may want to focus on learning math through computer programs, which rely primarily on visuals for teaching and learning.