Stepping Stones To Learning

I have been impressed with the staff and management at Stepping Stones. They have been very responsive to questions about my child’s progress and their tutors I have come into contact with appear to be top notch. Their sessions for my child are individualized to work on the areas he needs help with and their approach is personalized to him. This isn’t a cookie cutter place. I was expecting him to dislike his sessions there but he looks forward to them because his time there is engaging and fun while still making progress in his development goals.

My daughter has been going to Stepping Stones for almost two years. We have tried other tutors and until Stepping Stones, have not been able to find someone completely fluent in middle/​high school math and science. Unlike with other tutors she has had, my daughter looks forward to meeting with her Stepping Stones tutor, Brad. He has been a huge help with explaining difficult concepts and organizing her study material. The owner and staff are highly accommodating when extra sessions are needed and when a schedule change is necessary. They are very warm and friendly to the students and my daughter feels extremely comfortable there. I also appreciate the convenient location. Stepping Stones is close to many of the schools so an older student can easily walk or bike. In addition to tutoring, Stepping Stones offers college test prep which I plan to utilize when the time comes.

I think this is a great place to have extra help

Our experience here was kind of — meh. And that’s 2 stars in Unilocal terms, but they probably deserve 2.5. The offices are nice, the people are nice and it’s an efficient organization. So no points off there.
My 10 year old daughter went to Stepping Stones for test prep last year — we had her go for 3 – 4 months before taking a standardized exam as she had very little experience with standardized tests. Seems like the kind of thing they should handle pretty well. But oddly, the tutoring didn’t seem to help my daughter all that much and, what was worse, the tutor didn’t have anything to say to me about how she was doing or what else we could do to help her. If I’m paying for 4 months of test prep and a student isn’t progressing, I would expect some kind of feedback: «your kid is just dumb», «your kid is lazy», «your kid hates me». Okay, so maybe not quite that honest feedback but something? Anything? I got: «She’s doing great, she’s working hard and has a great attitude.» every single week. Huh. So why was there practically no progress? I still have no idea and part of me wonders if the tutor was paying attention.
I’m not blaming them for my daughter not «acing» the ERBs, but I do think that anyone who is being paid to help a child learn needs to be able to communicate with parents if the child is or is not actually learning.
Also, there were a lot of stressed out kids here — it kind of wigged both of us out to wait for very long in the «reception» area because a lot of the kids (and parents) seemed to be under a lot of pressure. It was a little unsettling for me.

I have tutored at Stepping Stones for more than four years. And in that time I have been given the privilege to work with lots of amazing students. What is special about Stepping Stones is that it gives every tutor the opportunity to tailor our sessions so that they fit the needs of each individual student. I am always given the ability to assess how each of my students learn best, which gives me the flexibility needed to ensure that I approach our sessions in the most effective manner possible. My goal in every session is to make sure that my student understands the concepts that we are studying and that they walk out of our sessions feel confident. At Stepping Stones I am given the chance to do so much more than just work with students on math, grammar, essay writing, SATs or even their study skills — I am given the chance to empower each student to feel CONFIDENT about how smart they truly are!