Academic Approach: About Us
Our educators are chosen on the basis of a demonstrated ability to teach because we are committed to true academic enrichment in addition to improving test scores.
For more information about our One-on-One tutoring, click here.
Note from Matthew Pietrafetta
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ACADEMIC APPROACH
The history of Academic Approach began ten years ago in New York City with one simple premise:
If I approached the high school students I tutored for the SAT with the same intellectual seriousness with which I approached my college students, my tutees would not only rise to the occasion and perform better on standardized tests but also master vital college curriculum.
I was completing two Master's Degrees and beginning my dissertation towards a PhD in English Literature at Columbia University. As part of my training I taught core curriculum classes in logic, rhetoric, grammar, and essay writing. At the same time, I was instructing dozens of high school students through a boutique, Upper East Side tutoring company, which provided test preparation for New York City's more competitive college-bound juniors and seniors. I knew the sort of academic content and critical reasoning skills that freshmen at an elite college were required to master; I also knew the specific intellectual demands that standardized tests placed on my high school students. What I needed to do was create a curriculum that bridged the two worlds of education—high school and college. Such a curriculum would allow me to use standardized tests in an innovative way: as a means to produce both better test takers and better college freshmen.
My basic premise was soon validated. Once I stopped trivializing test material and began using it as means to anticipate the demands of higher curriculum, my tutees became inspired. Anyone who works with adolescents knows the golden rule: never talk down to them. By "talking up" to them instead and treating them as intellectuals probing the test for academic significance, I suddenly found myself working with more motivated, more capable thinkers.
This approach defines our pedagogy. Every lesson is an opportunity to explain how a rule or principle will manifest itself not only on the test but also in everyday life. "Teaching Beyond The TestTM" means imparting knowledge and then showing students how to apply that knowledge everywhere: to discover a surprising connection between mathematics and grammar, to recognize their MP3 players as specific kinds of algorithms, to hold public leaders accountable for fallacies of argument, and to use their critical thinking skills to make logical decisions throughout their lives.
Our academic approach to standardized tests effectively completes and complements a student's traditional education by remedying gaps in basic acumen, expanding a student's understanding of logic, teaching proofreading skills, and developing systematic methodologies for problem solving. In short, we cultivate a student's mind in preparation for college life and beyond. Our approach works and successfully transforms the standardized tests into opportunities for real edification.
Academic Approach is enjoying great success in Chicago, New York, Boston, and across the country—thanks to our new online courses. We have excellent relationships with school administrators, are currently working on outreach programs in the public school system, and look forward to developing new locations in the coming years.
