My daughter was diagnosed as having dyslexia in the 4th grade. I did everything to work with the…read moreCupertino Union School District to provide services to my daughter who was in special education since 2nd grade. I knew that she also needed extra support at home that I was not able to provide. I went to Sylvan and Kumon which provided me with conflicting reports from the school district. I finally had my own neuro - psychological report which took place over a few days which helped me to understand how to work with my daughter, but I still needed a education therapist. I went to Linda Mood Bell (recommended by psychologist) and paid for an expensive assessment as it is required for their program. I still did not feel comfortable as I knew that my daughter needed remediation before cognitive training. It seemed too much torture to have her there 5 days a week for 4 hours a day over the summer. I could not commit to spending a small fortune on something that I was not sure of and that was not customized to her needs. It was very stressful. It was then that I started to research private school specialized in learning difficulties and dyslexia. I visited Charles Armstrong and Los Altos Christian School....just to name a few...but I could not wait to apply for the next year or be on a wait list. Through research I knew that my daughter needed education therapy by someone who was trained in Slingerland methods. I did research online and found the Wunderling Learning Center through the Slingerland Institute site. My husand and I visited Ruthie who has extensive experience tutoring children with learning difficutlies. I felt at ease with her and confident in her abilities. She explained an ideal plan to work with my daughter which included assessments based on her observations working her as well as specific testing. Most of all we needed someone we could trust to work with our child. My husband and I decided to start off with 2 days a week of education therapy after school and started in July 2007. For the past several months Ruthie has helped us to work with our daughter at home, provided specific strategies to to address her learning issues and keeping focused. She has helped me through my daughters meltdowns over math and language arts. Ruthie has a talent to work with children and is commited to education. She also continues her education to provide additional services to her clients. She is now a PACE certified instructor and has added this as another tool to work with my daughter. It is February 2008 and my daugher got a 97% on her science test and has mainstreamed into a regular Math class. This is huge difference from last summer and my husband and I are very proud. We will continue with the education therapy with Ruthie. Do your research before making a commitment to put your child in any program. Many of the cookie cutter programs may try to take advantage of your need to provide for your child.

I wanted to write a further follow up on the PACE program now that we are a 1/2 a year into this…read moreprogram. I have seen remarkable changes in one of my children in relation to his test results - from a child that was average to a child that is now getting A's and B's on most of his tests. The only thing I can contribute this to is the PACE program. It has taught him techniques and ways to memories information. Last year he was nearly failing math - this year he's a A/B student. In science and history he is A+ - this program has given an average child a winning edge.

My daughter's SAT score wouldn't budge past the 1300s, and she felt as if the schools in her list…read morewere slipping further out of reach every time she retook the test. We'd tried other prep on our own but with barely any movement, so we were becoming more and more skeptical anything would help. Fortunately, our friends referred us to Cardinal Education. Daniel, her tutor, took the time to figure out her (academic) strengths and weaknesses through a diagnostic test. After multiple sessions and practice tests, we had the highest hopes. And so when we finally started seeing progress (her score came back at 1530), we just sat there in shock lol. It completely changed her options for college that we decided to also sign up for their college consulting package. All thanks to her team of tutors and consultants!

We have been working with Cardinal for several years for both tutoring and college preparation…read more Their approach is absolutely phenomenal; I originally reached out for their help with my daughter's application to a local private school last minute. They were an absolute godsend in helping me honestly understand what was involved in the process, getting my young daughter prepared, and help drafting some statements from interviews. They really know how to partner with families and come alongside and provide the guidance and preparation needed. We get also math tutoring from them for 2 daughters, and the tutors are so familiar with the school's teachers, approach and curriculum that it's more like private instruction than tutoring. The big win is working with them for our senior's college application process. It was a huge investment, and at first we weren't sure about the cost. But now that we see the full picture of services they offer, it's well worth it, and such an investment into our child's future. What's invaluable, is the way they are teaching her how to think and function like an executive. The level of planning, idea generating, and execution is unlike anything I' ve ever seen. Cardinal has brought in an entire team to support our daughter's complicated college application process so that she is advised, guided and cheered on every step of the way. It's about a lot more than simply getting her into the college of her dreams. They are teaching her how to plan out a future goal, work harder than she ever has, revise 7+ times and keep revising. Improving math grades, choosing classes, how to present herself as a unique individual who can contribute meaningfully. I'm blown away by their services!

Our daughter studied classical guitar under Mike for multiple years. It's incredible to see how…read moreshe progressed over the years. Mike's teaching style is such that you can definitely see a clear progression of where the student is and where they're going. Students are also taught how to properly practice, with techniques to learn the ideal way to build up skills required for the current song being worked on. There are multiple yearly recitals that give students a chance to showcase their skills and hear what students at a higher level are able to accomplish. Highly recommend Mike to anyone!

I wish Michael could put more passion into his teaching. When we first signed up, his policy…read moreincluded recitals and makeup scheduling. However, over the 4 years my kid was with him, he had only 1 recital. Ever since Covid, he completely stopped doing recitals, and stopped offering any makeups. We opted to pay extra charge to get an online makeup, he reluctantly accepted and scheduled it at a noon. It was unfortunate that my kid went to have lunch at the time and missed the alarm he set for the makeup. Since it's an online session, Michael could have easily called us, instead he just let the time pass and my kid missed the makeup. I don't mind people charging money for their time or overtime, however, I feel frustrated with a teacher that shows no empathy with his student and could not care less when his student misses a class.

My older son had a fantastic experience working with Jennifer over two years. She helped him…read moreidentify schools of interest, calibrate likelihood of admission so that he had a great mix of "reach" and "safe" options, and assess the pros and cons of different majors (really helping him define and articulate for himself what he wanted to study). She also helped him turn an initially disparate set of activities and extra-curriculars into something much deeper and coherent. She presented him with an amazing range of options (like online summer courses in entrepreneurship) which he enjoyed, looked impressive, aligned with his admission "narrative", and which we frankly would never have found without her. Finally, she was invaluable in compiling everything into the applications themselves and invested a ton in making each one as good as possible. This included essay ideation, rough draft reviews, and went all the way through to line edits with us of every final essay and application. I think I'm a pretty good writer, but the input and help that Jennifer provided my son was far beyond my expectations and much better than what I could offer. I believe that her effort, expertise, and attention to detail significantly increased the number of acceptances and options that my son ended up with. Throughout this, Jennifer was patient, persistent, encouraging, and comforting during a period when I know my son was stressed about both the admissions process and also moving into this new phase of life. Jennifer was invaluable to my son and he was delighted with the options she helped him get and is incredibly happy with the choice he ultimately made on where to attend school. We heard of Jennifer through word of mouth and are so happy that we did. My sophomore has just begun working with her and asked if he could based on the experience that he saw his older brother have.

Jennifer helped my daughter (and us!) with her entire college application process. We loved…read moreworking with her because she was very patient, supportive, communicative, non-judgmental, kind, motivating, and organized! I already referred my friend and her daughter to work with Jennifer. She really relieved a lot of stress for my husband and me. We are very grateful!

Backup repost from 11 months ago…read more "I'm giving four stars because I do not think the issues and censorship I experienced are an atypical response from a school. When I tried to bring light to bad deeds, I was suspended and threatened with expulsion. I never encountered physical violence. Bad deeds included severe emotional abuses, motivated by sexism, from older staff here. This and sex-based victim blaming - resembling misogynistic patterns - contributed significantly to suicidal my thoughts. Dehumanization was added through transphobia. Newer staff were less problematic than integrated ones, suggesting the administration's leadership is a source of problems. Last time I interacted, the administration did their best to manipulate the image to feign their innocence at all costs. These issues are adult topics, which adolescents like me ideally would not face; my experiences occurred about one year ago, and while I have learned to better describe them, I am not mature enough to understand the issue's whole systemic contexts."

As the parents of two high schoolers that could not be any more different, we have a deep…read moreappreciation and respect for the value of Palo Alto Prep (PA Prep) and their amazing educational staff. While one child has thrived in a traditional high school, our eldest did not. They are an amazing creative thinker but also challenged with the headwinds of a variety of learning and related social challenges. While they also handled middle school well, even thrived academically, to say that traditional high school was a train wreck is an understatement. We needed help as a family and PA Prep was there. Thankfully we discovered PA Prep through our engagement with the The Bodin Education Group (also highly recommended). After a careful evaluation of options (Bodin know them all!) and engagement with the team at PA Prep we could see that our son would benefit immensely from all that PA Prep is, and all that it offers to students like them. Is it perfect, absolutely not. But the positives for a student/young adult like our son far far FAR outweigh any minor drawbacks. The great: 1. Incredibly intimate teacher/staff/student relationships. You want your child to be known and know their school staff, they will. The ability to cater and focus on what works for your student is incredible. 2. Incredibly capable and proficient teachers who know how to work with students for whom regular school isn't a good fit. 3. Patience, understand and flexibility. Need to take a "break" road trip with your student on a moments notice? PA Prep understands and accommodates with complete understanding. 4. Diversity of classes and programs to engage an out of the box learner. From art, outdoors to flight training. Just because it's small doesn't limit the exposure of options for your student, lots to offer including independent project programs to nurture student led initiative. The realities (not bad but worthy of mention): 1. It is small, and high school is high school, no matter where you attend. This can sometimes magnify any typical social dynamics. The staff is incredibly attuned to this, but you also should be as a parent. It is important to recognize this is still high school and immediately addressing issues is critical, the staff is exceptional at partnering on this. 2. There is a diverse population of students with a diverse set of backgrounds and needs. With this comes the realities of all their experiences, lives and challenges. Your student will be exposed to this, as they would in any high school, it isn't a fully sheltered and manicured but it is absolutely safe. It is incredibly important to stay aware of this as a parent. I will ensure you the staff is very experience and aware also, together this can help any student navigate the realities of high school life safely and holistically. 3. Passion, intent and caring are the hallmarks of PA Prep staff and teachers. Organization and "manicured administration" perhaps not so much the strong suit. Do not go in expecting perfection in communication, organization or logistics. I promise this is ok, and everything is handled with the best of outcomes for the students. If you are used to the polish of a "elite" private/public high school you will notice a difference here. My strongest advice for a successful PA Prep tenure is to invest in your parental (and student) relationships with staff, they are both open and available. This will help your student, and family, easily manage what is lacking in any size, scale, capabilities on this less critical administrative front. In closing: We loved PA Prep, we could not imagine our son achieving high school success without it. For the right student this IS the right place. Attend one graduation ceremony and that is all it takes to see how different, special and wonderful Palo Alto Preparatory School is for its staff, students and families!

My students took the SAT this Saturday, and they all agreed about one point: the tutoring they…read morereceived -- through Matthew Downhour of AJ Tutoring -- helped them feel prepared and confident. They said that they were better able to manage their time, and their stress levels, because of the tutoring he provided. Since January of this year, Matt has arrived on time at 8 am, twice a week, to our junior AVID classes. AVID is a college prep class, but I always felt less than confident tutoring my students for the SAT. I'm an English teacher, after all. Can I help with the reading? Sure. The grammar? Yes. But Matt is able to teach them skills, strategies, rules, and... math. I could not have been more happy with Matt, and AJ Tutoring.

We've had a wonderful experience with this tutoring center. They are incredibly responsive,…read moreproactive, and easy to work with. I also really appreciate that we're only charged for the sessions we actually use -- no pressure or unnecessary commitments. Most importantly, my daughter's tutor, Amelie, has been amazing. My daughter is in 5th grade and started tutoring because she was behind in reading, spelling, and writing, and she needed extra support from someone other than mom or dad. Homework at home was often a struggle, so it says a lot that she genuinely likes Amelie and actually looks forward to her sessions. In fact, we were running late once and my daughter was very upset because she didn't want to be late to tutoring -- something I never thought I'd see! Seeing her excited about learning has been incredible, and that wouldn't have happened without Amelie's patience, encouragement, and ability to connect with her. We're so grateful for the progress we've seen and highly recommend this tutoring center, especially Amelie.

As the founder of Academics Drive, I am a big fan of this business! Emma does her best to meet…read morefamilies and especially students where they are. She comes to your home, does a free initial evaluation/meet and greet to get a sense of the family and child. What your child needs to develop, she will cater the lessons towards. She has established systems to encourage children. Her end goal is for students to love and appreciate learning, which comes naturally as she connects with children and provides texts and material where there will be high interest. She creates meaningful assignments that engage the whole child.

My sister goes here for her SAT test prep and Miss Gwen has been a great help. She has great…read moreknowledge about what the test entails and tries her best to explain it to us and what we need to do to achieve the best result. There's so many changes in the education system so sometimes we, family, can't keep up with them all but Miss Gwen did a great job keeping us on track so we have a better understanding of how we can support and encourage my sister. I saw my sister's note and Miss Gwen really focuses on the root of the problem to help my sister learn better, and not just for the test. She also does many mock tests to get used to the real test environment. She's been going here for less than 6 months but I already saw her improvement. She also said she likes Miss Gwen a lot and I think that's also important in finding a good tutor.

I had a disappointing experience with Apollo Test Prep. The tutoring approach I received placed too…read moremuch emphasis on general comprehension and not enough on the elimination process that is essential for difficult LSAT questions. In my experience, this actually disrupted a method that had been working better for me, and my performance suffered rather than improved. I later reached out to Jack to explain my concerns and hoped to discuss what had gone wrong, but I did not receive a meaningful response. I also scheduled a strategy call, which was canceled on the basis that only one complimentary strategy call is allowed per student. This was particularly frustrating because I had previously been permitted to schedule more than one strategy call before becoming a paying tutoring client. Taken together, the lack of follow-up and cancellation made me feel that my concerns as a paying student were not being taken seriously. I would have appreciated accountability, a substantive discussion of the tutoring issues, and an effort to address the problem rather than simply ending communication. Based on my experience, I would not use their tutoring services again.