At Austin Learning Center, we provide comprehensive educational experiences specifically tailored to the individual needs and development of our students. Our innovative philosophy and approach, the ALC Way, integrates decades of tutoring expertise, collaboration with the most skilled professional educators, and world-class research.
Being recognized as Austin's premier educational center every year for the past two decades validates the effectiveness and commitment of our organization. Our students are the center of our operation and our talented and carefully vetted tutors maintain focus on helping them achieve their objectives.
Personal
Individual
Responsive
As tutors and coaches, we take an equal stake in the learning experience of each student and share their success. By building rich and meaningful relationships with students, our tutors engage with them in a reciprocal way in which everyone wins.
We work to deeply understand each student and their learning process. This understanding accounts for our knowledge of a subject and how to teach that subject most effectively, but also how it intersects with the individual experience of the learner. Thus, our tutoring impacts a myriad of factors including building upon prior knowledge, cultivating fluency, improving confidence, and celebrating personal achievement.
Tutoring engages students in a continuous cycle of meaningful feedback. Our tutors observe and adjust throughout a session, providing the right support at just the right time. We also evaluate key areas for success in a multitude of academic contexts: how to study for exams, how to plan and self-regulate academic tasks, how to self-assess understanding, how to organize and strategize, and more.
At Austin Learning Center, we share the belief that tutoring is an invaluable resource to all students. The affordances of teaching and learning in one-on-one spaces allow for tutors to understand and appreciate individual students in a deep way, discover and build upon strengths, target and strategically address areas to strengthen, provide access to new ways of looking at and approaching problems, and cover significant ground, all while making learning personal and meaningful.
For that reason, Austin Learning Center students are as diverse as the programs we offer. We serve students who are struggling with their coursework and students looking for rigor beyond the scope of their academic course load.
Our clients include everyone from elementary-aged to graduate-level students, and our tutors have worked with students from nearly every public and private school in our local community and many students from across the country.
Most importantly, no matter who a student is or why they've come to ALC, every student is welcomed, valued, and considered part of the ALC family.
Our tutors understand that everyone learns a little bit differently. By focusing on how our students process information, we're able to figure out the best ways they learn, and play to their strengths.
One physics student might grasp concepts more easily if offered real-world examples, while another might prefer formulas. Some world geography students have trouble understanding major themes without knowing the details first; for others, it's the opposite. At ALC we know it's essential not only to determine the learning styles of each of our students, but to make sure they leave tutoring knowing how they learn best, too.
We also aim to understand students across contexts. It's not uncommon in the first weeks of tutoring for a student to feel comfortable asking her tutor a question but still shy away from participating in class, or to leave a tutoring session confident but then freeze up with anxiety on test day.
Part of our job is to bridge these gaps. Our goal is to both help students understand key concepts, and to make sure they're able to use what they've learned back in the classroom, too.
Whether a student is coming in for academic tutoring, to prepare for the SAT or ACT, or for academic enrichment, they can expect their tutors to mix it up.
Our students engage in multiple modalities of learning. Tutors may give visual examples, talk a problem out, make a Quizlet with a student, or help a student practice note-taking, sometimes all in one session.
Students can also expect to leave a session with tangible takeaways whenever possible: notes they've taken, flash cards they've made, formula sheets, etc.
At the end of each session, tutors also complete a short summary of what they worked on that session, including specific skills the student practiced and any homework assigned for next time. These summaries are accessible to students and parents online.
Academic tutoring at ALC is about helping students master the academic skills they need to thrive.
While we may work through math homework with a student, the goal is always to make sure they understand key concepts and can go on to solve similar problems on their own. Similarly, while a tutor may help a student revise an essay for English class, our purpose is to teach and reinforce foundational skills, such as critical thinking and rigorous analysis. While grades in the classroom may be a key marker for successful academic tutoring and students will often work through homework with their tutor, our goal is much deeper than offering homework help.
The right fit between student and tutor is key to a successful tutoring relationship. Once a new student's needs are evaluated, a match is made. We monitor this fit to make sure that each student is getting the most out of their sessions.
At Austin Learning Center our team is experienced in working with a broad range of learning differences including ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, executive function, auditory processing, and others. Our staff reviews all of a student's prior educational testing and will collaborate with teachers to help guide the tutoring process. We also have a learning specialist on staff as a resource for our tutors.
In our experience, one-on-one tutoring provides phenomenal benefits to a child who struggles in a traditional classroom setting. When necessary, Austin Learning Center will refer parents to specialists if a particular learning challenge cannot be met by our team.
Rates are based on the service provided and on the tutor who best fits the needs of a client. Please contact our office to discuss all the available options.
Our office staff knows the strengths and specialties of each of our tutors, and can best match students with tutors once they have an understanding of a client's needs. For this reason, we schedule every appointment at Austin Learning Center by phone, email, or quick text instead of using an automated system.
Austin Learning Center never requires contracts. You simply use what you use and can cancel any time.
We strive to be as flexible as possible to accommodate schedule changes and cancellations. There is no charge for any appointment canceled more than twenty-four hours in advance.
From the moment our students enter Austin Learning Center, we want them to feel welcome and comfortable. Students are encouraged to come as they are, to be themselves, and to make themselves at home. Tutors and students work in a collaborative way, and it isn't uncommon to see one student asking a classmate about an upcoming assignment, or for tutors to share ideas with one another and with their students. At ALC, we are a team.
Many times, a parent or student comes to us when they are feeling a lot of stress and pressure. We realize that it is difficult for students to succeed in a competitive and demanding world. We have been able to take the burden off parents and to help students regain control of their studies.
We are sensitive to the needs of students who have experienced a loss or illness, who are in danger of failing, who struggle with various learning differences, or who are suffering from significant academic-related stress. At what may seem like the 11th hour, ALC can step in to get a student back on track.
We work with many students who are at the top of their class and are excelling in advanced courses. Often, these students benefit from a deeper conceptual understanding of the material and the opportunity to make broad connections across the curriculum. Whatever the goal may be, all types of learners benefit from the services provided at Austin Learning Center.