For almost 50 years, the SAT has played a pivotal role in the college admissions process. The upcoming transition from the traditional paper-and-pencil format to a digital, adaptive SAT marks one of the most significant changes since its inception in 1926. The Class of 2025 will be the first cohort of U.S. students to undergo both the PSAT and SAT in a digital, adaptive format.
Early acceptance rates at these institutions showed a significant advantage over regular decision rates, according to U.S. News data. Though crafting a standout college application can be a time-consuming and stressful process, submitting an application in the fall, well before the typical winter deadline for regular admissions, is possible.Read on to find out more.
When kids see themselves as capable mathematicians, it sets the stage for tackling more challenging work.
Negative feelings about math can set in as early as kindergarten research shows, and by middle school, many students may throw in the towel and decide that they “just aren’t math people,” write math educators Kasi Allen and Kemble Schnell in the journal Math Teaching in Middle School.
Adequate sleep contributes to a student’s overall health and well-being. Students should get the proper amount of sleep at night to help stay focused, improve concentration, and improve academic performance.
Children and adolescents who do not get enough sleep have a higher risk for many health problems, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, poor mental health, and injuries. They are also more likely to have attention and behavior problems, which can contribute to poor academic performance in school.
While we’re pleased to see evidence of academic rebounding, fully regaining lost ground will require students to make above-average progress going forward. The federal government has provided nearly $200 billion in funding for schools to address challenges associated with the pandemic, with $22 billion specifically dedicated to learning recovery using evidence-based interventions.
Students often view summer as a time to relax, have fun, and forget everything they learned the previous school year. This, of course, is bound to happen to some degree. A break in education often results in students forgetting some information, requiring a few weeks of review for teachers during the beginning of the next school year.
Our subject tutoring program provides students with one-to-one individualized support in math, science, reading, writing, English, history, and foreign language. For more information on this program, please visit our Subject Tutoring page.
The results of standardized tests have quite an influence on the decisions the universities and colleges make in relation to student admissions. Two major test types are the ACT and the SAT. If you are thinking of enrolling in university, chances are you will have to take one of the tests. But, which one should you? What is the ACT? What is the difference between SAT and ACT? Read on to find out!
BY PENNY WILLIAMS, SHELLEY HAVEN, ATP, RET, BSME, SANDRA RIEF, M.A. Medically reviewed by ADDitude’s ADHD Medical Review Panel
No disability should sentence your child to a 13-year struggle in school. Even in high school, where “responsibility” and “accountability” are stressed, students with ADHD or learning disabilities have a right to reasonable accommodations to help them succeed. It’s not only possible to implement accommodations for these students, it’s crucial to their success — both during the high school years and in the future.
Susan Yellin, Esq., director of advocacy and transition services at The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education, says the two most common school difficulties for students with ADHD are input issues and output issues. Input issues are born of distraction — if your mind is wandering, you don’t comprehend what you’re hearing or reading (the input). Additionally, says Yellin, “executive functioning deficits common with ADHD intertwine with output.” A student may struggle to organize an essay, or forget to bring home, complete, or turn in homework. He or she may have learned the material, but still struggle to output the work required to show it. Classroom accommodations can help teens with ADHD manage these challenges, leveling the playing field.
To determine the most appropriate and impactful accommodations for your child, first sit down with him to discuss and list his biggest school struggles. Encourage him to describe, in detail, why each one is a struggle, when he’s aware of the reasons. If he’s not sure why he’s having trouble with a certain task or area, brainstorm possibilities together.
Once you have a list of challenges, identify one or more accommodations to address each one. When you’re done, you’ll have a list of struggles and potential solutions ready to present to the school.
Not sure what to ask for? Here are some of the most effective classroom accommodations to help your child succeed in grades 9 through 12 — without sacrificing personal accountability. (Keep in mind, no student will need all of these accommodations.)
[Free Download: Transform Your Teen’s Apathy Into Engagement]
Allow extra time on tests so the student is not rushed. Avoid timed tests of basic facts, if possible.
Provide frequent checks for accuracy during classwork. Set a certain number of problems to complete (one row only, or four or five problems), and check these before the student is permitted to continue.
List the steps/procedures for multi-step problems and algorithms. Post clearly numbered steps and/or give the student a desk-copy model of the steps needed to solve problems.
Keep sample math problems on the board and have the student write them in a notebook for reference.
Reduce the number of problems assigned. Ten completed problems written neatly, with work shown — rather than a full page of problems — is enough to assess a student’s understanding.
Allow the use of speech-to-text software, such as the free tool in Google Docs or Dragon Dictation.
Allow the student to substitute written papers or essays for original videos, dioramas, posters, PowerPoint presentations, etc.
Allow typing instead of writing by hand.
Offer oral assessments instead of written.
Give the student writing templates that model correct writing forms (e.g., a persuasive essay, a narrative) and scaffold the writing process with prompts.
Offer a framework for essay organization — like a graphic organizer, mind map, story map, timeline, the POWER (Plan, Organize, Write, Edit, Revise) method, or software like Draft: Builder, Inspiration, or Xmind.
Break writing assignments into small steps.
Don’t grade for neatness.
Support poor spelling and grammar with contextual spell checkers like Ginger Software or Ghotit Real Writer, or word prediction software like Co:Writer, Word Q or Speak Q.
Create worksheets and exams using a PDF annotation software like Adobe Reader 11, Acrobat Reader DC, or Mac Preview, allowing the student to use mouse and keyboard skills to enter responses instead of overtaxing writing skills.
Read tests aloud to the student.
Use human-narrated audio books, e-texts with text-to-speech software, or a combination program like Kindle Immersion reading or LearningAlly audiobooks, allowing the student to see and hear the text for improved comprehension.
Allow the use of highlighters and sticky notes to mark up print books, or literacy software like Kurzweil 3000 to do the same in e-texts, to aid understanding and retention in students with critical thinking issues and poor working memory.
Provide an extra set of books to keep at home.
Set a goal of completing 75 percent of the assigned homework.
Ask the student twice during class how he will remember facts or rules discussed.
Provide the student with guided notes or full classroom notes.
Record audio of the class and then synchronize this with hand-written or typed notes using a tool like the Livescribe Smartpen, Notability, or Microsoft OneNote.
Use assistive technology to help the student keep up with assignments (rather than trying to juggle lots of loose papers).
Allow the student extended time on classwork, homework, quizzes, and tests.
Provide detailed, written instructions.
Email the parent a list of assignments or post assignments to the school website.
Use a digital notebook or web clipper utility like Evernote to create a cumulative “knowledge bank” of prior learning. These programs simulate a paper binder and automatically retain a link to their source.
Create folders that are categorized by “next action:” to turn in, give to parents, give to teacher, or complete tonight.
Allow the student to use a kitchen timer or visual task timer — like Time Timer, Watchminder, or DropTask — to see time’s passage and make it less of an abstract concept.
Provide time once a week for locker cleanout.
Color-code academic materials. Use green, for example, for all science notebooks, binders, folders, and textbook covers. Keep related classroom books and materials in bins of the same hue.
Provide study guides several days before a test.
[Your High School Get-It-Together Guide]
Offer a calm-down spot or break for the student to use when needed. Create a plan ahead of time so the student can signal the teacher and go to the predetermined break spot without attracting attention and without disruption.
Schedule a weekly check-in with the guidance counselor and/or the special education teacher.
Let the student run errands for the teacher to provide a break.
Check in with the student occasionally to assess mood.
Have a crisis plan or Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) for angry outbursts, if they’re a frequent problem.
Post clear expectations and consequences.
Assign an adult mentor to check in with the student and work with him or her on skills and assignments.
Allow the student to correct mistakes on tests for extra credit.
Provide a guided study hall period.
Allow the student to leave class early for more time to change classes or to avoid crowded and overwhelming hallways.
Invite the student to participate in a social-skills group.
Seat the student front and center, near the teacher, and away from doors or windows where noise or passing students may be a distraction.
Cue the student to stay on task with a private signal — a gentle tap on the shoulder, for example.
Schedule a five-minute period for the student to check over his or her work before turning in homework or tests.
Illustrate vocabulary words and science concepts with small drawings or stick figures.
Compliment positive behavior and work.
Provide an alternative activity other than a large assembly, like a pep rally, for students with sensory sensitivities, anxiety, or overwhelm in crowds.
Once you’ve determined some appropriate accommodations to help your student, the next step is presenting them to the school. When teachers and administrators agree to implement them for your child, you may decide on an informal agreement to that effect, or the accommodations may be included in a 504 Plan or Individualized Education Program (IEP).
A 504 Plan or IEP, says Yellin, is “not a statement to teachers that ‘it might be nice if you implement it.’ An IEP is a legal document stating that the child is entitled to these [accommodations]. Teachers don’t have the option, legally, to ignore this. It’s a contract — a legal statement incumbent on the teachers.”
Nonetheless, you and your teen must be diligent about making sure accommodations are applied. If you find that some or all of your child’s teachers aren’t implementing the accommodations in the classroom, Yellin recommends a nice conversation with teachers first. Bring them a copy of the IEP or 504 Plan and highlight important aspects for them, she advises. Remind teachers that, “When seeking accommodations on the SAT or ACT, you have to show that the student is already using these accommodations in class in order to get them on these types of tests.” Visit collegeboard.org for updated details on securing accommodations on the SAT.
If the parent-teacher meeting doesn’t prompt a change, Yellin says it’s time to escalate. Call an IEP or 504 meeting with the school to come up with a mechanism that ensures teacher compliance. Escalate further to a hearing before a state officer or a civil rights complaint, if necessary. It’s that important, especially during the high school years.
Teens with ADHD are notorious for avoiding or refusing help, especially when it calls peer attention to their differences and struggles. If your child is refusing accommodations due to possible social implications, Yellin advises first educating teachers and classmates about ADHD and learning disabilities. “If the teacher is not sufficiently sensitive, put (teacher education) in the IEP.”
You have two choices when your child is pushing back against accommodations at school: heed their input and let them go it alone, or insist on accommodations. If your child would be a B- student without accommodations and a B+ student with them, pushing for accommodations likely isn’t worth the battle and potential stigma. However, if your child is a D or F student without accommodations and an A, B, or C student with them, you should insist on the accommodations.
If your child won’t get on board, conduct an experiment on the efficacy of accommodations. Work with a teacher to give two assessments: one with accommodations and one without. Or do two practice SATs at home, one with extended time and one without. Tell your student, “Let’s see how you do.” If the accommodations make a big difference in performance, it should be clear to your child that they really are a benefit.
Once a child starts high school, the stakes grow higher all around. Not only do grades now matter for getting into college, but “this is also an important opportunity for kids to build their advocacy skills and understand that, once they leave high school, they’re on their own,” says Yellin. “In college, much more responsibility is on them — they have to identify, they have to provide documentation, they have to go to their professors for accommodations.” Pretty soon, it will be all on them — now is the time to make sure they’re prepared.
More resources:
As more students return to in-person learning, education leaders are working not only to rebuild school communities and help students transition, but also to address gaps in learning resulting from COVID-19 disruptions. One strategy states and districts are considering is tutoring, or focused instruction provided to students in one-on-one or small group settings.
Research suggests that tutoring programs can meaningfully increase learning for K–12 students and are especially effective in increasing the achievement of students who are at risk for poor learning outcomes. A range of studies shows that many tutoring programs generated learning gains in reading and mathematics, with greater gains attained in reading at early grades and math at older grades. The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) signaled the importance of building the research based on tutoring programs and scaling up effective interventions when it launched Operation Reverse the Loss in late 2020. IES received $100 million from the American Rescue Plan to conduct research related to learning disruptions caused by COVID-19.
Tutoring Supports in States
In 2020, the Tennessee Tutoring Corps recruited 1,000 college students to tutor students entering grades 1–4 during the summer to address student learning needs.
With support from federal funds, the Louisiana Department of Education launched a $1 million initiative to create a library of supplemental tutoring lessons aligned to state curriculum standards in English and math.
Leaders in Maryland and Oklahoma have announced plans to leverage federal stimulus funds to create grants to address the impact of COVID-19, and identified tutoring as one of the approaches that families and schools may use.
Texas is developing high-quality instructional materials to address student learning needs that can be used in summer learning programs and other learning settings.
The American Rescue Plan includes $129 billion in education funding for new programs and interventions designed to address the impact of the pandemic on student learning. To that end, here are four recommendations to help leaders interested in exploring the use of evidence-based tutoring interventions to accelerate student learning and address pandemic-related learning disruptions.
Before implementing a broad-scale tutoring program, education leaders should examine the demonstrated effectiveness of different tutoring models and programs to ensure that they are backed by evidence. Evidence-based practices are practices informed by research that lead to improved educational outcomes. Systematic reviews of the research on tutoring have found that “high dosage” tutoring—tutoring that happens in a one-on-one relationship or in small groups at least three times a week—generates positive gains for students in reading and math. In addition, a brief from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University describes design principles for effective tutoring based on rigorous education research, and it covers tutor-to-student ratios, tutoring frequency, focus, and curriculum.
Education leaders can leverage a number of resources to identify evidence-based tutoring models and practices. The What Works Clearinghouse reviews existing education research on various education programs and practices to identify “what works” in education. Its resources include a rapid review of the evidence on distance learning that includes studies of online and computer-based tutoring programs.
Further, the National Center on Intensive Intervention, led by AIR, has developed a series of charts to help educators and families select academic and behavioral assessment and tutoring intervention tools. Resources from the center include a chart comparing research on various academic interventions; an overview of the Taxonomy of Intervention Intensity, which helps educators ensure tutoring interventions are aligned to students’ needs; and a suite of companion resources focused on the taxonomy.
Delivering a tutoring lesson to an individual student or small group of students calls upon different skills than those needed to deliver a lesson to a large class of students.
Education leaders will also need to consider the workforce required to implement a larger-scale program and ensure a fit between the type of intervention and staff training and skills. Delivering a tutoring lesson to an individual student or small group of students calls upon different skills than those needed to deliver a lesson to a large class of students. Systematic reviews of tutoring programs have found that tutoring efforts generally are more effective at increasing student learning when led by teachers. However, some evidence-based interventions have been validated with tutors who may not be certified teachers, such as non-teacher school staff, college students in the education field, and service fellows. Recent studies suggest that tutoring programs that use AmeriCorps members and paraprofessionals can be as effective as teacher-led programs in one-to-one or small group settings. Further, research shows that tutoring offered by nonprofessional and family members benefits students, but the benefits are smaller than for tutoring conducted by professionals or paraprofessionals
Leaders should consider the type of training needed to build tutors’ content knowledge and facilitation skills, as well as the ongoing supports that tutors will need throughout their relationship with students. Parents and family members who provide additional academic support may especially benefit from clear, accessible materials that provide scaffolding for how to engage and work with a child on a given learning task.
We know that all students have the potential to thrive when they experience safe, equitable, and engaging learning environments. Building strong, positive relationships between tutors and students can generate meaningful outcomes for students beyond academic gains. Drawing from a synthesis on the science of learning and development, the SoLD Alliance partners have articulated whole-child design principles for education systems; the first principle is that learning environments should support positive developmental relationships that we know have the potential to increase students’ sense of belonging and connection at school.
Given the contexts and experiences that students and tutors alike will bring to the table, education leaders should equip tutors with support and guidance so that they cultivate meaningful relationships with students to bolster their resiliency and engage them in learning—within the tutoring context and beyond.
Carefully designing and implementing tutoring programs—as well as setting up rigorous monitoring systems—can allow education leaders to adjust and target interventions to the greatest needs.
Broader scale efforts to implement tutoring services have taught us that leaders need to monitor implementation. A good example of this is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which provided funding for students in Title I schools to access tutoring services. Many states did not have the capacity to monitor the supplemental education services being offered, nor could they conduct more rigorous evaluations of the programs to understand their efficacy. Carefully designing and implementing tutoring programs—as well as setting up rigorous monitoring systems—can allow education leaders to adjust and target interventions to the greatest needs.
Leaders may want to review materials from the National Center on Intensive Intervention, which identified five considerations for the effective implementation of an intervention: student engagement, program specificity, adherence to the intervention plan, quality of delivery, and the duration of the intervention. Tools from the center can support educators as they implement and monitor interventions and assessments.
Throughout the lifecycle of the tutoring program, leaders can incorporate practices from continuous improvement science to collect data, build in flexibility, make adjustments, and reflect on what’s working—and what’s not. In our work with district and school leaders through the District and School Improvement Center, we have found this approach allows leaders not only to implement and monitor ongoing feedback loops, but also to make data-based decisions that lead to improvement for all students.
Just as the COVID-19 pandemic has lasted longer than many of us anticipated, education leaders also should be prepared that the process of recovery and rebuilding from the pandemic also will take time. The federal stimulus funding for K-12 education provides an opportunity for states to invest in new programs and opportunities, and leaders must consider both the scalability and sustainability of these programs to meet students’ needs for academic support—and understand that these needs may extend beyond 2021. These investments also provide an opportunity to build the lasting capacity of the education system to provide universal and intensive, individual supports and leverage research to accelerate student learning.
Vint Hill Educational Services offers small pod tutoring for grades K-12. Students can work with a tutor in a small group setting of 2-5 students. Sessions can take place at our offices, a local library, in student homes, at public facilities, or virtually through Lessonspace. The students in the pod should be enrolled in the same class or currently studying the same subject. Multiple subjects can be covered in the same pod. Special pod tutoring rates apply. Please contact us to learn more.
ACT Streamlines Accommodations Eligibility Requirements for Students with IEPs, 504 Plans
ACT, the nonprofit developer of the ACT test, will approve allowable accommodations already included in students’ Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) or 504 plans.
Beginning with the 2021-22 testing year, students who already receive accommodations at their school under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act will automatically be eligible to receive the allowable testing accommodations when they register for the ACT with accommodations.
The IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act contain rigorous requirements that public schools must follow in determining who is an eligible student with a disability and what accommodations eligible students need to access their education. This includes what accommodations are needed to access classroom and standardized tests, like the ACT test.
“Students with disabilities already face many barriers in their lives, and we don’t want the accommodations process for taking the ACT to be one of them,” said ACT CEO Janet Godwin. “This policy change simplifies and expedites the process for requesting accommodations, so that students can focus on learning all that they can in school and showing what they know on test day.”
In conjunction with the policy change, ACT is updating its system for requesting accommodations to require less information and documentation to support requests submitted on behalf of students with a current IEP or 504 plan.
“By aligning to a standard that is already applied in schools where the majority of our students with accommodations are learning, we simplify and expedite the process for students, families, and educators,” said ACT Senior Director of Accessibility Katie Featherston.
While this change benefits the majority of students who test with accommodations, ACT will continue to offer accommodations to test-takers who do not have a current IEP or 504 plan. The organization will continue to use the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standard to determine whether there is a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity” and whether the requested accommodations are reasonable for the ACT test.
More information about the policy change and process for requesting accommodations can be found here.
VHES offers online mock SAT and ACT tests Saturdays at 9:00 am through Lessonspace, a teaching platform that enables our proctors to oversee virtual exams and gauge students' test readiness. Upon registering for mock tests, students will receive a test packet in the mail that includes the following:
ACT/SAT answer sheet
ACT/SAT test booklet
Testing instructions
Please sign up no later than Monday during the week of the mock test. The day before each test, students will receive an emailed link to join the virtually proctored test.
Upon completion of the test, parents and students receive a 9-page diagnostic report showing how the student is performing in each dimension of the SAT or ACT. This detailed report is used to establish a baseline score, is the basis for test-prep planning, and is instrumental in helping us customize a tutoring program that addresses the most pertinent test sections. For students taking both the ACT and SAT, we also provide a concordance chart with test recommendations. See what our baseline test reports look like: ACT and SAT. There is a $25 test registration fee.
Register for a mock test by clicking on a specific test date below.
Mock ACT test dates:
January 8, 2022
February 5, 2022
March 5, 2022
April 16, 2022
May 21, 2022
Mock SAT test dates:
January 15, 2022
February 19, 2022
March 19, 2022
April 9, 2022
May 14, 2022
Visit our Mock Testing page to learn more.
Learn more about our test prep program.
Find out how an academic coach can help.
Interested in one-to-one tutoring? Contact us to get started.
Time Management
Time management can be a challenge for some students mainly because they overestimate the amount of time they have for a task and underestimate how much time it will take for them to do it. Allowing enough time to get ready for class, study for an exam or complete an assignment can be tricky. The key is to always do what must be done first such as studying, and doing what can wait later on. For example, if you’re getting ready for class, resist checking texts, emails or searching the web. Do those more pleasurable things after the task at hand is completed. This simple strategy reduces a lot of stress that comes with last minute rushing.
Organization:
In order to maintain organization, students should schedule a “clean sweep” session to organize their binders and backpack. Set aside 20-30 minutes weekly. Sunday evening after dinner is a good time as it will help to get organized and plan ahead for the coming week. Program these reoccurring dates into your cell phone as a reminder.
Record assignments on a paper or electronic calendar even if your teachers post them online. Record the final due date and then set self-imposed incremental due dates and associated tasks to get it done. Research indicates that when big tasks like studying for a test are broken down into explicit, manageable chunks, they are more likely to be completed. For example, if a test is coming up on Friday, the student should record tasks like “complete 1-4 review problems on page 23” and “create flashcards for vocab terms”, etc. on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. These specific tasks are far superior to writing down something vague like “study for test”.
Remember, no task you record should be more than 30 minutes. It’s a proven fact that when a task that takes over 30 minutes is on an individual’s “to do” list they are far more likely to procrastinate and avoid it.
For students who are not in the habit of consistently writing down assignments, utilizing an app can really help. - https://myhomeworkapp.com/ and - http://istudentpro.com/
Focus:
Whenever possible, change the homework location from time to time. Some students do better in the hum of a busy area. Those people work well in study groups, at Starbucks, or in a more public area. Others know they must have silence. These students often do better in the library. Regardless, change the location daily. The best place to study is actually outdoors!
In order to resist temptations like texting, put your phone across the room or in another room and leave it there. That way, if you want to check your texts, you have to physically get up and walk over to retrieve it. Many students report that this significantly limits the amount of texting distractions that typically occur. If this is hard for you, set the timer for 20 minutes and work as hard as you can during that time. When the timer goes off, get up, check your messages for one minute, and then get back to work. Set the timer again. A study at Stanford has shown this approach to be highly beneficial for students.
Believe it or not, there’s a direct correlation between the number of windows a student has open at the bottom of the screen and his or her GPA. The more windows, the lower the GPA and the fewer windows, the higher the grade point average. Having too many windows open decreases focus and when individuals are unfocused, they spend less time studying and their memory retrieval is impacted. Reduce the amount of windows open at the bottom of your screen as much as possible.
When students are having a hard time getting started with homework, it’s always a good idea to begin with an easy assignment, followed by a hard one, and then an easy task again. This helps get work completed with less stress. In essence, the student is being rewarded with an easy task after completion of a difficult assignment.
Reading and Studying:
Many students equate reading with studying, but simply reading is not studying because it is too passive. Reading must be interactive or it will not work when preparing for an exam. Active reading strategies include margin notes and highlighting. As reading becomes more challenging, these strategies aid students in comprehending more advanced topics.
Whether you are assigned reading or you want to review text to study for a test, read one section at a time. After you’re done with a passage, go back and highlight the most important information. Studies have shown that the color of the highlighter does not matter; it’s personal preference.
Most importantly, engage in “self talk” at the end of each section or passage. This means that the student should ask his or herself, “What did I just read?” or “What’s important here?” Self talk helps students focus and comprehend better.
Margin notes are another interactive way of studying and are far superior to merely reading the information. In brief sentences or phrases, summarize the main points in the margins of novels or text books. The act of writing improves retention.
If you are reading a text book online or hard copy, try the SCAN pre-reading strategy. Before reading:
S = Survey Headings and Turn Them into Questions
Find each bold heading, and turn it into a question.
C = Capture the Captions and Visuals
Glance at the pictures or diagrams and read each caption.
A = Attack Boldface Words
Now, focus on the bolded terms, quickly reading these words to gain an understanding of the main idea concepts.
N = Note and Read the Chapter Questions
Register for a mock ACT by clicking on a specific test date below.
Mock ACT test dates:
Register for a mock SAT by clicking on a specific test date below. :
Mock SAT test dates:
We also offer one-to-one mock testing at our offices. This consists of a full-length practice test for your child. Tests include: ACT, SAT, PSAT, SSAT, ISEE, HSPT, and SAT Subject Tests. We provide the test booklet, essay booklet, answer sheet, testing timer, calculator, and pencils.
We can send parents a practice test as well, to administer to their student in-home. We will send out a free practice test packet along with proctoring instructions. Parents must send the answer sheet back to us via email or mail.
ACT and SAT
$25 Registration Fee (1 Mock Test: ACT or SAT) Includes test scores comparison
Mock testing for the ACT and SAT, held in a group setting. Parents will receive a diagnostic score report and phone consultation. View sample student score reports: ACT and SAT.
For the ACT and SAT, we will compare scores in order to determine which test is better for the student to take. See virtual mock test dates above for the 2021-2022 school year.
ACT, SAT, PSAT, SSAT, ISEE, HSPT and SAT Subject Tests
$125 Standard Test (In-office)
$175 Special Accommodations (In-office)
FREE Parent Administration (In-home)
One-to-one testing at our offices or in-home testing proctored by a parent. A perfect fit for students that need to get acclimated to the test format, structure, and timing. This can help to relieve nervousness and anxiety. Parents have the option of administering the test to their child for free. They can also choose to drop their student off at our offices and we will administer the test to the student. Parents will receive a diagnostic score report from our testing software.
4263 Aiken Drive Suite 102, Warrenton, VA 20187
Phone: 540-680-4004 Email: contact@vinthilles.com
Website: www.vinthilles.com
In recent years, and especially during COVID, the private tutoring industry has booming in the U.S. As a result, there are plenty of tutors out there, so the question is, how do you find the right one for you? We’re here with a list of the best way to choose your perfect tutor. Read on to find out more.
Does your child need academic help outside the classroom? Tutoring might be a good option. But you may also hear about academic “coaches” who help teach kids learning strategies.
What’s the difference? Which is best suited for your child?
There’s no official distinction between what makes one person a tutor and someone else a coach. Sometimes it’s just a matter of marketing.
Instructors may call themselves “coaches” because some students may not like the idea of being “tutored.” That’s because some students may associate being tutored with having some kind of weakness. But they may be open to being “coached,” like an athlete, to become “even better.” This is especially true for middle-schoolers and high-schoolers.
There tend to be some basic differences between the two groups, though. The information below can give you an idea of what they are.
Tutoring vs. Academic coaching — Basic approach
Tutors tend to focus on building concrete skills and helping students with what they immediately need to keep up with schoolwork.
Similar to a sports coach, an academic coach tends to work on strategies to help kids succeed. They can help kids develop a more organized approach to learning and schoolwork. They may also focus on strategies to help kids with motivation.
What a typical session may look like
A tutor may zero in on specific skills that are giving a student trouble. A math tutor, for instance, may focus on long division, going over assigned homework and helping the student get ready for upcoming tests.
Tutors can help kids work on specific skills during the summer, too. They may do practice drills so a student can keep up on skills and be ready for the new school year.
Coaches working with younger kids may help them organize their backpack. Coaches might also show kids how to create color-coded systems for notebooks and folders.
Middle- and high-schoolers may learn to create schedules that will help them tackle long-term projects. The coach may share tips and strategies about how to stay focused and take tests more effectively.
Who offers it
There’s no official credential for being a tutor. Many tutors are current or retired teachers who work independently or as part of a commercial tutoring program. But even high school students can be tutors.
Some tutors are certified to help kids with learning differences like dyslexia. They may be certified through programs like Wilson or Orton–Gillingham, or may be an educational service like Vint Hill Educational Services. Online tutoring and tutoring software are options, too.
There’s no official credential for being a learning coach or academic coach. Many are current or retired teachers, or they may have some background in education or psychology.
Some commercial tutoring centers are starting to offer more “coaching-style” programs. But they still tend to refer to these programs as tutoring services.
Type of student who could benefit
Tutoring could be a good option for students struggling to stay at grade level. It could also benefit students who need help reaching academic goals in one or more specific areas like reading, writing, science, or math. However, some students with learning differences may need to see someone more specialized, like an educational therapist.
Coaching could be helpful for students who have certain skills but lack the motivation, organization, or strategies they need to apply those skills. Coaching could also benefit students who need help with staying focused, such as kids with ADHD. Athletes with positive sports experiences often respond well to a coaching model.
Grade-schoolers who need to learn good study habits could benefit from an organizational coach. Older students who need help with prioritizing, staying on task, or even prepping for the ACT or SAT could also benefit from an academic coach.
Duration of services
Tutoring is sometimes used on a “spot” basis. This could be to help a student through a rough patch or with a specific skill, like solving quadratic equations. But tutoring often continues throughout the length of a particular course, such as algebra or chemistry.
Some coaches sell “packages” that are designed to lay the basic groundwork students need to succeed within a limited window of time. This can be anywhere from 3 to 6 months, or beyond.
Rates
Rates vary by area but are comparable to those for academic coaches.
Rates vary by area but are comparable to those for tutors.
In real life, the line between coaching and tutoring can be blurry. Some tutors, like coaches, may focus on learning strategies. Some coaches, like tutors, will help students tackle homework. And some coaches may not even call themselves “coaches.”
Once you know what kind of help your child needs, a good way to find the right person is to seek referrals from the school or other parents. Then interview each candidate carefully about what the basic approach would be. Having a list of key questions to ask can be helpful.
And be sure to let the person you hire know about your child’s strengths and weaknesses . That will let the coach or tutor do a better job of helping your child.
Vint Hill Educational Services offers academic coaching for students who have difficulty getting motivated, staying focused, or keeping up in school. With backgrounds in counseling, mentoring, teaching, and special education, our coaches are highly experienced at working with youth and helping students overcome a wide spectrum of challenges.
Academic coaching is especially beneficial for individuals with attentional problems, low executive functioning, or learning or cognitive disabilities—though it is also valuable for those struggling to deal with the ordinary stressors of understanding complex information, planning assignments, studying for exams, or transitioning to college. Students who work with an academic coach typically require guidance and assistance in:
· Getting and staying organized
· Planning coursework and managing time effectively
· Starting and completing schoolwork
· Studying and reading with proficiency
· Managing stress, anxiety, and distractibility
· Balancing academic and personal responsibilities
· Preparing for tests
Our coaches complete assessments to identify the student’s challenges, strengths, goals, and learning style. They then create customized plans that integrate a variety of tools and techniques to help build confidence and improve school performance. Strategies include positive reinforcement, setting achievable goals, optimizing skills, breaking down tasks, creating a supportive environment, and tracking progress.
We select the best coach for your child and provide a coach profile for you to review and approve. The coach matching process considers the coach’s education, experience, and personality, as well as the student’s issues, schedule, and preferred location (e.g., home, office, public library). Each session is one hour in length and one-to-one for individualized support. Parents receive access to our online Teachworks system, allowing them to review coaching session notes, receive session email reminders, and keep track of used and remaining session hours.
The role of executive functioning in learning has been researched for many decades, and we now know that executive skills play important roles in literacy learning, and especially in successful reading comprehension. In the book by Kelly Cartwright, Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension: A Guide for Educators (2015, Guilford Press), the author explores this connection in detail and provides suggestions for supporting students who have weak executive skills.
Cartwright explains:
“Children who have difficulties with reading comprehension, despite having age-appropriate word reading skills, have lower levels of executive skills than their peers with better comprehension. These discoveries are important for all educators because reading comprehension is the foundation for all other learning in school: students cannot understand, enjoy, or respond to literature without effective reading comprehension; likewise, students cannot gather new information from science, math, or social studies texts when they don’t understand what they read. (p.3)”
What are executive function skills and how do they support reading comprehension?
Cartwright suggests we think of the term executive skills as an umbrella term that refers to a set of mental tools we use to manage tasks and achieve goals, and that these skills can be grouped into three core areas: cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibition.
Executive skills involve regulating one’s own thinking to achieve desired goals. Cartwright notes that “Executive skills emerge early in life and develop across childhood and beyond. Even in very young students, executive skills enable the self-control that is necessary to remember classroom routines, pay attention to a teacher’s direction, and inhibit inappropriate behaviors.”
Here is a summary of how these core skills affect reading comprehension (p. 8-9):
Cognitive Flexibility: is the ability to shift attention from one activity to another or to actively switch back and forth between important components of a task. When reading, skilled comprehenders actively shift focus between many things, such as word and text meanings, letter-sound information, and syntactic (sentence grammar) information.
Working Memory: is the capacity for holding information in mind while working with part of that information. When building text meaning, a good comprehender must keep in mind the various text ideas presented, note the causal links between them, and update the meaning as he encounters new ideas in text.
Inhibition: is the ability to resist engaging in a habitual response as well as the ability to ignore distracting information – i.e., to think before acting. Good comprehenders must inhibit activation of inappropriate word meanings or irrelevant connections to ideas encountered in texts.
Cartwright also addresses additional, more complex executive skills:
Planning: involves setting and working toward a goal
Organizing: involves ordering and sequencing information or subtasks in ways that support a common goal
You cannot reach a goal without a plan, and you can do so most effectively if you are aware of the steps you need to take, in the proper order, to ensure that your goal is met. These two skills work hand-in-hand to support reading comprehension. Good readers begin with a plan and goals to understand and they organize their approach to reading.
In addition, Cartwright points out that the level of a student’s executive skills will also affect his motivational or social-emotional processes – i.e., differences in students’ executive skills will be reflected in both their cognitive and social-emotional ability. For example:
Students with strong executive functioning ability are able to effectively manage and control their own behavior, regulate thinking and learning, regulate their emotional processes, have peer relations, and have strong emotional processes.
Students who are impulsive and emotionally reactive have difficulty controlling their own behavior, interacting with peers, sticking to classroom routines, focusing on task, and ignoring irrelevant information.
Here are some of the chapters in Cartwright’s book:
Plans and Goals: Getting Ready to Read
Organization: Why Text and Reader Organization Matter
Cognitive Flexibility: Juggling Multiple Aspects of Reading
Working Memory: Holding and Linking Ideas in Mind While Reading
Inhibition and Impulse Control: Resisting Distractions to Support Comprehension
Social Understanding: The importance of Mind Reading for Reading Comprehension
Other Resources Related to Executive Functioning and Reading
If you are interested in this topic, it is highly recommend you review the work of Lynn Meltzer at The Research Institute for Learning and Development. Her book Promoting Executive Function in the Classroom (2010, Guilford Press) provides very useful suggestions for understanding and assessing executive function processes and creating a classroom wide executive function culture that fosters strategy use for reading. Meltzer has chapters on goal setting, planning, organizing, remembering, flexible problem solving, self-monitoring, and emotional self-regulation. Meltzer and her colleagues have also developed the SMARTS Executive Function curriculum designed to help middle and high school students who have weak executive skills.
Here are a few other sources to learn more about the connection between executive skills and reading comprehension:
Why Executive Function is a Vital Stepping-Stone For Kids’ Ability to Learn: blog article at KQED News
The Reading Brain: Executive Function Hard at Work: article at LDA of America website
5 Ways Executive Functioning Issues Can Impact Reading: article at the Understood for Learning and Attention website
DOES YOUR CHILD STRUGGLE WITH STAYING ORGANIZED, PLANNING SCHOOLWORK, OR STUDYING FOR EXAMS? CONTACT US FOR A FREE COACHING ASSESSMENT.
Vint Hill Educational Services offers academic coaching for students who have difficulty getting motivated, staying focused, or keeping up in school. With backgrounds in counseling, mentoring, teaching, and special education, our coaches are highly experienced at working with youth and helping students overcome a wide spectrum of challenges.
Academic coaching is especially beneficial for individuals with attentional problems, low executive functioning, or learning or cognitive disabilities—though it is also valuable for those struggling to deal with the ordinary stressors of understanding complex information, planning assignments, studying for exams, or transitioning to college. Students who work with an academic coach typically require guidance and assistance in:
· Getting and staying organized
· Planning coursework and managing time effectively
· Starting and completing schoolwork
· Studying and reading with proficiency
· Managing stress, anxiety, and distractibility
· Balancing academic and personal responsibilities
· Preparing for tests
Our coaches complete assessments to identify the student’s challenges, strengths, goals, and learning style. They then create customized plans that integrate a variety of tools and techniques to help build confidence and improve school performance. Strategies include positive reinforcement, setting achievable goals, optimizing skills, breaking down tasks, creating a supportive environment, and tracking progress.
We select the best coach for your child and provide a coach profile for you to review and approve. The coach matching process considers the coach’s education, experience, and personality, as well as the student’s issues, schedule, and preferred location (e.g., home, office, public library). Each session is one hour in length and one-to-one for individualized support. Parents receive access to our online Teachworks system, allowing them to review coaching session notes, receive session email reminders, and keep track of used and remaining session hours. For more info, click here.
As an organization that Vint Hill Educational Services reveres, the National Education Association (NEA) is more than 3 million people—educators, students, activists, workers, parents, neighbors, friends—who believe in opportunity for all students and in the power of public education to transform lives and create a more just and inclusive society.
NEA and its leaders and members in public schools across the country, have joined with families, communities, school districts, and other key partners, to implement a powerful tool to achieve “the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world.” Community schools provide not only tremendous opportunities for learning and success for students, but also offer hope, opportunity, and transformation to entire communities.
The Community Schools Model advanced by NEA includes six pillars of practice. Unlike most public education models, these pillars are adaptable to the needs of an individual school’s students, staff, families, and community and pay particular attention to creating, supporting, and sustaining a culturally relevant and responsive climate. NEA was instrumental in ensuring the inclusion of two pillars—high-quality teaching and learning and inclusive leadership.
Educators provide a rich and varied academic program allowing students to acquire both foundational and advanced knowledge and skills in many content areas. Students learn with challenging, culturally relevant materials that address their learning needs and expand their experience. They also learn how to analyze and understand the unique experiences and perspectives of others. The curriculum embraces all content areas including the arts, second languages, and physical education. Teachers and education support professionals (ESP) are engaged in developing effective programs for language instruction for English learners and immigrant students. These schools offer rigorous courses such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate. They provide learning and enrichment activities before and after the regular school day, including sports, the arts, and homework assistance. Schools address the needs of parents and families through programs such as English-as-a-Second-Language classes, GED preparation, and job training programs.
Teachers are fully licensed, knowledgeable about their content, and skillful in their practice. Instructional time focuses on learning rather than testing. Individual student needs are identified and learning opportunities are designed to address them. Higher-order thinking skills are at the core of instruction so that all students acquire problem solving, critical thinking, and reasoning skills. Educators work collaboratively to plan lessons, analyze student work, and adjust curriculum as required. Experienced educators work closely with novices as mentors, coaches, and “guides on the side,” sharing their knowledge and expertise. ESP members take part in professional learning experiences and are consulted and collaborate when developing plans to improve instruction. Together, educators identify the methods and approaches that work and change those that do not meet student needs.
Leadership teams with educators, the community school coordinator, and other school staff share the responsibility of school operations with the principal. This leadership team ensures that the community school strategy remains central in the decision-making process.
Community school educators emphasize positive relationships and interactions and model these through their own behavior. Negative behaviors and truancy are acknowledged and addressed in ways that hold students accountable while showing them they are still valued members of the school community. All members of the faculty and staff are responsible for ensuring a climate where all students can learn. Restorative behavior practices such as peer mediation, community service, and post-conflict resolution help students learn from their mistakes and foster positive, healthy school climates where respect and compassion are core principles. Zero-tolerance practices leading to suspension and expulsion are avoided.
Families, parents, caregivers, and community members are partners in creating dynamic, flexible community schools. Their engagement is not related to a specific project or program, but is on-going and extends beyond volunteerism to roles in decision making, governance, and advocacy. Both ESP and teachers are part of developing family engagement strategies, and they are supported through professional learning opportunities. Their voices are critical to articulating and achieving the school’s overall mission and goals. When families and educators work together, students are more engaged learners who earn higher grades and enroll in more challenging classes; student attendance and grade and school completion rates improve.
Community school educators recognize that students often come to school with challenges that impact their ability to learn, explore, and develop in the classroom. Because learning does not happen in isolation, community schools provide meals, health care, mental health counseling, and other services before, during, and after school. Staff members support the identification of services that children need. These wraparound services are integrated into the fabric of the school that follows the Whole Child tenets. Connections to the community are critically important, so support services and referrals are available for families and other community members.
To learn more about Community Schools, click the link below.
VHES offers online mock SAT and ACT tests Saturdays at 9:00 am through Lessonspace, a teaching platform that enables our proctors to oversee virtual exams and gauge students' test readiness. Upon registering for mock tests, students will receive a test packet in the mail that includes the following:
ACT/SAT answer sheet
ACT/SAT test booklet
Testing instructions
Please sign up no later than Monday during the week of the mock test. The day before each test, students will receive an emailed link to join the virtually proctored test.
Upon completion of the test, parents and students receive a 9-page diagnostic report showing how the student is performing in each dimension of the SAT or ACT. This detailed report is used to establish a baseline score, is the basis for test-prep planning, and is instrumental in helping us customize a tutoring program that addresses the most pertinent test sections. For students taking both the ACT and SAT, we also provide a concordance chart with test recommendations. See what our baseline test reports look like: ACT and SAT. There is a $25 test registration fee.
Register for a mock test by clicking on a specific test date below.
Mock ACT test dates:
Mock SAT test dates:
Visit our Mock Testing page to learn more.
More than half of public K-12 educators say the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant loss of both academic and social-emotional learning for students, according to a March 2021 Horace Mann Educators Corporation (NYSE:HMN) report.
The report, Closing the Learning Gap, shares insights from the March 2021 Horace Mann Voice of the Educator Study, which surveyed nearly 1,000 U.S. K-12 educators to gain insight into the educational challenges caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the findings:
Over 97% of educators reported loss of learning by their students over the past year when compared with children in previous years.
A majority (57%) of educators estimated their students are behind by more than three months in their social-emotional learning progress.
When asked what the biggest obstacle to return to a “normal” education environment was, nearly half (47%) of educators cited a wider gap between academically struggling and high-performing students.
“For 75 years, Horace Mann has been dedicated to helping educators achieve lifelong financial success, driven by our desire to help those who are taking care of our children,” said Horace Mann President and CEO Marita Zuraitis. “That appreciation and respect has only deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators are working harder than ever to meet the needs of their students through an environment of constant change, and we are inspired by their enduring commitment to help each student reach their full potential.”
The good news for students is the 2021-2022 school year has strong potential to look more like a pre-pandemic learning environment. Teachers are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in all 50 states. The Centers for Disease Control lessened social distancing requirements to three feet from six feet for students in most classroom settings, a development largely expected to spur more schools to re-open. Several manufacturers are testing their vaccines on children and expect to release clinical trial results over the summer.
With that in mind, educators have a wealth of ideas to best support students’ progress going forward:
53% see a need for a narrower focus on grade-level standards to ensure students learn the most important concepts for their grade level.
34% would like more paraprofessionals to provide targeted support to struggling students.
30% requested access to more social-emotional learning resources to help students process the events of the past year.
In the Horace Mann study, teachers stressed the need for transparency and involvement in workplace decisions as administrators weigh how to adjust academic practices and curriculum. Many educators emphasized the need for flexibility in adapting to the ever-changing challenges of the pandemic, and patience as teachers, administrators, students and parents navigate an environment none of them have ever faced before.
“In the midst of the upheaval of the 2020-2021 school year, 93% of educators said they were proud of how they adapted their teaching to meet the needs of students, whether in a remote, hybrid or socially distanced in-person learning environment,” said Horace Mann National Business Solutions Executive Kelly Ruwe. “Teachers’ experience on the front lines will be invaluable in charting the way forward: Surfacing new issues that need to be addressed, sharing successful approaches, and advising how our communities can band together to help our children succeed.”
The full report, “Closing the Learning Gap: How frontline educators want to address lost learning due to COVID-19” is available at horacemann.com/closing-the-learning-gap. And for information on ways VHES can help your child catch up in their studies, please visit our website.
Follow VHES on social media, where we regularly post the latest on SAT and ACT test dates, registration processes, exam tips, study skills, and other valuable tools for staying informed and moving forward with your academic goals. And please share these links with those you think would benefit from our services and suggestions. We thank you for your continued support and are always available to answer your questions.
Sitting in class and listening to a lecture packed full of information can be a little overwhelming, especially when you have to take notes on everything that the teacher covers. With so much new knowledge being introduced to you at once, how can you retain it all?
As a student, learning to take quality notes is the key to obtaining all of the information you need from a lecture in order to be successful. We are offering some tips to help you master taking notes during class.
Write, Don’t Type
With the rise of technology in the classroom in recent years, many students have taken to typing their notes instead of handwriting them. Since most people can type faster than they can write, students who take notes on a laptop often end up with more notes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are learning more.
Studies have shown that students who take notes on a laptop actually perform worse on conceptual questions than students who take notes by hand. Researchers believe this is because laptop-users tend to take notes verbatim, typing out every word the professor says during a lecture, whereas students who take notes by hand have to rephrase and summarize information in order to keep up with the lecture. This process of digesting and summarizing the information while taking notes helps with comprehension and retention of the information.
To get the most out of your notes, swap out your laptop for a good old-fashioned pencil and paper combo. If you have to take notes digitally during a lecture, try rewriting them by hand after class is over to reap some of the comprehension benefits.
Find a Format That Works For You
There are tons of different formats for note taking, and each one has its own benefits. Some methods may work better for you and your learning style than others, so it is important to find the one that is going to help you gather information the best.
We’re sharing a quick overview of some formats below!
The Cornell Method: Divide your paper into two columns: a small one on the left for writing out main ideas, prompts, and questions, and a larger column on the right reserved for notes and details. At the bottom of each page, write a quick summary of the information on that page.
The Outline Method: Use headings and bullet points to put information into a hierarchy. Indent to the right as your notes become more detailed and shift back to the left for each new main topic.
The Mapping Method: Each main topic gets its own page for notes. Draw lines and boxes to branch out from the main topic to write subtopics and add finer details below or around each subtopic heading.
The Charting Method: Divide your paper into columns and label them by topic or idea. Fill out the details of each topic below.
For a more in-depth look at the different methods and their unique benefits, check out this article. It outlines some popular note taking methods and pairs them with great examples. Then, try out some of the formats that seem interesting to you to determine which one suits your needs. You may even want to use different formats for different subjects depending on the information that you have to process.
Prioritize Information You Can’t Get Elsewhere
It’s pretty near impossible to write down every single detail, definition, and diagram that is presented to you during a lecture. In order to take good notes, you need to prioritize what information is worth writing down. In fact, one of the best things you can do to become a more efficient note-taker is to learn what NOT to take notes on. Yes, you read that correctly. Not everything needs to be included in your notes.
Prioritize taking notes on information that you can’t get after class or from another resource. Things the professor talks about such as stories, examples and answers to questions are often valuable learning materials that aren’t typed out in their presentation, so it’s more important to jot these down than a definition that you can look up in your book later. At the beginning of class, ask if the presentation will be made available to you afterward so you know what you can safely omit from your notes for the time being.
Make It Colorful
If you find it easy to get lost in all of the text on the page while studying your notes, brighten them up a bit by using different colored pens or highlighters. Colors are a very versatile tool when it comes to organizing information. Try using one color for each main point and its corresponding details to keep everything together, or try developing a color-coded system for different categories of information (ex. red is for a main idea, blue is for details, green is for a definition). Not only is this a great way to help you organize your notes, but the visual variation can also help make those long study sessions a bit more bearable.
Keep It Brief
Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with the professor when taking notes, especially if you have one that talks quickly. Stay in the game by making your notes as brief as possible while writing them. Abbreviate any words that you can and try using acronyms or other key words for terms that appear frequently in the lecture. You can always go back and revise your notes later to write out the full words and phrases
Re-Write or Type Notes After Class
Speaking of revising, going back through your notes after class and typing them up or re-writing them can have huge benefits when it comes to your learning. Viewing all of the information a second time can help you to retain more of it, and cleaning up your notes during this revision will make it easier to study them again later on.
Keep in mind, re-writing is not the same thing as copying. Taking the exact same set of notes again word for word will not do nearly as much to help you comprehend and retain the material. Instead, look at re-writing or typing up your notes as an editing process: Fill in missing definitions or phrases, fix sentences that don’t make sense, reorganize points for better flow, and summarize what you learned at the end to truly enhance your learning.
Compare Finished Notes with Friends
After finalizing all of your own notes, meet up with classmates to compare what you each took away from the lecture. You may find that someone else took notes over an important point or example that you missed, and you may be able to help some of your peers in return.
The current pandemic has led to unprecedented disruptions in student learning in the United States. Remote learning, decreased instruction time, and fewer opportunities for personalized interactions with teachers have set the stage for widespread learning loss, also referred to as the “Covid-19 slide.” These risks are greatest for low-income students, students of color, and students who were already in need of additional support before schools closed their doors. As the education system works to stabilize and adapt, addressing learning loss must stay at the forefront of the conversation. Policy and education officials must be proactive in identifying strategies to combat the growth of preexisting inequities and gaps in educational access and achievement. Rigorous research indicates that tutoring — supplemental one-on-one or small group instruction — may be one of the most effective tools they can employ.
J-PAL North America’s new publication, “The transformative potential of tutoring for PreK-12 learning outcomes: Lessons from randomized evaluations,” summarizes a meta-analysis of 96 randomized evaluations of different tutoring programs. Drawing primarily from research in high-income countries, this publication examines the effectiveness of tutoring programs across a variety of characteristics, including tutor type, subject, student grade, and others. The meta-analysis finds that tutoring programs have consistently large, positive impacts on students across this range of program aspects. The magnitude and consistency of the findings point to tutoring as one of the most agreed-upon and impactful tools available to educators for improving student learning.
The review identifies valuable insights and trends across five categories.
Program effectiveness: Across all studies included in this analysis, tutoring programs consistently lead to large improvements in learning outcomes for students, with an overall pooled effect size of 0.37 standard deviations. (Effect sizes greater than 0.3 standard deviations are considered to be large impacts, especially in the context of education interventions.) This impact translates to a student advancing from the 50th percentile to nearly the 66th percentile.
Tutor type: Tutoring programs led by teacher or paraprofessional tutors are generally more effective than programs that use nonprofessional (volunteer) or parent tutors. Paraprofessional tutors include, among others, non-teacher school staff, undergraduate and graduate students in education, and service corps fellows. Paraprofessional programs led to positive effects of nearly the same magnitude as teacher programs and were more consistent in their outcomes. This presents a potentially cost-effective option for highly impactful programming.
Student grade level: The effects of tutoring programs tend to be strongest among students in earlier grades, although a smaller set of programs at the secondary level was also found to be effective at improving learning outcomes.
Subject material: While overall effects for math and reading tutoring programs are similar, reading tutoring tends to be relatively more effective for students in preschool through first grade, while math tutoring tends to be more effective for students in second through fifth grade.
Time and location of tutoring: Tutoring programs conducted during school tend to have larger impacts than those conducted after school. Many programs shown to have weaker effects used parents as tutors or took place in an after-school program. Researchers hypothesize that it is difficult to ensure that tutoring actually occurs in these settings.
This publication is meant to serve as a resource for supporting student learning and minimizing the growth of academic disparities during the Covid-19 slide. In addition to highlighting tutoring as an effective educational tool, it also identifies meaningful trends to inform how tutoring programming can be implemented most effectively. Finally, the publication outlines key open questions about how to effectively scale tutoring programs, support older students, and make tutoring accessible to the students who need it most. J-PAL North America is seeking to answer some of these questions through their COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Initiative.
We also invite you to explore how Vint Hill Educational Services can help if you need greater flexibility in the how, when, and where of your educational journey. We have a consistent record and demonstrated success of helping students improve their grades, scores, and overall academic functioning. In addition, all our programs are taught by highly qualified teachers and tutors. You can find out more about us by visiting our website or calling us directly at 540-680-4004. We're always happy to talk with you about your options and how we can help.
You may be thinking about switching from public school to homeschool mid-year. It’s more common than you think to switch from public to homeschool at the semester break, but you can really make the change anytime you feel it is necessary for your family.
Here are a few tips for making the switch to help you get started, and hopefully make the transition much smoother for your entire family!
For families navigating the challenges of the coronavirus era, it can seem a bit like a play in three acts — only in this case, all the acts are happening at once. You are a parent, you are a teacher and you are a professional — all at the same time. Understandably, things don’t always go smoothly. The novelty of having school at home may be wearing a bit thin. So, how do we keep our kids academically engaged — and happy about it?
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