By Jill Nagy
One-on-one tutoring for elementary and high school students, as well as adults preparing for the GED exam or in need of help with language or literacy, is offered at a new center at 120 West Ave. in Saratoga Springs.
Susan Kiley, a long time teacher and tutor, owns and operates the Saratoga Learning Center. She has a master’s degree in special education from the College of St. Rose and an undergraduate degree in business management. She has taught in both public and private schools in the area but not in the Saratoga Springs schools.
The center provides homework help, advice on learning and test-taking strategies, and tutoring in the “common core” curriculum for elementary and high schools recently adopted by New York state. She plans to add classes to help students prepare for the SAT and ACT college admission examinations.
The strong suit of the center, according to Kiley, is that instruction is “very individualized.” Students are evaluated when they first come in and their progress is assessed monthly.
Fees are $45 per session. Acknowledging that she competes for some of her students –adult GED, literacy and English as a second language–with institutions that offer such instruction free of charge, Kiley said, “I can offer a little more,” particularly one-on-one professional instruction.
So far, Kiley is doing much of the teaching herself. However, she said, “I can call upon a list of 20 tutors, all of them certified teachers or with an education background.”
Six weeks after opening its doors, the center has about 15 students. They have come mainly through word of mouth, according to Kiley. She has also been meeting with school administrators to introduce herself and her center’s services.
She opened the center because, “I recognized the need,” Kiley said, noting that there were no tutoring centers in Saratoga Springs before hers. With the youngest of her three sons starting college, the time seemed right from a personal standpoint.
The center near Saratoga Springs High School and across the street from the Fortunate Cup (convenient for parents waiting for their children to complete a tutoring session). The telephone number is 450-1538.