Silver Creek Academy

My son has been going here almost a year now. Started with just Math help then we added writing. Then this past August, we did both math and writing at his elementary school as an enrichment program followed by homework help. My son is behind in math and so after several months of him being tutored in math that is geared toward his grade level, I pulled him out because he really needs help in math two grades below where he currently is. I understand their model is to help in your appropriate grade level, but I found that for a child who is behind, this model doesn’t work. I’ve since pulled my son and have taken him to a tutoring place that specializes in just Math where they actually tested him to see where he’s currently at and are building a foundation. I have no beef with their writing program. I do feel like SCA has a much stronger focus on their writing programs than math.
Now my biggest complaint is their homework help at the elementary school my son attends. He’s there for 90 minutes. I totally acknowledge that the kids need breaks, especially after just coming from an hour tutoring session of Writing or Math or whatever they’ve signed up for. So they don’t get a solid 90 minutes of homework time, and that’s perfectly fine. My son is in 5^th grade and has a lot of homework, I don’t expect it all to get done in the time he’s there. However what he does complete, I expect his teacher to double check and help with any corrections. SCA advertised a 6:1 ratio for homework help. Every week my son comes home and said his teacher corrected what he’d completed. And EVERY SINGLE TIME there were multiple errors in his homework, not just a few accidents, but he’d have incorrect answers in every subject. I’d brought it up to the director of the after school program several times and she would assure me that they would do a better job. I have a hard time believing that credentialed teachers are looking at his homework and not noticing all the errors. So then each evening it’s a battle because my son argues with me about having to re-​do his homework when a teacher at SCA said it was correct. We are now no longer doing after school homework help because most of the time it just made our homework experience worse. If it’s too hard to correct each student’s homework, either don’t advertise that you will or hire more teachers to make it feasible.
I’m giving SCA 3 stars because all the staff I’ve come across are genuinely nice and seem to care for the kids and I do think their writing class is helpful to my son.

Are kidding me? My kids are going to this school about a year now. I am wasting my money. They are not improving at all.

This place is a wonderful place for kids to improve their reading and writing skills. Many of the teachers here are teachers from the school district. The founder Mrs. Swircek was a teacher in Evergreen. They teach writing according to the Step Up to Writing system so it’s the same system they learn in Evergreen school district. They recently moved to a larger space in the shopping center which used to be the Goodwill store. They also offer some classes on site at local schools afterschool. My son took their public speaking class at his school and he became more confident in speaking in front of the class. I wish I had the time and money to keep him coming to this place. The focus is helping him improve his math skills which is a higher priority at this time. I don’t think their math program is as extensive as their reading and writing classes, so I decided to have him enrolled at a math focused learning center, Mathnasium.