C2 Education experience

[Anonymous]

Our second son’s grades kind of fell off the rails this 8th grade year. DH and I stepped in second half of year which was probably too late and have to constantly monitor the completion and turning in of assignments and reminders of tests and emailing to teachers. Reading and writing in anything is a challenge if the topic is not interesting. Older son has ADHD so trying to get second son evaluated with meds and 504 for the start of highschool if that ends up being the issue.

I think in hindsight that the kid probably never really paid attention before but could still squeak by with As and Bs but now that he has a few high school level classes he has to get his act together and just can’t seem to do it. He agreed to do summer “enrichment”/prep. We just met with C2 education who want to sell us on an expensive package. Now that I am over the sticker shock, DH and I are seriously considering the package as our badgering or even polite offering to help is only effective part of the time and we are getting exhausted. Plus we will be getting into new topics that frankly neither of us remember from HS. Has anyone had experience with this company and would you recommend? also how much did you pay per hour for C2 or something similar? They seem to be very set on us committing to a large upfront payment for 100 hours to get down to an hourly rate of $70. If we want to pay for less it is like $96/hr. Hesitant to commit to something so expensive if we aren’t sure it will help.

[Anonymous]

You would do so much better hiring someone directly who has expertise with ADHD in general and teaching the writing process to reluctant writers with executive issues. I used to work for C2. They probably don’t have someone with this expertise, and even if they did, you are overpaying the middleman. In addition, C2 tutors work with up to 3 students at a time, all working on different subjects.

Try looking at the Stixrud and Lab School websites for referrals.

[Anonymous]

Should have said “executive functioning issues”

[Anonymous]

OP here- we are doing a 2 week session with The Write Turn which I hope will be helpful as well.

[Anonymous]

I bought 100 hours for a bit less and got 20 free. My daughter goes for SAT tutoring along with tutoring in whatever she needs. Right next w she mostly uses it for calculus. She also sometimes uses it for her AP writing class. She loves it. She told me the other day that C2 is the reason she loves school - with the help she gets, she understands what’s going on and it makes her really love school. She has no disabilities and is almost a straight A student - there’s an occasional B.

Also I have a bunch of friends who send their kids. They are all happy. I don’t know specifics of how they use it except for SAT prep.

The sticker shock is real. But in the long run, the hours go quick. Had I paid per hour and not gotten the discount, I’d already have exceeded the amount I spent and I still have about 1/3 of the time left. So financially it isn’t a loss. As far a the high cost worth it, to have a kid love school is so worth it.

But this a just my experience with one kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bought 100 hours for a bit less and got 20 free. My daughter goes for SAT tutoring along with tutoring in whatever she needs. Right next w she mostly uses it for calculus. She also sometimes uses it for her AP writing class. She loves it. She told me the other day that C2 is the reason she loves school - with the help she gets, she understands what’s going on and it makes her really love school. She has no disabilities and is almost a straight A student - there’s an occasional B.

Also I have a bunch of friends who send their kids. They are all happy. I don’t know specifics of how they use it except for SAT prep.

The sticker shock is real. But in the long run, the hours go quick. Had I paid per hour and not gotten the discount, I’d already have exceeded the amount I spent and I still have about 1/3 of the time left. So financially it isn’t a loss. As far a the high cost worth it, to have a kid love school is so worth it.

But this a just my experience with one kid.

Thank you for the feedback. I assume you have a SN child as well since you are in this forum. Would you consider the service for ASD/ ADHD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bought 100 hours for a bit less and got 20 free. My daughter goes for SAT tutoring along with tutoring in whatever she needs. Right next w she mostly uses it for calculus. She also sometimes uses it for her AP writing class. She loves it. She told me the other day that C2 is the reason she loves school - with the help she gets, she understands what’s going on and it makes her really love school. She has no disabilities and is almost a straight A student - there’s an occasional B.

Also I have a bunch of friends who send their kids. They are all happy. I don’t know specifics of how they use it except for SAT prep.

The sticker shock is real. But in the long run, the hours go quick. Had I paid per hour and not gotten the discount, I’d already have exceeded the amount I spent and I still have about 1/3 of the time left. So financially it isn’t a loss. As far a the high cost worth it, to have a kid love school is so worth it.

But this a just my experience with one kid.

Thank you for the feedback. I assume you have a SN child as well since you are in this forum. Would you consider the service for ASD/ ADHD?

Yes two with SN. And yes I would consider it. But I’d be asking about a trial period for a reduced price. I talked to them about my son who has executive function and anxiety issues and am going to consider it for community college assistance if the need arises - don’t need it now but he’s a kid who falls apart quickly so I always try to have a plan in my back pocket.

[Anonymous]

My mild ADHD and clinical generalized anxiety disorder kid worked with C2 off and on from grade 5 to grade 12. All in, we paid $13k for tutoring in various subjects, including test prep. She always enjoyed going and developed a good rapport with each of her instructors. She went from an ACT of 27 to 35 in about 9 months. She had help with her college essays, and was accepted to her first choice college, which has an acceptance rate of 7%. C2 does work in groups, but she enjoyed not being the center of attention and also hearing that other kids needed help, too. We got college counseling included in that cost, too. Not cheap, but, honestly, less than one semester of private school. They always pushed us to go 2-3x a week, but we only ever did 1x/week.

[Anonymous]

I can speak from my experience at the Herndon location. I would stay as far away from this C2 as possible. We took advantage of the VA FACTS grant last fall which they were an approved vendor for and decided to get math tutoring only.

I have one NT child and one SN child who had very different needs. We had subpar service for both children

Lack of support between sessions: The director informed us that the tuition covers homework between sessions and both children will be assigned homework after each session to enforce what was taught. After the first session both of our children told us that they were not given any homework. I emailed c2 to follow up on why they received no homework and received a rude response informing us that we need to follow up with the instructor at our next session since the administrative staff does not get involved in ensuring that students receive their homework. Fast forward to next session and the front desk tells me that I am not allowed to speak to his tutor and all communications are handled through the center director. This left me even more confused because I was not getting a service that was sold to me when I signed up and I kept getting pushback. Finally the center director calls me and apologizes for the confusion and assured me that my children will be provided homework between their sessions.
The following session for one son I was given a 200 page packet on one subject that was only covering one unit in my sons class for 2 weeks and this packet was his "homework". There were no instructions on what pages to complete in the packet. My other son just received a textbook with no direction. After that there was no follow up homework provided by the instructors. C2 was made aware each week what specific topics each of my sons were working on in school because I would send them bulleted lists of concepts that were being taught. None of my emails were ever acknowledged by C2 and of course we never received any homework related to the concepts being taught.

Cancelations: I work in a SCIF and do not have access to my cell phone during business hours. When I registered both my children I put both mine and my husbands phone number as contacts. My husband works from home. They decided to cancel both my kids sessions day of and only left a voicemail on my cell phone without even bothering to email me or call my husband. My husband was planning on taking our kids to the center and when he arrived he was informed that the session was cancelled. Once again I complained to the center director about this lack of communication and received a phone call apologizing

For the same amount of money you would be better off hiring a teacher that you can directly communicate with. We left C2 after the grant money ran out and hired two FCPS math teachers. Both of our boys get 1-1 tutoring for the exact same price plus I can talk to the tutors directly and get feedback on how the kids are doing. I found these tutors through the FCPS tutor list and have seen tremendous progress in both my sons.

[Anonymous]

Ask them for a free session before you sign any contract. If they refuse, pay for an individual session to test it out. Even better if you can do 2-3. While these tutoring centers can be very helpful for some kids, the people you are dealing with are salespeople. They are expected to upsell services. I figured this out when I considered applying for a few jobs with centers like c2. In retrospect, I realize now how often we were the victim of the upsell when getting services for our 3 kids. It’s always hard to predict how things will go for SN kids so a long-term contract is not always a good idea because you will lose money instead of save it when you realize you are in the wrong place or needs have changed. My ADHD/anxiety daughter had numerous math tutors in middle school before we found the one who worked for her and began producing results. My son with a different disability spent a semester seeing that same tutor and came away with a D for the semester. She’s fantastic but she couldn’t quite pinpoint why DS wasn’t getting the concepts and she didn’t have any new approaches to offer after she exhausted her toolbox.

[Anonymous]

Thank you- PPs have pinpointed my concern is which is to get the hourly rate down to something “manageable”, we need to commit such a large chunk of time and that is a huge investment if we don’t know if it is going to work. They did say we have 21 days to cancel and that we need to attend at least 3 sessions in that 21 days. For is the location is part of the attraction. For thiose who have gone directly to the tutor without the middleman, jiw did you find the tutor?

[Anonymous]

We are thinking of trying C2. We have tried all kinds of tutors from word of mouth to all the services like Varsity Tutors and other online services. The best matches were subject specialists who were former teachers from the exact school district DD attends or those who tutor lots of kids from that district.

Everyone else was a wash. But it took a long time through trial and error. Child probably went through 7 tutors one year and none helped. A few just did the homework for her which made things worse because we didn't realize how far behind she was until the year was almost over.

We are thinking of C2 because they do have tutors with experience with our district and I am hoping it would cut down on the trial and error stage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking of trying C2. We have tried all kinds of tutors from word of mouth to all the services like Varsity Tutors and other online services. The best matches were subject specialists who were former teachers from the exact school district DD attends or those who tutor lots of kids from that district.

Everyone else was a wash. But it took a long time through trial and error. Child probably went through 7 tutors one year and none helped. A few just did the homework for her which made things worse because we didn't realize how far behind she was until the year was almost over.

We are thinking of C2 because they do have tutors with experience with our district and I am hoping it would cut down on the trial and error stage.

OP here- this is another reason why we were considering. My kids will be attending 2 different public HS in our area and they were very familiar with the courses. We also tried Varsity Tutors and had some great and some just ok. The issue for me with online is one kid would find excuses why he didn’t log into the 1:1(I was working) and the other kid would do other things during an online group class and I wasn’t there to monitor. I just can’t be everywhere 🤯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking of trying C2. We have tried all kinds of tutors from word of mouth to all the services like Varsity Tutors and other online services. The best matches were subject specialists who were former teachers from the exact school district DD attends or those who tutor lots of kids from that district.

Everyone else was a wash. But it took a long time through trial and error. Child probably went through 7 tutors one year and none helped. A few just did the homework for her which made things worse because we didn't realize how far behind she was until the year was almost over.

We are thinking of C2 because they do have tutors with experience with our district and I am hoping it would cut down on the trial and error stage.

OP here- this is another reason why we were considering. My kids will be attending 2 different public HS in our area and they were very familiar with the courses. We also tried Varsity Tutors and had some great and some just ok. The issue for me with online is one kid would find excuses why he didn’t log into the 1:1(I was working) and the other kid would do other things during an online group class and I wasn’t there to monitor. I just can’t be everywhere 🤯

PP here who has had a great experience. One of the things I like is that they have staff that can handle everything. Only thing we have to do on occasion is move the time for a calculus tutor. And if my daughter doesn’t like a tutor, they will never put her with that tutor. There an only one but she really dislikes that one and I’m glad they honor her preferences.

[Anonymous]

Op, make sure your son likes the 1:3 ratio for the two-hour session. Will he do the work on his own when teacher is with the other students?

10:08 has good suggestions, test out at least three sessions, make sure you observe that your son gets something out of it!

C2 is great for some certain types of students, like everything. It is not one-size-fits-all!