Our youngest son has an IEP at School for his LD (Comprehension) and is going into the 10th grade. We thought the school would provide enough services to help him and we watched his 9th grade year to see how he did his first year of high school. Unfortunately, he didn't do as well as we thought. He ended up with a 2.3 GPA.

He does all of his work, but in his mind he is "prepared" for a test and feels he is going to ace it, then he ends up failing more times than not. He is not in restricted classes, but in the general classroom setting and has a very unrestricted IEP (almost no services but one class called directive studies where if he needed help he could get help). It just wasn't enough.

So we are looking at Huntington Learning Center. He did his testing yesterday, and we go back in tomorrow for the "finanical and results meeting".

I was extremely leary of the facilities (seemed cramped, hot rooms, teenage girls watching/helping the students I saw there, which every time I saw them the girls were talking with each other in a corner) questioned the qualifications and asked many questions. I am wondering if there was more that I could not see...

Anyway, when we went into the directors office, the air miraculously was turned on! LOL!!!

Does anyone have any advice or comments about any experiences with HLC? I would love to hear some positive comments, because I really want to help our son. He is our baby, and he has aspirations to be a Doctor or at least go into the medical field. He wants to go to Purdue University, and we want to make that happen for him, if we can help him accomplish his goals.

No matter what the cost, I want to see him succeed and give him every opportunity (as we did with all of our boys). But I am getting the feeling this is not chump change, and I don't want to put my money somewhere that might not help when I could place that somewhere that can.
I called our High School to see if there are teachers that specialize in this that do tutoring over the summer. They said they did not, and did not offer any kind of programs during the summer to help our son. So I am left with only looking at Private Institutions.

Thanks for your help!

Don't you just wish you could just open their heads and dump the knowledge in?

Oh wow, are you so right!

There are many things that we could be doing better, so we are also going to start implementing a few things here as well.

We went over his test results today and then got our quote for the cost of services. I am so glad I was sitting down! It is $8,000 for 250 hours of services. I am a little sticker shocked, but my dh is all ready to throw the money at the center (I love him, he is so wonderful to our children!)

but I'm thinking, That is what, a year of tuition at a private school????

I just hope someone can chime in for me and give their experience good or bad, before we sign.

I don't know about Huntington. My son had an IEP and was doing horrible in school.Last summer I bought homeschool curriculum thinking I could help him catch up.It worked so well for me. I now homeschool all three of my children.If you google homeschool you can find lots of things to gelp him during the summer. i paid about 250.00 for a whole school year of work.

I am a special education teacher for grades 4-6. This will be my 13th year. What is your child's disablity area (if you don't mind sharing?)

I do some tutoring and charge $25 per hour. (Which is on the lower end...there is another teacher that charges 40-50 per hour)

I would look into finding a teacher to tutor your son in his areas of need.

I have heard from parents that places like Sylvan and Huntington will say your child is "lower" than they actually are so that they can show you "results" in a few weeks, if that makes sense and therefore require more sessions than may be necessary.

Good luck!

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Shelley
blue5203@aol.com

~Mom to Andy-11/3/05 and Ryan-7/31/08~

I know a teacher who works for Sylvan, and she was only making $12.00 per hour (last time I spoke with her - about a year ago). She was only working for them because of the great "mom" hours, and wanted to get her foot back in the door with an updated resume. But she didn't plan to stay long, and said that they experience a great deal of turnover. So who's pocketing all that extra money?

She did feel that the training was really good, and also mentioned that the teachers' lessons are very "scripted," -FWIW.

I like the idea of going with a special education tutor, or a reading specialist. A one-on-one special education teacher can individualize for your child far better than a teacher working with a scripted program and a small group, IMHO. However, I really know nothing about the program you're inquiring about - this is just my personal theory based on the Sylvan info that I had (could even be out-dated - this was about a year ago).

Good luck with whatever you do! You're a great mom, and it sounds like you've got a very dedicated learner for a son. That's a huge part of the battle!

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"The errors of faith are better than the best thoughts of unbelief." - Thomas Russell

I might suggest that you check with a local college or community college (perhaps in the career center) to see if they could recommend any student tutors for you. I would check their references, of course. But, sometimes hs students do better with learning if they are tutored by a "peer". Also, prices are lower than Sylvan, whose "teachers" might not be even any more or even as qualified as any tutor you might find through the JC

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You might check into university for students. Maybe place an add in the pennysaver. There has to be a someone that can help. I loved sharing my knowledge as a tutor in college
Is there another school that you can talk to a counselor and see if he can transfer? He still has many dreams and the school doesn't seem that they are willing to help. I think they are required to since he has an IEP. They are lucky to have parents like you willing to help their child. Many are not, unfortunately.

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-Kristi

The director did tell me that they have a very good teaching staff in their office. He has some teachers with Masters Degrees and even one that is working on their Doctorate.

He said that all of his teachers are "certified" so I am not sure how much credentialing goes into becoming a certified teacher (I am not familiar with educational programs in Colleges) He did say that he pays them an hourly wage almost half of the contractural Union pay in the regular school system. So that would put it around $13 an hour-which if someone is able to retire and do what they still love, I think the pay is fair for the flexibility that is given. HOWEVER, I still feel teachers (even that are doing flexible work) should be paid much more money than $13 an hour. Basically, I calculated $3341 goes to the teachers for helping my son and $4659 will be going to the Center/.

"I have heard from parents that places like Sylvan and Huntington will say your child is "lower" than they actually are so that they can show you "results" in a few weeks,"

I know that when he gave us Matt's test results, he asked if these scores are the same we have been seeing on his test results at school (meaning his ACT/IEP testing, etc) and we said Yes, because they were very close. I wonder if he was expecting us to say that the test results from school are higher?

It is comforting to hear they have a very good program. I just wish it did't cost so much, KWIM?

Shelley, I also think that a special education teacher would be the best route and I would be more than willing to pay for extra help for him. I am going to call the guidance office at his high school on Wednesday and just push a little bit harder than I did last week to see if there is any kind of help.

I also like the idea of homeschool work for the summer. Very good idea!

We sent our son to HLC when he was in 11th grade to try to prepare him for his college SAT tests.
He went 3 days a week for 4-6 weeks. He was taught some basic strategies to help him improve his scores. I really don't think that he got all that much from the program.

In contrast, when he was in elementary school, I had a private tutor (his 1st grade teacher) come to our home a few days a week. She worked one on one with him, in both reading comprehension and spelling.
I did see a great deal of improvement from this.

From my experience, they would give him work to do at HLC, and he would do it on his own, both there and at home, and then they would grade it. They would quickly go over what he missed, and would move on. They spent alot of time retesting him, and not as much time working with him.

I guess it depends on what you are trying to accomplish, but I found a private tutor to be much more beneficial than HLC.

If you can't find a teacher from your school, maybe you could advertise in the help wanted section of your local newspaper.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Have you called the board of education for your state and questioned them as to what can help your son? I would call them and see what their suggestions are. They may have ideas for home schooling/help. My brother had comprehension problems in his lower grades and they had him read the sports highlights in school,because this was his intrest, and this led to his understanding of comprehension. Just remember that not everyone can be a good written test taker some people do better at oral testing. Good luck to you both.