Success Story: After Years of Struggling at School, Twins Find Success Online

Before beginning Sylvan’s online tutoring program, Kim Brady would rouse her 13-year-old twins Tiffany and Brittany every Saturday morning and made the hour-long trek from their home in rural Tennessee to the nearest Sylvan Learning Center. The grueling drive and three-hour classes took a toll on the girls and their mother. Things came to a head when, driving home from a make-up session one night, their car was rear-ended and totaled on the interstate by a drunken tractor-trailer driver.

Even then, Kim Brady wasn’t prepared to give up on Sylvan. After nine months of attending Sylvan, the sixth graders’ reading scores had jumped an impressive two grades: from a fourth-grade reading level to a sixth-grade reading level. And they hadn’t yet begun to dig into math, another academic area in which they sorely needed help.

Thanks to the introduction of Sylvan's live online tutoring program, Tiffany and Brittany were able to continue making progress with Sylvan’s live, certified teachers—from the comfort and convenience of their own home. They simply ‘tuned into’ their tutoring sessions via their home computer.

Switching to online tutoring, the twins exchanged their condensed, three-hour weekly tutoring sessions for more manageable, one-hour daily instructional periods. They’re also enjoying an unexpected perk that comes with on-line learning: ‘meeting’ students from other parts of the country. “They love it. They think it’s neat to interact with kids from other states,” says their mom. On average, two other students participate in an online tutoring session with them.

The concept behind Sylvan's live online tutoring is the same one that has made traditional Sylvan tutoring a success: small, individualized tutoring sessions based on thorough assessments of students’ needs and abilities. It’s not the first tutoring program in which Tiffany and Brittany have been enrolled, but it’s the only one that’s been a success for them.

“They’ve had tutors before. It didn’t work. I think there were too many kids. I don’t think they truly worked with them [the twins]. They threw too much at them at once. At Sylvan, they focus on one thing at a time,” their mom says.

That’s why, despite the twins’ need for tutoring in math, for now they continue to focus on reading. When the girls’ reading skills are completely up to speed, they’ll begin to hone in on math instruction. So far, this singular focus is paying off for Tiffany and Brittany.

“I can notice when they’re reading that it’s so much smoother. They can pronounce words they never could before,” says their mother. Just like in a traditional classroom, the girls take turns reading out loud. They talk into a microphone that their instructor, and the other students, can hear.

Perhaps it’s their rapidly increasing ability that’s given the girls such a positive attitude about committing an hour each day of their summer vacation to improving their academic skills. “They don’t complain. They just go do it,” their mom says.

Just how long will Tiffany and Brittany continue to receive assistance from Sylvan? “As long as they need to,” their mother replies.