SCORE! Educational Centers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| SCORE! Educational Centers | |
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| Type | Subsidiary of Kaplan, Inc. |
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| Founded | Palo Alto, California, (1992) |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Key people | Alan Tripp, Founder Justin Serrano, President |
| Industry | Service |
| Products | Specialized education services |
| Revenue |  $71.5 million USD (2004) |
| Employees | Less than 2,000 |
| Website | www.escore.com |
SCORE! Educational Centers (commonly SCORE!), a subsidiary of Kaplan, Inc., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Company, is a United States provider of customized supplementary computer-based education and one-on-one tutoring services for children in kindergarten through tenth grade. SCORE! offers materials in multiple subjects, including reading, math, spelling, language arts, science, keyboarding, and writing.
SCORE! has over 165 centers in twelve states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia, and also in the District of Columbia.
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[edit] Method of teaching
As part of the Kaplan family, SCORE! works with children in grades pre-K through 10th grade to help them achieve their goals and reach their academic potential in math, reading, spelling and writing. Our programs include personal academic coaching, positive reinforcement, and a customized curriculum that adapts to each child's pace and learning needs.
The computer learning program is called the Advantage Program. In the Advantage Program each student typically comes to SCORE! twice a week for an hour at a time. Students complete five ten-minute computer lessons each hour with short breaks in between.
The Advantage Program adaptive software developed by the Computer Curriculum Corporation (CCC) as the core of its program (some centers also offer more intensive tutoring at a 3 to 1 ratio). The software is initially set at an appropriate grade level determined by the parents and directors and will begin giving the student questions at that level. If the student performs well, the software will raise the student's level to make the questions more challenging. Conversely, if the student is doing poorly, the software will lower the student's level to make the questions easier. The difficulty level provides a way to measure the student's progress.
The Personal Academic Tutoring Program uses a diagnostic and prescriptive approach to identify a students needs, then define an individualized learning plan. With no more than three students per instructor, this highly customized program is perfect for students who need to make immediate progress and for those who benefit from a high level of one-on-one attention. In fact, students average 1.5 grade levels of progress in just 45 hours of instruction.
After a unique and comprehensive assessment, our team of Academic Directors analyzes students appropriate academic levels and develops a customized learning plan focused on individual goals. The intensive, paper-based and single-subject course covers reading, writing or math and is aligned to national standards. Our combination of direct instruction coupled with guided and independent practice ensures that students receive the support needed to develop as a successful, independent learner.
Personal Academic Tutoring sessions are available at a variety of times to fit a family's busy schedule. Make-up sessions are also offered with advance notice.
SCORE! also offers a Study Skills Program. SCORE!'s Study Skills Course was designed to provide direct instruction on skills not specifically taught in most schools. As a result, students develop efficient and effective study skills that lead to increased confidence and success in the classroom.
The 16-session course covers Organization and Time Management, Learning Styles, Processing Information, and Test Preparation. Students receive a planner and five Student Workbooks that contain study tips and strategies covered in the course.Students learn to Set, evaluate and prioritize goals. Use a planner and develop a more organized approach to school and studying. Implement time management strategies and plan and complete projects. Students also learn to identify personal learning styles through a Learning Style Inventory and apply learning styles to classroom learning.
| Climber Name | Steps |
|---|---|
| Countdown | 30 |
| Bronze | 30 |
| Silver | 60 |
| Gold | 90 |
| All-Star | 120 |
| Triathlon | 132 |
| Founder's | 180 |
| After Founder's, climbers vary from center to center. |
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In the Advantage program the software attempts to find a level where student proficiency is 85%. At this level, the student is presented enough new material so that they learn, but not so much that they become overwhelmed and frustrated by the number of unfamiliar problems. In this manner, the students learn new material while reinforcing old material. Once the student has reached this 85% level, usually after a one-month initial placement period, the software progressively advances the student's levels, typically completing two month's school work in one month's time.
The software is complemented by the student's interaction with academic coaches and directors. If a student has trouble with a question, he can raise his hand and ask a question to the center employees. The staff will help the student as much as possible without giving away the answer. Instead, the employees let the student figure out the solution, which creates a positive atmosphere and encourages the student to understand that they can learn and discover things on their own. Employees take notes on the back of the student's grade sheet, indicating areas in which the student had trouble so that parents can help in the learning process at home.
There are two types of models that centers go by; single program centers and multi-program centers. A Single program center could be either Advantage Program or the Personal Academic Tutoring Program. A Multi-program center offers both Programs in one location. Each center has a map which students use to gauge their progress. Following the initial placement period, the center directors and the student's parents choose a subject area in which the student needs the most work. As the student completes lessons in that topic, his climber will move up the map. When the climber reaches the top of the goal, the entire center is notified, and the student has a celebration. The student is given a new climber and sometimes a new goal subject. The new climber must complete more steps than the previous climber in order to reach the top of the mountain. The table on the right lists climbers and number of steps for each in the Advantage Program.
[edit] Positive reinforcement
SCORE! employs a method of positive reinforcement to maintain discipline. SCORE! cards, small magnetic squares emblazoned with the SCORE! logo, pictured at right, are used as incentives. These cards can be redeemed for prizes and can be earned for scoring over 70% on a lesson or making basketball shots. Since students spend most of their time at the computer, basketball shots are used as a method of breaking up the lessons and getting out student's active energy. Shots are awarded for doing well on lessons or completing a full hour of lessons. High fives are used to encourage students and are a strong part of the corporate culture.
- NOTE: The cards pictured at right have been replaced so that the background is red, orange, green, or blue and the writing is white.
[edit] Criticisms of SCORE!
Detractors list multiple criticisms of SCORE! Educational Centers, among them:
- SCORE! lacks traditional abilities to enforce discipline, sometimes leading to disciplinary problems.
- Often, the high volume of students and the resulting poor student-teacher ratios can cause some students to be forgotten in the rush of the center, both on a daily basis and overall.
- SCORE! seeks to create role model relationships between students and employees. However, high employee turnover makes it difficult for students to bond with coaches and directors. It also becomes difficult to create a personal look and feel at each center, because the entire staff may cycle out every three years or less.
[edit] Center employees
Each center employs one center director, two other directors, and a staff of four to ten academic coaches. Each region, comprised of all the centers in a metropolitan area, also has a Regional Manager.
[edit] Directors
Every SCORE! Center is operated by a team of very talented Directors. SCORE! recruits the best and the brightest graduates from the nation's top universities. Directors at SCORE! are individuals striving to gain the skills needed to be successful in today's competitive business climate while leaving a lasting national legacy in the arena of education. SCORE! is committed to developing each individual into a business leader in the education industry. Directors are in charge of recruiting new members, managing old members, tracking and adjusting academic progress, and managing academic coaches. These jobs are divided among all three directors. All three directors are also responsible for community advertising of their center. In addition, center directors must manage the other directors at their center and attend regular meetings with the Regional Manager and other center directors from the region. Directors are typically recent college graduates, and many only stay in the company for a few years before moving to another job. The wide spectrum of responsibilities represents a massive time commitment and can be very taxing on some directors.
[edit] Academic coaches (ACs)
Typically, academic coaches are high school or college students who treat the position as a part time job. Coaches are selected based on a combination of their tutoring ability, personal knowledge, and general attitude.
While a coach's primary role is to help in the education process, academic coaches are also responsible for center maintenance, relaying parents' concerns to directors, conflict resolution, and responding to walk-by inquiries about the program. High employee turnover and the part time nature of the job leads to the necessity to have many more coaches on the staff than may actually be required to fill the schedule in a given week. Because there are many new hires and directors are constantly involved with members, senior coaches are largely responsible for training new coaches.
An academic coach is responsible for many tasks aside from tutoring. If the center were to hire one person to do each job that a coach performs, a conservative estimate of the average equivalent hourly pay is US$9.50 an hour, using figures from careerbuilder.com. The starting salary for each academic coach depends on their level of experience, and they are capable of receiving merit-based increases. However, most centers pay their academic coaches US$7.50. They are eligible for a $0.25 to $0.75 raise after one year.
[edit] History
Alan Tripp, a graduate of Stanford University, opened the first SCORE! Educational Center in Palo Alto, California, in November 1992. SCORE!'s early success was attributed largely to their use of the CCC adaptive software. In 1996, CCC decided not to sign an exclusive licensing agreement with SCORE! and instead awarded licensing to Kaplan. This limited SCORE!'s ability to expand, as the initial deal only allowed Tripp to expand to eight more centers. In order to bypass this limit, on 17 April, 1996, Kaplan acquired SCORE! in a deal worth less than $10 million USD. The company has now expanded to over 150 locations in twelve states.
