Sylvan Online - Frequently Asked Questions

How will the Sylvan Online program help build my child's confidence?
If your child lacks self-confidence, she may have Skill Gaps—weaknesses in some foundation skills. Sylvan Online builds self-confidence two ways. First, we improve your child's skills so she does better in school. Second, we give positive feedback throughout the program to build confidence and reinforce learning.

If your child falls behind his classmates, her self-esteem plummets. Sylvan Online's tutoring program is designed so that your child will quickly experience success—and become a confident learner.

Here's how it works: First, we assess your child's Skill Gaps using our Online Skills Assessment. Then we develop a program at a level at which your child can succeed. We build upon her success, until she succeeds at grade level and beyond. Our mastery learning approach allows each student to take as much or as little time as needed on each learning objective. No child is pushed ahead too quickly. Your child experiences success with every Sylvan Online session. As we build your child's skills, we build self-confidence.

How do you assess my child's skills? How do you use the assessment to build a learning program for my child?
We assess your child's skills with our Online Skills Assessment, based on the California Achievement Test. This standardized assessment measures how well your child understands and can apply fundamental reading and math skills.

After your child completes the assessment, we analyze it item-by-item to pinpoint Skill Gaps—weaknesses in fundamental skills. We then design a curriculum for your child—an individual learning program—to fix these Gaps.

Our curriculum is based on National Standards. Our math curriculum incorporates the standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Our reading curriculum is based on standards developed by the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, as well as the findings of the National Reading Panel.

How do you set goals for my child?
We will set realistic but aggressive goals for your child, based on input from you, your child, and your child's Academic Director. The goal may be to back up and build foundation skills your child missed in previous grades. For example, the goal for your child might be to master basic math skills, so he can succeed at Algebra.

Or the goal for your child might be to read at grade level—and beyond. We set interim goals, help your child achieve them, then set new goals to help her achieve even more!

How soon will I see results?
Your child will get results quickly, but you may not see the results immediately in his schoolwork. Why is that? We may have to back up and fill in crucial foundation skills before your child can succeed at grade-level work. For example, if your 5th grader is reading two levels below grade, we will take the time to fill in the skills he missed in the 3rd and 4th grade. Once he's mastered these fundamentals, he'll have the tools to succeed in the fifth grade—and beyond.

How do you know if you're getting results? How do you measure my child's success?
We know because we continually assess your child's achievements. We re-assess your child after every 36 hours of instruction to get a new baseline and to monitor his progress toward reaching grade level. At any time, you can go online to the Parent Website to see how your child is doing, and the grade level that he has achieved.

I thought Sylvan Online was one-on-one instruction. What's this about the teacher working with two students?
Sylvan Online is one-on-one instruction. Each program is individualized. That means no two programs are the same. Your child's program is based on his specific needs. During each session, your child spends one-on-one time with a certified instructor who teaches new skills and provides guided skill practice. An important goal is to enable your child to work independently. To achieve this, your child gets time to practice these new skills on his own.

While your child is working independently, his teacher might be providing a second student with guided practice. This efficient use of teaching time lets us keep our prices affordable, without diminishing the effectiveness of our instruction.

Our system makes it easy for a teacher to monitor more than one student at a time, and the teacher is available to your child at any time during the session. Even when your child is doing independent practice, he just needs to "raise his hand" (a built-in feature of our online classroom) to signal to the teacher that he needs help.

Ready to find out more about how Sylvan Online can help your child? Call 1-800-379-5826 today!