Huntington Learning Center DC empowering inner city students

On a Saturday morning Anthony Chuukwu is juggling responsibilities. From interviewing potential customers to education administration, he wears many hats.

"I enjoy helping people, and growing my business while helping the community," the portly jovial African-born educator says.

After taking a few phone calls, the hard-working quinquagenarian is carrying an armload full of yard signs out the door.

"This is what I do during my free time," he jokes, "try to put advertising up for tutoring."

In fact Huntington Learning Center is the only tutoring franchise in central Washington, D.C. However since it opened its doors in February 2018, gaining new customers has been a struggle. Not an uncommon struggle considering the extent to which neighborhood revitalization has occurred and new businesses are proliferating along Georgia Avenue.

Nevertheless Chuukwu once admitted speaking softly, "I never expected it to be so challenging."

Huntington Learning Center offers individualized tutoring programs preparing students to meet or exceed Common Core State Standards. Students are exposed to a rich variety of curricular readings and formats. Instruction is tailored so student confidence and skills in reading, math, vocabulary, science, and critical thinking improve. Cross-transferable academic abilities are honed. Tutors at Huntington receive accredited training so their care and professionalism is consistent. A video showing how it works is viewable here:

As for results, since opening its doors in February 2018 to provide tutoring for K-12 and test preparation, many of the Center students admit that their reading, vocabulary, math, and testing ability have improved, sometimes by over one grade level. Viewing pre- and post- test scores in the navigator, there is evidence that over time, students make progress.

As there has been a growing body of science in data gathering and standardized testing used to track school performance, the statistics indicate that several D.C. urban high schools can raise their average scores. However whichever school a student is placed, individualized tutoring allows the family to raise their expectations and child's performance so that college entrance and placement becomes not only achievable, but a reality.

At Georgia Avenue's Learning Center, high school students have already taken their pre-SAT and understand the process of college entrance application. They are often applying to several colleges including top-ranked universities. Highly qualified tutors, who come from private and public universities, are on-hand to offer encouragement and advice especially for high-stakes examinations or advanced placement subjects. By peer-to-peer modeling, this also helps younger students gain awareness, sense of responsibility, and willingness to undertake the routine.

The dedication of working parents of the Huntington Learning Center students is also remarkable, considering that they accompany their children to and from the Center several times a week including weekends. For an only child, for those who are first-generation students attending university, home-schoolers, the gifted or differently-abled, the time invested is rewarded when scores are obviously much higher than before, and parents' faces are wreathed in smiles.

Learn more about Huntington Learning Center Washington DC by attending a free information session on April 5, 2019 (sign up at eventbrite.com).