Huntington has built its tutoring methods on scientifically based instructional methods coupled with more than 30 years of experience of tutoring thousands of students. Take a look inside Huntington's proven approach to teaching: Step 1: Academic Evaluation We administer a thorough test battery to evaluate your son's or daughter's academic strengths and weaknesses. We use a variety of tests to measure hand-eye coordination and reading and math skills. For younger students, the battery includes an evaluation of basic concepts and phonetic ability. For all students, we measure sight word ability, the ability to read aloud and silently, and the ability to write a short paragraph. We administer a standardized achievement test to provide grade equivalents and percentiles in reading and math. We use our own math placement exam to gain an understanding of your child's computational and problem solving ability. For older students, we administer a study habits evaluation. During the evaluation, we observe your child's behavior and reaction to the tests. For non-readers, the testing battery takes about one hour. For most others, it takes about three hours. Step 2: Analysis and Review Before the parent conference, we spend considerable time analyzing the test battery to gain an understanding of the results. Each child produces a unique testing battery profile and we use the experience we have gained from working with thousands of children to refine our analysis. Based on this analysis, we develop a prescription - a learning plan - that we share with you during our parent conference. Step 3: Parent Conference & The Learning Plan We invite both parents to our professional office to review our observations, conclusions, and recommendations. (If others have responsibility for the child, we also invite them to the conference. We do not invite the child to the conference.) We discuss your child's behavior during the testing process, as well as our belief about how he or she will respond during our tutoring sessions. We review every test and do our utmost to answer all your questions. We give you our understanding of the home-school-Huntington relationship and how you and your child can use it to work towards success. We present our Learning Plan, which is a broad outline of the subjects on which we will work, as well as the curriculum items we will use. We present our estimate of the program duration (in terms of hours of instruction) and, together, we develop a tutoring schedule and payment plan that meets your child's and family's needs. While the conference's duration depends on the complexity of the test battery's profile and your questions, most conferences take about one to one and one-half hours to complete. Step 4: Tutoring Our Director of Education develops your child's tutoring program from the Learning Plan we shared with you during the parent conference. Our approach is to begin instruction at levels that will insure success. For example, if a child's reading ability is at the fifth grade level, we typically will begin instruction at the fourth grade level. The goal is to give your child a sense of accomplishment - a sense of "I can do it." As he or she experiences success, we increase difficulty level so there is an increased sense of challenge. It's a delicate balance, developing enthusiasm, while insuring real skill development. We work with non-readers on a one-to-one basis, because they need substantial assistance in every aspect of their instruction. We work with others on a four-to-one student-tutor basis, because we have learned that students benefit from a balance of one-to-one instruction followed by some independent work. Here's how it works: our tutor works on a one-to-one basis with your child, typically having him or her read aloud or explaining a math concept. Once this is successful, the tutor asks your child to continue with additional work, while she works with another student. This additional work typically consists of answering questions based on the reading passage or math concept. Every Huntington tutor is either state- or Huntington-certified and trained extensively in the most effective teaching methods. Our experienced tutors are passionate about helping your child raise his or her grades and level of confidence. Step 5: Interim Conferences We schedule frequent conferences to discuss progress at school, at home, and at Huntington. During each conference, we discuss the goals we have set and what your child has achieved. We'll discuss the successes, as well as the challenges that both you and we face. While each conference's duration will depend on the topics and your questions, typically they each last about one-half hour. Step 6: School visits By working together with the school, we can collectively provide the attention and guidance your child deserves. With your permission, we will call or visit with your child's teachers, guidance counselors, and coaches to keep them informed of his or her progress and areas of need.