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Justin Brady: [00:00:00] From Iowapodcast.com, I’m Justin Brady. We had the Sylvan Learning people of Johnston in here about a month ago talking about education and school season starting. Y’all had some questions because they are a brand collaborator here. We’re glad they’ve joined us. And so we figured today we’d just do a straight up like well who the heck are you guys?

Of course, we’re joined with Katie Hruby and Bree Kester, the new co-owners of Sylvan in Johnson.

First of all, we didn’t say this last time, but congratulations. That’s a big deal. I know you’re both excited about

Bree: Thank you

Katie: so much, Justin. It has been a little bucket filled, a little dream come true for us.

Justin Brady: Yeah, and you g- You guys have been talking to our team about how you really care about, um… You really want this to be a very locally focused thing. Sylvan’s obviously got a big reputation across the country. Everybody knows who they are. But you’re like, “That’s great.” We also want to tell people there’s local leadership that, that is in the community, that lives here, and really cares about the community, and we understand kind [00:01:00] of the local ins and outs.

First question though I wanna ask is something you’ve touched on in the past which is everybody knows Sylvan, can go tutoring education, but you have a Pass thing, Sylvan Pass, and Katie what is Sylvan pass?

Katie: Yeah, so Justin I’m glad you’re bringing this up because I do think this is a great new thing that Sylvan has now which is just like your gym membership or a subscription that you’re getting support with either online ’cause we do offer virtual sessions or come into our center one or twice a week 1 hour sessions and get that support for your student consistently either in homework support test prep college prep academic reading math writing even foreign language We can help support You name it we have the certified teachers that can really give that support to your student And it’s super affordable Which is something [00:02:00] as mothers Brie and I seven children between us both ranging from pre K to twelfth grade and college We know that consistency really matters and coming in once or Twice a week can really give your student that support that they’re looking for It’s $95 a week That is going to include that comprehensive assessment That is going to allow us to pinpoint your students strengths So to help build on those strengths and encourage confidence As well as those opportunities where we can really understand where your student is and start working where we need to start building that confidence for that student Building that skill gap So alongside that comprehensive assessment you’ll get that homework support Test prep along with our directors of education reaching out to the classroom teacher , so that we really are giving that full through three sixty support and really working alongside the parents

Justin Brady: Now how does this, like it could [00:03:00] be either Bri or Katie on this one, but how does this differ from like the, like a normal package? Is, is it normally a la carte? Or when, when you say Sylvan Pass, how is that different than anything else you offer?

Katie: So that’s a really great question. It is one of those things that we notice as consumers, there’s so many options in front of us where we’re at the grocery store and there’s five different things of the same product with all of these different prices, but we’re not really sure what do we do? With that membership it’s just taking that guesswork out.

So maybe a family isn’t quite ready to invest all of the academic support your student may need, so that Sylvan Pass is just allowing for that low fixed payment. It doesn’t fluctuate. It’s something consistent that you can budget in as a family to all of those other things as a family that you’re budgeting whether that be gymnastics, soccer, basketball; all of those other sports academics is just the [00:04:00] same.

Let your child come in consistently a couple times a week and you don’t have to worry about if that price is gonna be fluctuating. It’s just that fixed monthly fee and you put that in your family budget

Justin Brady: It’s predictable over the course of months, and it kinda works in with your kid’s current education plan. Yeah. Um, Bree, the– We, we were talking last time you didn’t hear about assessment. And so I think one of the things parents have a question about or parents are wondering about is, you know, they kind of have an education plan right now.

And so how do we do the… You know, how do we start at Sylvan? How do we make that transition? ‘Cause parents are probably b- probably thinking, “That’s all on me. I’m not gonna build a curriculum. I don’t know how to balance these two things.” So how do things start at Sylvan with a

Bree: Yeah, that’s a great question. So when a family calls and they’re interested in learning more about what, what we can offer, we like to get to know the, the student. We g– like to get to know what their learning style is, where they’re feeling [00:05:00] just not confident, um, and really start with them. The… So the very first thing we do is make them feel comfortable.

Uh, it’s not uncommon for students to come in and feel a little anxious about doing something new, not really understanding why they’re walking into the center, especially some of those middle schoolers. They seem a little resistant. So one of the very first things that we do is make them feel comfortable and build rapport with them, and that lets us kn- get to know them a little bit more on a personal level.

And that allows us to really understand what their learning styles are, what they feel they need help with, and really just opens them up. So once we get them comfortable, then we can start really digging into their academic needs. And so we might ask them some questions about what they feel is hard at school, um, or what they enjoy about school, and that

And then we start to build kind of a profile for them so that their teachers that they will work with will already have a good idea of what, you know, their personality and their likes and dislikes. Then we start to dig into the [00:06:00] academics. We start with a self-assessment. So we ask them some questions about how they feel about school and learning, and that really helps us also mak-make sure that we are m- meeting their needs about academic confidence, um, perseverance and their ability to work through hard things, their motivation, their ability to participate, and their interest in participating at school.

So it really starts off with all about them and their needs, and then we get into those skill gaps. So we do an– We, we offer them an adaptive assessment. So this is the Renaissance STAR Assessment. It’s as- an assessment used nationwide by many school districts. And so Sylvan has figured out how to, um, use that assessment to create our programs based around the national assessment, the STAR.

Um, so what we do is we start students at their grade level, and then that assessment adapts and it, it pinpoints specific skills that they are showing that they need help with. And so it helps us build a customized program for them, starting at [00:07:00] a, a level where they feel comfortable, and then challenging them as needed as, as they grow through the skills in their

Justin Brady: It’s interesting because what you didn’t say is if someone from sixth grade, eighth grade, whatever, comes in our doors at Sylvan in Johnston, we don’t just pull down the seventh grade book and say, “Here’s your curriculum. Here’s where you start.” Right. I didn’t hear that.

Bree: Nope. It’s all- You can see it. Yeah

Justin Brady: yeah. It’s all, it sounds like it’s you focus on them, you ask them questions, and you’re almost building…

Do you build a custom plan for every student

Bree: Every student gets an individualized plan. And so once they take those assessments at, at our– that original, that first appointment, what we do is we then meet with our families and we talk about what their goals are, what they’re seeing, what th-what their adults in their lives are seeing, um, and what they want out of it.

Then we give our recommendations, our professional recommendations about what we feel they might need to start with, and we work together to build a plan. And so yes, everything is individualized, and we [00:08:00] use technology to drive instruction, but we also have amazing certified teachers that have learned how to build rapport m- But the majority of our teachers are working full time, and then they come into Sylvan as a part-time job because they love kids.

Yes. So we have certified teachers that are already very familiar what the s- what the schools are expecting from students y-year to year.

Justin Brady: They’re already tied in with the local curriculum. They already kinda understand, and they’re certified, so they’re not just randos that you

Bree: They already… They’re certified. Right. Right. And we have cupboards full of hands-on materials that the s- that the teachers love to use along with, with our tech based research driven

Justin Brady: I woulda, I woulda loved this when I was a kid ’cause I was ADHD and so I didn’t really fit into school. And so what I learned– We talked about this before. What I learned later is I actually love learning. I just didn’t love the fact that I had to learn like everybody else. So this would’ve been great had I known it existed.

I was a child though, so even if I would’ve known I would be like, “What’s that?” Um, one of the things you guys talk a lot about is consistency and [00:09:00] so we just got out of the summer slump, school is here. I don’t think… This isn’t meant to sound crazy. I don’t think parents understand the value of why consistency is so important.

Uh, can you both touch on that a little bit?

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. So consistency is a theme in all of our lives, and we often find being mothers that, you know, we feel that our child may give us resistance and not want to do something. But as soon as we set that guidance, just like them having to wake up and go to school or them having to continue with that commitment because they said they wanted to play basketball so they need to go to that practice.

And we often find it’s the same with academics. If you tell your student, “You have The Sylvan Tuesdays and Thursdays,” for example, and you come in with that consistency, oftentimes parents are resistant at first thinking, “I’m already getting a hard time with them going to school every morning. I’m already getting a hard time with them [00:10:00] going to that practice that they said they were gonna be committed to, let alone those chores at home.”

Right? We know as parents that can be very difficult. But we always tell parents it’s just like anything else. Once you set a plan with your student and just firmly do that consistency twice a week, then you’ll notice all of a sudden your student is thriving. It’s nothing that the student is dreading any longer.

All of a sudden they’re telling mom and dad, “Hey, it’s Tuesday at 4:00. We’re gonna be late. We need to go to my Sylvan class.” Ah. And that’s why that consistency matters because just like with anything, parents waking up to go to work in the morning, having to wake up Saturday morning to take their child to soccer practice, we know as parents we want to instill those same things into our students, that with consistency, that’s how you build strong character, that’s how you build confidence, that’s how you build accountability.

And oftentimes our parents are coming in not just with their student with a [00:11:00] skill gap but also that their student is struggling with that accountability piece. So that’s why Sylvan is designed not just for that struggling student, but also for that student that needs to have that accountability piece.

So with Sylvan Pass, that’s something that we’re able to do with that $95 a week doing that comprehensive assessment and getting that consistency piece that you mentioned Justin

Justin Brady: Yeah, I, so to land the plane here in the final takeaway, Brie, what is the… How do we know if our k- if our kid is ready for something like this? Is there some pre-assessment? ‘Cause obviously they can come in and do the assessment at, at Sylvan, which gives people a, a g- gives parents a good idea, right? If, if the child is ready.

How do they know before they do that? Is there some pre-assessment? Are there things to look for to know your child is ready for a program at Sylvan in Johnston?

Bree: Yeah, great question. Honestly, we work with students as young as four years old and [00:12:00] so– And we ha- We do have families that want that pre-kindergarten readiness um experience. And so we can work with them on even just learning how to sit at a table and focus on s- uh short tasks. Um so I would say if you are wondering at all about your student and whether or not they might need some support to give us a call even at that young age As long as they can follow simple instructions and are showing an interest in learning how to read or write or starting even to draw or look at or point out letters and words They’re ready

Justin Brady: Yeah. Excellent. Um, are there any things that are like patterns that we’ll see? ‘Cause this could be either one of you, and this will probably be the final question, but are there any things to look for at home? Um, they’re doing homework, they’re acting a certain way, where you’re like, “Hmm, I need to get ahead of this.

I’m gonna [00:13:00] call Sylvan and tell them this.” What are those things to look for?

Katie: that you brought that up because that is one of the things that as parents we are collaborating with other parents where they’ll give us a call and they’ll say, “I’m starting to notice some signs,” where it could be that your student is having longer completion time to get a homework assignment done at home.

They notice that they’re in their room constantly working at the desk frustrated and still walking away and not getting that classroom work done. It can also be things where you’re noticing your student is not comprehending what they’re reading. It could be directions to a math problem, directions on a social studies exam- or a social studies project, and they’re not comprehending that material.

That’s often a sign that a student may have a gap in their reading comprehension. So alongside all of those signs, also one of the things that we like to speak about is that confidence piece, that self-defeating language that you may notice your students saying. “This is difficult. I can’t

Justin Brady: a good one

Katie: [00:14:00] or, “I don’t wanna go to school.”

And w- you ask your child why, and they’re just like, ” I don’t know. I just don’t want to go.” So it’s all of those things, and we know it’s frustrating as parents- Yep …to just give us a call and start with that first step. Bring them into this positive environment that we offer, and allow that student to start feeling success right away.

That– We can often see a turnaround with a student within a couple weeks

Justin Brady: Yeah, that’s great advice. Katie Ruby and Bree Kester, the co-owners of Sylvan in Johnston. Everybody, the link will be in the description and the website in which you’re looking at this, but what’s the website before we let you go?

Katie: http://www.sylvanlearning.com

Justin Brady: Excellent. Katie, Bri, thank you so much for coming in

Bree: Thanks for having us, Justin

Justin Brady: Absolutely