A Quick Study: The Scottsdale Educatioin Center Helps Youngsters Complete Their Homework And Improve Their Test Scores
North Scottsdale youngsters who need help with math, science and language arts, or who want to Prepare for the AIMS, SAT or other tests, now have easy access to an after-school tutoring center. Formerly located on McDowell Mountain Ranch Parkway, the Scottsdale Education Center recently moved to its new location on Bell Road.
The center made the move to accommodate its expanding curriculum and programs. The 1,800 square-foot facility is twice as large as the one it left behind. It contains eight classrooms that can accommodate 10 or more students. Students come for sessions once or twice a week depending on individual needs. " Most of our tutoring sessions have a ratio of three students one teacher. We don't just help with homework but we tutor students of all ages, in all subjects in which they need help," says Holly DiTallo, a teacher, and one of the center's two owners. "We help to bring them up to grade level if they lag behind the rest of the class. We prepare them for all kinds of tests, and offer enrichment/acceleration classes for gifted students who are bored at the pace at which their class is proceeding. So there is something for everyone."
Programs include homework support, which is geared toward elementary and middle school students who don't necessarily need tutoring, but need guidance to complete their homework. Work on the computer or preparing for tests. Kids enrolled in this program can visit everyday for two hours, do their homework, and receive whatever help they need on it. "Many families are two-career families, with both mother and father working," says Christina Tayles, the center's co-owner and math teacher. "They appreciate an outlet where the kids can safely and efficiently get their homework done."
Reading and math support sessions for elementary grades offer help with reading comprehension and basic phonic skills for kids from kindergarten to 6th grade. Math skills offered to elementary and middle school students include core-math, pre-algebra, algebra 1 and 11, geometry and trigonometry.
For middle and high schools students, the center offers classes in Spanish, German, Latin and Language Arts. Higher-level math and science subjects for high school students include biology, physics, trigonometry, calculus and chemistry, many of which are taught by ASU graduate students.
Lastly, the center offers a program in study skills to all ages and grade levels. The program is geared towards minimizing test anxiety and boosting confidence, and will take students through strategies and practice tests to enable them to master standardized test-taking skills. "When students feel organized and able to plan their study-time, a sense of success and self-confidence can be seen in all other areas, including academic and social. Anxieties and frustrations are replaced by a positive sense of motivation to succeed," says DiTallo.
Instruction is also offered to students taught the Spaulding approach.
All the center's instructors are highly-skilled teachers who have taught. Or are still teaching, in local educational institutions. Ten teachers are on staff that specialize in middle school and high school reading and math and science. Christina Tayles specializes in Math while Holly Di Tallo specializes in language arts, German, Spanish and Latin.
DiTallo and Tayles opened the center six years ago, after tutoring students at Desert Canyon Middle School where they taught language arts and math respectively.
They started out offering help to high school students but soon realized that there was a need to tutor younger students, as well. "We are looking for a lot of growth. Our programs for younger students are just beginning to take off. A lot of middle school kids come to do homework support because homework gets more challenging at those grade levels," says Di Tallo. " We are beginning to have a lot of 8th graders who want to prepare themselves for high school, and seniors who need help with algebra and geometry or want to take science subjects to get ready for college-level classes."
Also offered are correspondence courses for high school and college credit as well as on-going SAT,ACT prep courses.
The center is open between the hours of 1:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and is located at 9151 E. Bell Road, Ste 102, Scottsdale. And can be reached by calling 480- 538-0828 or by logging on to their website, www.sectutoring.com.
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