By Kim Hilsenbeck.
During a down economy, discretionary spending on non-essential items and services are the first items people cut in their budgets. Tutoring at a private facility like Sylvan Learning Center may be on that chopping block for parents, even though they want educational success for their children.
When Crystal Cotti, executive director and owner of five Sylvan Learning Centers in Central Texas, including a newly opened location in Kyle, bought into the franchise in 2007, times were good.
In 2009, she said the rug was pulled out from under her as the economy tanked.
At top: The Sylvan Learning Center in Kyle opened its doors in August. Owner and Executive Director Crystal Cotti said after the economy went south, she got creative in keeping open the doors of her four other tutoring locations. With the economy rebounding, she said it seemed like the right time to open in Kyle. She also said research showed there was a demand for the service, and a market that could pay for aditional support to help children attain educational success, in northern Hays County. (Photo by Kim Hilsenbeck) |
“I didn’t want to let anyone go or close any doors,” Cotti said, “and I knew that families who are engaged in child’s education and they value education and want kids to succeed – the demand would come back. The economy just needed time.”
So she renegotiated leases and contracts, cut back on spending and managed to hang on to her Sylvans and her staff.
“I’m really proud of that,” she said.
Fast forward to 2014. Cotti said the new Kyle facility is the first one she opened since the recession. She met with the Hays Free Press there recently to talk about it.
Why Kyle?
Families from Hays County were driving a long way to get to Cotti’s south Austin Sylvan location at Loop 360 and Lamar Blvd. Cotti said she started exploring opening a new site south of the Travis County border. She already had a satellite location in Dripping Springs, but wanted something more convenient for those living near the Interstate 35 corridor.
Research showed there was demand in terms of the need – and a market able to pay for tutoring. Sessions cost between $48-$50 in most cases, though Cotti offers educator and military discounts. Kyle is also on I-35, making it accessible to large swaths of the Hays County population.
But she said the Kyle choice also had as much to do with the type of community as it did with number crunching.
“Kyle is a family-friendly community with families that value education,” Cotti said.
Exactly the kind of town where private tutoring facilities can supplement a student’s education, offering a path to success.
She eventually decided on a facility inside a row of businesses on Kyle Parkway, in the Target shopping center. With its central location and easy access to both sides of the interstate, Cotti pulled the trigger. The site opened in August. Cotti and her staff held a ribbon cutting last week with the Kyle Chamber of Commerce.
Cotti bought into Sylvan Learning Center because she wanted something research-based and already established with national brand behind it. Sylvan fit the bill. The firm, which began franchising in 1979, enjoys a lion’s share of the tutoring market.
How much need is there for tutoring in Hays County?
According to Cotti, roughly 60 percent of kids in any school class are just going to “get it.”
“That other 40 percent is going to need help,” she said. “Within that 40 percent, you’ve got kids with learning disabilities, processing challenges … they learn differently from the main stream. Those students need a small group environment and they need a curriculum and learning plan that’s personal to them.”
Which is exactly what Sylvan offers.
Sylvan’s tutoring classes have a 3:1 student to teacher ratio. In public schools such as Hays CISD, the teacher ratio for elementary school students is, on average, 22:1.
“All schools are short-staffed and budgets are tight,” Cotti said. “Districts would love to provide a 3:1 ratio.”
And while Sylvan isn’t able to use the same curriculum as Hays CISD, Cotti said the program she uses is research-based and proven to work.
Most of the students who come to Sylvan need reading help.
“Kids are showing signs of struggling and reading challenges in kindergarten and first [grade],” she said.
Cotti said research shows that intervening in literacy development by first grade can have a huge impact on those students.
Research also indicates 70 percent of those at-risk students will be low readers as adults.
“That determines the path that child will take,” Cotti said.
Even the students who turn to Sylvan for math tutoring may turn out to have an underlying reading problem.
Sylvan Learning Center offers tutoring in reading, math for students in kindergarten through high school. Beginning in fourth grade, the center also provides tutoring in study skills.
