Welcome to Proficiency Builders
You are probably here because you have a child or student who is not doing as well as they could be doing in school. Or perhaps you are proactively exploring options that will help your child get ahead of a challenging class or improve their study skills. Like many parents, maybe you simply have had enough of watching your child struggle, you are frustrated, and you’re not sure where to start. Whatever the reason for your visit, we’re glad you are here…
Intelligent, talented, capable, non-proficient students.
Eight years of tutoring has solidified a belief we have at Proficiency Builders: all students are capable of proficiency. The reasons for proficiency gaps vary somewhat and generally involve a misunderstanding of a basic, but foundational concept, a lack of self-confidence, and poor organizational/study preparation skills. This is a common situation for many students with both proficiency gaps and the percentage of students with gaps increasing in the United States. This is significant as proficiency gaps means skills gaps, which ultimately leads to limited opportunities for high school graduates. Given that most of these students are capable of proficiency, this troubling; an opportunity lost that leads to significant life challenges for these young women and men.
But this situation is completely avoidable, and unnecessary. We’ll get to that in a moment but first a brief story from our founder, Dave Snider, that has relevance. (If you are short on time and want to get down to business, skip to the Proficiency Builders overview below).
Praying for Rain
It’s a beautiful June afternoon in 1973, I’m nine years old, and I’m anxiously praying for rain. Why? So that my little league baseball game will be rained out and I don’t have to suffer through another six humiliating innings of being the worst kid on the team. I can still hear the groans from my teammates as I was called on deck, facing yet another strike-out, then at the change of inning being shuffled off to right field where hopefully the only action I would face was battling a few mosquitoes.
The worst kid on the team was indeed me, and I was ashamed of it, I hated baseball, and I dreaded game-day.
Not surprisingly, I opted out of playing baseball the next season, a choice I assumed my dad would honor with considerable relief. He did not. To my consternation, he wasn’t going to let me off the hook that easily, and he gently, but firmly, “convinced” me to give it one more season. He dug in, started working with me on my hitting, taking me to the batting cages on a regular basis. Between him and my coaches, a few small – very small – adjustments were made, and I started connecting with the ball, also becoming a better fielder. To me, it was a revelation. Enter hope, confidence, and fun.
Praying for Sunshine
One season, some small tweaks, the faith of my dad and a few coaches, and everything changed, making all of the difference in the world for a 10-year-old boy. Powerful stuff that had a lasting impact on me, and on my academics, my music, career, and other endeavors in my life. Baseball will always bring back the best of memories: the team, the smells, the hot dogs, the joy of the game, and praying for sunshine in the summer of 1974. For this, I will be forever thankful for my dad.
What does Dave’s baseball journey have to do with tutoring and proficiency? Well, quite a bit…
Challenges are inevitable and meant to be conquered.
Whether it’s baseball, the arts, or academics, challenges are a given for kids. Proficiency gaps are serious challenges and must be prioritized for course-correction. With the right approach and guidance, students can overcome academic obstacles, tap into their actual ability, close gaps and gain lasting confidence. Often parents, teachers, and guardians don’t have the bandwidth to adequately help their kids with schoolwork. (Besides, we all know how much kids listen to their parents!). This is where good tutoring comes in. A solid tutoring model coupled with commitment from the student and family can make a meaningful and lasting difference, changing the course (and mentality) of the student, leading to true proficiency, which leads to exciting opportunities and happier young women and men. Even if your child can’t see their true potential, our tutors will, and this rubs off on the student.
This is what drives us, and this is why we tutor.
Again, welcome to Proficiency Builders!
Proficiency Builders helps students gain true academic proficiency, which leads to confident students who are fully prepared for success post high school. Proficient students are presented with multiple options in the areas of higher education – university, college, or vocational – that lead to rewarding careers, fulfilled individuals, and stronger communities. In short, proficiency means opportunity, and that is why we tutor.
We help students help themselves achieve academic proficiency through a team of experienced and dedicated tutors who share a firm belief that all students are capable of proficiency, coupled with study/organizational skills coaching through our test prep framework, PreplogX.
Many of the families who reach out to us have children with limited study/organizational skills, which is often the root cause of their academic struggles. Poor organizational skills, or the inability to effectively plan for exams is a growing problem among students. In fact, a recent McGraw Hill report reveals that the number of students who feel that being unprepared for classes was their biggest obstacle to success has nearly doubled (McGraw Hill Study Trends Report, 2023).
Building organizational skills that improve preparedness for school does not need to be difficult or complex and can be realistically learned and applied by students. This is why developed Preplogix, our exam prep tool created by a team of skilled tutors using their experience and time-tested organizational practices.
PreplogX is a logical and simplified approach to building and executing effective exam preparation plans. Students learn the PreplogX framework during their tutoring engagement, so mastery of effective preparation is immersed in the tutoring process, which provides more relevance and retention as opposed to a stand-alone process. The study and organizational skills learned through the PreplogX framework will be applied to future grades and endeavors, providing lifelong benefits.
Whether your student needs subject-specific tutoring, exam prep coaching, or both, contact us to learn how we can help your student realize their full potential. We look forward to hearing from you…
