A Wake-Up Call for Parents: Not All SAT/ACT Tutoring is Worth the Investment
With charges ranging from $30 to $800 per hour, private tutoring has become a $2.2 billion business in America. A significant percentage of that money, spent to prepare students for SAT and ACT tests, may not be generating hoped-for results. This warning comes from industry expert Matthew Pietrafetta, who has authored a paper to help parents ensure that their tutoring investment pays maximum dividends.
Pietrafetta, CEO of The Academic Approach, a test preparation and tutoring company headquartered in Chicago, traces the problem to two primary factors that may also be contributing to a nationwide decline in test scores:
Absence of tutor standards: Virtually anyone can claim to be an SAT tutor — there is no certification process and no agreed-upon measures of success. Not even lofty degrees can guarantee effective teaching. Pietrafetta cites the infamous Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, who graduated from Harvard but reportedly received poor reviews from students as a university professor.
Teaching to the test: The vast majority of tutors and online courses focus on test-taking tricks and techniques — strategies for “gaming” standardized tests rather than building academic skills. Like “cramming,” this approach yields short-term gains at best and leads many academics to dislike the test-preparation business.
According to Pietrafetta, price bloat is especially rampant among boutique tutoring firms catering to competitive parents with Ivy League aspirations for their children. At a former employer’s firm in NYC, Pietrafetta witnessed families spending $25,000 to $30,000 annually on private tutoring. Too often the expense produced a student dependent on academic handholding rather than one prepared for academic independence and success.
At the opposite end of the spectrum are parents who hope to boost their child’s standardized test scores with one-size-fits-all solutions, available through the Internet and in bookstores.
“This investment is certainly more affordable–$35 for a book and CD-ROM–but the outcome is questionable,” Pietrafetta writes. “Students may waste time focusing on the wrong lessons, or fail to learn entirely because a generic approach is often insensitive to their individual learning styles.”
In his paper, Pietrafetta makes the case that a tutoring program should not only produce a better test taker but also a better strategic thinker and student. He outlines a ten-point strategy for achieving this level of result and recommends that parents look for the following specific qualities in a tutoring provider:
Concrete references from students, parents, teachers and high school college counselors that endorse the tutor and tutoring company
Demonstrated evidence of results from tutored students
A fully developed curriculum–printed manuals, or accessible online program
A tutoring plan that assesses and relates to a student’s high school course work, drawing inferences from that course work as well as from diagnostic test results
A documented and clear hiring process, including a background check
A concrete explanation of how the tutor will strengthen the child’s performance on the test and in school
Evidence that the tutoring company trains the tutor and monitors his or her performance
A demonstrated willingness to reach out to educators, counselors, and specialists to consult broadly on the student’s case
A tutoring process that is transparent–accessible, not impenetrable–with opportunities for parent communication through calls, emails, and face-to-face talks with the tutor
Pietrafetta puts special emphasis on this last point.
“Parents have unique insights about their students and a critical role to play in encouraging and guiding the learning process,” he writes. “A high-value tutoring relationship involves the parents from the very beginning.”
About Matthew Pietrafetta
Matthew Pietrafetta founded The Academic Approach in 2001. His founding philosophy–to teach beyond the test™– utilizes test preparation as a means to raise test scores substantively while emphasizing a curriculum of core skills required for college readiness.
He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and earned a master of arts in literature and a master of philosophy in literature from the English department at Columbia University, in New York.
Pietrafetta has more than 10 years of one-on-one tutoring experience. As a writing fellow at Trinity College, he instructed peers in writing skills and studied writing theory and practice. As a Writing Fellow at Columbia, he taught numerous undergraduate composition courses. At the same time, he helped hundreds of students prepare for standardized tests–including the SAT, ACT, SSAT, ISEE, LSAT, GMAT, GRE, and MCAT.
Pietrafetta authored and continues to oversee the company’s proprietary curriculum. He has led the organization since its inception and formed a talented team of leaders and educators, serving hundreds of students across the United States each year.
About The Academic Approach
The Academic Approach provides individualized test preparation and tutoring services that enhance both the standardized test scores and the long-term academic performance of its students. The company’s proprietary curriculum uses standardized test preparation as a platform for imparting foundational knowledge and critical thinking skills with lasting educational value. Online programs make sophisticated content accessible, engaging, and convenient for students. Trained educators with demonstrated teaching enthusiasm and experience provide the one-on-one attention and motivation students need to achieve their goals. The Academic Approach, considered “the educator’s choice” in test preparation, collaborates with parents, educators, and school administrators to create the most customized and comprehensive academic solutions to the challenges of test preparation.
Founded in 2001, The Academic Approach maintains offices in Boston, Chicago, and New York.