Welcome to RTC! We’re thrilled to be nurturing your student toward growth and success.
Tutor Matching
During our initial intake and interview process, we will ask both you and your student a lot of questions! We want to get to know your student so that we can make the best tutor match possible. We make our tutor matches based upon your student’s availability, personality, strengths, learning needs, and expressed preferences as well as the strengths and teaching styles of our tutors.
We are very thorough and thoughtful in our tutor matches, because we strive for the best student-tutor match from the start. However, we are also open to a tutor and student not being the right fit. As we tell our students, they always have an “escape” button! If you have any concerns about your tutor-student fit, please contact Claire in the office immediately. It’s crucial to us that your student is happy with their tutor.
Even though all our lessons are virtual, we want you to trust in the safety of your children. All RTC team members have a current background check and have completed Mandated Reporter Training.
Scheduling
RTC tutors and coaches schedule directly with our tutoring families.
All of our Test Prep programs are scheduled in advance of the targeted SAT or ACT test. In test prep, tutors and students generally meet once weekly, usually for two hours, leading up to the anticipated test date. For example, if an SAT test prep program is sixteen weeks long, the tutor and student will ideally meet once a week for the sixteen weeks leading up to SAT test day, including the week of test day.
In addition, Test Prep students may meet with a Mindfulness Coach for performance coaching toward elite test-taking performance. These sessions are typically 45 minutes.
In Academic programs (usually homework help), most students meet weekly with their tutor. We strongly recommend that students have a set weekly appointment, because we know that tutoring is most effective when it is consistent. Academic tutoring appointments usually vary in duration from 60-120 minutes, and each lesson length is customized to the student’s needs. RTC bills lessons in 5-minute increments so that your student receives only the lesson time they need.
Lesson Progress Notes
RTC maintains a Google doc with progress notes for every student. After each lesson, your tutor will update your student’s progress notes documenting the duration of the lesson, what was taught, how your student is progressing, any homework assigned, and the date and time of the next lesson. The Google doc is intended to be interactive, and we invite your comments!
Program Cancellation Policy
If a family wishes to cancel a tutoring program, RTC requires two weeks’ notice in writing. Email is an acceptable form of notice; text is NOT. The family will be billed for these two weeks of tutoring in full, regardless of whether they choose to use the tutoring time. If two weeks’ notice is not provided, the family will be charged in full for this tutoring time.
Lesson Cancellation Policy
If a family needs to cancel a tutoring appointment, twenty-four hours’ notice is required, or you will be charged for the appointment in full. If you need to cancel a tutoring appointment well in advance, you are welcome to contact your tutor via email. However, if you need to cancel at the very last minute due to a dire emergency, please be sure to call or text your tutor to assure connection, and assure you receive confirmation of the cancellation.
Families who do not provide 24 hours’ notice for cancellation of tutoring appointments will be charged as follows: Tutoring appointments will be charged in full. RTC will choose to end its working relationship with families that abuse our employees’ or tutors’ time.
Payment Arrangements
RTC offers flexible payment arrangements for families, and all our programs are managed conveniently on our TutorCruncher online software for our families’ convenience. Families can pay their invoices via credit card on TutorCruncher, via ACH, or by check. Checks can be mailed to Russell Tutoring at P.O. Box 613, Ambler, PA 19002.
Families are kindly asked to pay their invoices within 14 days. Late payments are subject to a 6% monthly late fee.
Preparing for Test Prep Lessons
For paper-and-pencil ACT programs, we provide students with their customized test prep curriculum (red binder), homework (blue) binder, practice test book, and a test timer to use for the duration of the tutoring program.
We ask that students be prepared for lessons with the following:
- A graphing calculator – a TI-84 is best
- A fully charged phone
- A fully charged PC or tablet
In addition, students will need to print homework regularly. Students will use some online tools during their tutoring program, and your student will receive emails with login information.
For digital SAT programs, we provide students with their customized test prep curriculum (red binder) and practice test book. Most materials are digital, and your student will receive emails with login information.
We ask that students be prepared for lessons with the following:
- A fully charged phone
- A fully charged PC or tablet
In addition, students should download the College Board’s “Bluebook” App onto their tablet.