Episode 301 | Lauren Price | Academic Independence | The EdisonOS Podcast

Welcome to the Edison OS Podcast Show, where we explore ideas, challenges and breakthroughs that shape Desprep and college readiness. From shifting test formats to the craft of building truly effective practice, we sit down with tutors, desprep owners and admissions experts to uncover stories and strategies that really help students succeed. Hi, Lauren. Welcome to the Edison OS Podcast. Thanks so much for taking time out of this. Of course. Thank you for having me. That's our pleasure, Lauren. Lauren, my first question to you for our audience who are meeting you for the first time. Can you introduce yourself and what you do in academic independence? Yes, I am Lauren Price. I am the founder of Academic Independence and my role today has shifted throughout the years of my business. I started off as a tutor and now I kind of manage oversee operations and I do more public speaking. So I go to conferences and I train teachers in schools and I work with a lot of individuals and train our tutors and things like that. So yeah, Lauren, if you want to share a little bit about what academic independence is all about. Yeah, so academic independence is in the name. So we believe in empowering our students to become academically independent to where they have the skills that are rooted in research, brain-friendly science and self-regulation and building those executive functions, regardless of the service that we're working with our students on. So we work with students on all kinds of things, SAT, ACT, B, and one of them. But that's our primary focus to where students feel good about it themselves. Not that they need a tutor as a crutch or anything like that. Not that they can only do it with the tutor sitting right next to them, but so that they can be successful on their own. Got to learn. Lauren, how did your whole standardized testing journey begin? So I started working with students, as I mentioned, like when I started the business, I started working with students on SAT, ACT, individually. And from there, I realized that this this recipe to working with students on teaching them about their brain and how they learn and how to build their strategies to overcome some of their challenges is applicable in SAT, ACT. So kind of that built the foundations and then training more of our tutors in our in our program. Got to learn. What's your, did you anticipate the whole shift of pen and paper SAT and ACT to the physical question? I kind of did. Yeah. I mean, like years ago, you know, we saw GMAT and GRE kind of going that way. And once the world kind of went online after the pandemic, I felt like, you know, it was kind of a matter of time. So yeah, I think that we predicted it and still work with our students on gaining some of those skills to use that, although some of them still take that the paper written they opt for that for, for ACT. So it just depends on the student. But I think that they've adapted pretty well to, to the change. God, Lauren, has it impacted your training methods or teaching methods, the transitions from pen and paper to teachers? I mean, sure. So we use it, we use a platform that kind of helps it in real time because I think it's really important to study the way that the test is going to be like a real kind of simulation in that. And so we do train our tutors in that approach because I want the students to be able to be prepared for that. So yeah. God, Lauren. And how many students do you work with on an early basis at academic independence? An academic independence. We see around 500 students a year. Of course, not all of them are just for test prep. Like I said, we do a bunch of different things, but yes. God, Lauren. And those who come for test prep, what kind of colleges do they go to usually? Yeah. They go to colleges across the board. So we see them go into the Ivy leagues and we see them go to a lot of our Texas schools here. So it's all the things, all the things. Yeah. Our goal is to help them achieve what they want. So God, Lauren, you have your masters in psychology. And my question is, did you plan that, you know, this is what are you going to be doing? Or was it, you know, situation? It kind of found me. So I started with my undergrad in marketing and public relations. And I got out of school and I was doing some interviewing and I realized, uh-oh, I don't want to be a marketing and public relations. And at the time, my aunt had a business that was opening a tutoring branch here in Houston and asked for me to help teach a course, a study skills course. And I just fell in love with it. I'd love teaching. And so then I went to the community college and I took all kinds of education classes to see what area of education I wanted to go into because I never thought of education for me. And I landed on educational psychology. And that's kind of what I got my my masters in. And now I'm working towards my, um, doctorate in mind, brain and science. And that's kind of, that's my thing. It's like, I love educational psychology and like that idea of self-regulated learning where you can turn on an internal voice and then complimenting it with the brain and how we, how we learn. God, Lauren, could you elaborate a little bit about this self-regulated learning? Like what is it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So self-regulated learning, it's an executive functioning skill. So it starts with setting a goal and then going through the actions to achieve one's goal or this is, this is my interpretation of it. This is kind of the, this, the method that I developed. But and then you go through the actions to achieve the goal. And the most important step is monitoring ourselves along the way. So is what I'm doing working or is it not working? A lot of students I see they go through the motions just because that's what they're supposed to do or what they've always done. That's the habit that they're in without that internal voice of, hey, this is working for me. This isn't working for me. And so we teach students how to track it. And then that way it's more about the strategies instead of their ability because I believe every student can be successful with the right recipe for themselves. And then they learn to evaluate, did it work or did it not work? And then they kind of start that whole cyclical process again. But that's self-regulation. Got to learn. Have you faced any sort of roadblocks when you've tried implementing self-regulation with the students that have come? Or is it, you know, is it possible for all the students to kind of implement the self-regulation part? Yeah. So before we start with students, they fill out a self-report survey. And so I know their self-regulation plus the strategies that they're using. What are they motivated by? And some of these key elements, like do they have a growth or a fixed mindset? All these things matter when we're working with students. And so that kind of helps me know who we're working with. And a lot of times we like to have an initial meeting with parent and student to kind of all be on the same page. We explain this and we explain our process. And then it kind of sets the tone. And you know, we do get some pushback from now again and again. Like I just sent out an email to everybody welcoming to them to the second semester and telling them it's okay to share your results because we can't know what challenges we're facing if we're not brave enough to look at it. And we need to be resilient enough to learn from our past mistakes so that we can overcome them and not make them in the future. I mean, that's what learning's all about, right? Right, right. Got to learn. And I know, you know, you know, things beyond standardized test prep, right? But when it comes to standardized test prep for students who feel overwhelmed or, you know, confused choosing between SAT and ACT. If there are students like that, do you like them? We do. Yeah. Yeah. So we have them take a mock test in each or do our hybrid test. And then that way we can see which one they're kind of leaning more towards. I mean, we talked to them too about which one is their preference. But a lot of times it's pretty obvious. Which one is a better fit for the for the student? Based on the scores. Based on the scores and kind of how they how they take it. And then like how they how they feel about it too. So in and honestly, some of the schools we work with, some of the some of the students do better in certain tests versus other tests. So it's kind of interesting based on where they're here in high school or whatever, like what test suits them better? Some get popular in certain schools. Right. Yeah. God Lord. And Lord, what's for families, you know, coming to you and even with the schools that you work with? What's a realistic score improvement that can be expected from your standardized test prep? And what does the time commitment actually look like for students to achieve those results? So that's a great question. That is totally based on the students willingness to put in the time and effort and energy. You know, I mean, like I said, academically independent, we can teach them all the strategies in the world, but they have to put it in the practice. And that's a big component like we we really try to have them sign a commitment to do this homework on their own. I mean, it's just that's that's neuroscience. Like, right? You can't learn unless you've developed the neural pathway to to know how to take the test to know how to perform the content that you're being trained and the strategies that you're being taught, stuff like that. So it's all about the amount of time that the students willing to put in. And how many practice tests they they want to take, too? Like, it depends to sometimes we'll get parents or students that call us like a handful of weeks before a test and you just can't make that much progress in that amount of time. Looking for, you know, six months or so and we're wanting to take a test every three to four weeks, practice tests and you're willing to do homework, you can see some true growth, you know. Got a lot of them. And is there a difference between working with families on a one-on-one basis versus working with schools with a group of students at a time? Sure. I mean, we do groups in our office, too. But typically it's more broad strokes, you know, like a common strategies that students need to get down will do and common patterns in those questions and things like that that we look at. And then test taking strategies when we do groups. And then we can more modify it when we're working with an individual, right? You get a more catered approach based on that score report. And I mean, we can break them up. Like we do that. We break them up based on like areas that they need and things like that, too. Got a lot. When you look at a test report, right, beat diagnostic tests or a practice test that you make the student state, what are the kind of metrics that you see from an improvement point of view for a student, apart from the, you know, the content skills or the subject skills? I'm sorry, say that again. The factors with the metrics or the nuances that you see from a test report in terms of where the students can improve. Oh, so like when we're looking at a score report, we want to see like the specific type of questions that they're missing and then we can cater a program or an approach towards that. So then we'll be able to cater their homework and their practice. They can do practice sections of the test and you can see if it's a timing thing. Like are they taking too much time in a certain area because it is a time test? And so do they need to practice with a time element? Do they need to get some content down? Like what is the, you know, what do they need to work on? Right, got it. And part of the standardized test prep or even academic tutoring for that matter, there's the homework complete, right? So what's your stance on homework? Are you heavy on homework? Or yeah? So we've done it a couple of ways. I like to kind of build in some time for them to do homework because we find that a lot of our students, let me rephrase, some students will do their homework and some students won't do their homework. We can't work magic just in tutoring sessions, right? So there needs to be time for homework. So we have a study lounge where students can do homework. We also run a boot camp that has heavy loads of homework time for students that are not doing their homework because I do believe it's so important, like I said, in order for them to get that practice. It's like, you know, when we work with students and I train, when I train tutors and math, it's a big thing. The students can do it sitting right next to you, but then when they're in the test, they can't perform. It's a sense of confidence. It's also they, they need to practice it. Like when you're, when you're tutoring a student and they're sitting right next to you, you may not even notice your face in response to a wrong answer. They're not going to get that face of their tutor to know that they're doing something wrong to rework it, right? So they have to do this practice on their own to build that confidence. So to answer your question, yes, you need to do homework. Yeah, yeah, good. Another aspect when it comes to, you know, standardize testing or test prep is anxiety. Is that a normal thing with most of the students? Or is it just with some of them and how do you help students deal with that? So anxiety, I believe, is it can be good in some in some aspects, right? To be a little bit nervous, right? However, when we are anxious, our amygdala is fired and we cannot use our prefrontal cortex or the thinking part of our brain. So that's that my mind's gone blank, right? So we work with students to teach them about the brain, how they can calm their amygdala and what to do in that time. Like if they are super stressed, right? The other thing that's really helpful is if you've done enough practice, it's in your long term memory. It's not in this prefrontal cortex part of your brain. So you have it there. You just got to build the confidence. Another thing we work on is, you know, really encouraging them to take advantage of our proctor test. The more you practice it, the more familiar you are with that timing, and you're going to feel more confident going into that test. So, the better prepared you are, anxiety is not going to play a role. It's not going to play as big a role. Right. But yeah, that was a nice trivia to know that anxiety affects the frontal part of the brain. And if you put it in the long term memory, then, you know, it's not as affected. And you can still, like, you can still use strategies to calm your brain. So, like, I teach them a brain hack, right? So, if you can't access your prefrontal cortex because you're super stressed, try saying your ABC's backwards in your head. That forces you to use your prefrontal cortex unless you've oddly remembered the ABC's backwards, which is a random talent and more power to you. But a lot of people haven't done that. So, no one can tell you're doing it. Just try to say it, and it calms the amygdala helps you access that prefrontal cortex, get your brain in gear, and then you can start going. So, we work with students like in other cases, they can do puzzles and things like that. But this is a way to do it, and no one knows you're doing it in a high pressure situation. Garland. Apart from my study in ACT, you also provide services for ISWE. I see. What fundamentally changes when you're doing for ISWE is compared to CSAT or ACT. So, we do the same type of approach. That test is a little speedier, so you have to get the, it's about taking the test, just like with SAT or ACT, right? So, you have to learn the strategies and the pacing and things like that. We also have younger learners taking the IC than the higher level kiddos. So, just teaching them and introducing them to standardize tests, because for some of them, this is the first time that they've taken the test, because it starts it, it can start, like, littles can take that. So, some kids use it to go into high school, but some are going into middle, so, or lower. Yeah, go ahead, learn. Learn, apart from the standardized test review said, you know, you work with students from an executive functioning, or it could be academic. So, is it that families approach you with clarity in terms of what they want from you, or do you kind of, you know, consult with them in terms of what's, do you recommend, you know, what it's better if your student gets a little bit of executive functioning coaching as well, and a little bit of some other things as well? Yeah, so, we train all of our tutors in a foundational knowledge of the brain, how we learn executive functions, self-regulation, all these things, right? Because years ago, when I started, I started as a math tutor, and I realized it's not about math. It's about, they don't know how to study for math, or they don't have the study skills, or the habits, the planning, the, the organization, all these things. So, when a student comes to us, a lot of times the parents know what they want. However, sometimes they'd like to come in and meet with me, or our director and talk to us about what they think that they need. And then like I said, we look at that score report that we do, we call it a scorecard that has all those things, the how they study, and all that thing, and that kind of helps us advise them what plan and what what they should do. And then sometimes they'll get started with a tutor and realize, hey, I need this, but I also need this, or I don't need this as much as now I need this kind of thing. So, you know, sometimes they come to us and they're like, I need help in biology and geometry. And then it shows up that maybe it's executive functioning. And by tweaking these things, and our tutors able to help with it, you are successful. Got a lot. We're moving on a little bit about the way you do your business. How much of AI have you used, or if you've embraced, and how much of it goes into illustrating your business versus using it for the tutoring in terms of, you know, preparing the sources or questions and stuff like that. Yeah, so AI, we use it in a way to be consistent, like with our feedback. So after each session, we give session notes, and I developed a template that has like, so that's structured for tutors to be able to follow like a weekly win. And the goal for the week, what we did in the session, and then strategies. And I've uploaded like all of our study strategies so that they have this base knowledge of all the strategies that a student could possibly use to help them build that. I mean, their brain still needs to be involved, right? But it helps lessen the load for the notes. We don't really like, I like teaching students to be empowered to use it to create maybe a sample test for them, like taking a test is a great way to study. So that's a good, that's a good strategy. As far as our test for students for SAT ACT, we use a platform that's based on like older tests and like realistic tests. So we do that and it kind of builds it for us. So we don't really use it for test banks or test questions for SAT ACT. Yeah. Yeah, go. And a lot of it comes to relationships with the families. How easy or difficult is it to kind of, you know, keep it smooth, do you have any? You know, I think like tips for communication. Is that kind of what you're saying? No, sometimes, you know, there are different expectations from parents. And then, you know, what you deliver maybe not up to the mark or, you know, there's sort of a misalignment in terms of what you promise and what parents are expecting and stuff like that. Do you face situations like that? If yes, how do you deal with that? So 100%. That is something that we try to avoid by setting the tone the very first session. So like I said, that first session, I really want parents and students to be engaged in it and set goals. We set goals in that first session for what we want to achieve, what challenges we have and how we're going to get there. I think that that's very important to do either on the phone or in person or via Zoom or whatever, just so everyone's on the same page in setting realistic goals. And so with that, when we set the goal, then we talk about what it's going to take for the student to do in order to accomplish that goal. Like we'll do our job and we'll show up and we'll teach you and we'll send our weekly notes and you need to show up to do the Proctored exams and you need to be doing your homework. And that's kind of just set there. Parents have access where they can log on and see a student's progress anytime. And then like I said, they get week, they get session notes after each of our sessions. And so I really think communication is key to after every after every practice test or Proctored test, they get a score report and then they're getting session notes. So I love an element of communication. If they're not doing their homework, we're very honest with them about that. And so then they need to come into our study lounge and knock it out. You said there are situations when you know parents just reach out to you when there's just only a few weeks left before the test. What's the ideal prep time you think that students need to get before they take either one of their study or AC? Yeah, I mean typically we'll start. It depends on the math that they've been exposed to. So typically we'll start after January of sophomore year or after like starting that summer after their sophomore year and then run until they're getting the the score that they want pretty much. So for semester one until I mean some of some of our students are kind of perfectionists and really want that perfect score. So they're going to keep testing and testing. So it just it just depends on on how long it takes them to get there. But typically it's about a semester and those are the start times based on the math exposure. You gotta learn. So from a reading point of view you're saying it's not usually a problem. It's the math that counts. That's what we've seen and what they've been exposed to math wise. So are they on a track to do geometry their freshman year or algebra to their freshman year or algebra you know. And so that kind of dictates what they what they're going to see and what they're going to know what I don't want is for a student to come in too early and be a perfectionist and be completely crushed by their score and then not be able to overcome that you know. So just because they haven't been exposed to it. But once they were exposed to it they're going to do fine. I mean we can start. I just think it's best practices to wait a little bit. Especially if you have like already anxious kiddo. You gotta learn. And your partnership with schools. How does that you know what are the what do schools usually expect from you and how easier difficult it is to meet the expectations of schools. So we do a couple different things. We work with schools primarily the most important thing is communication. So I think when we're all on the same page and working towards the same goals best. We you know we can tell them some of the things that their students are typically missing in certain areas and I think that that can be beneficial. But for the most part just kind of that that line of communication a lot of time to work well with the learning specialists at a school so that they are working with if we're working with specific students to ensure that we're all on the same page working towards that student's success. Got it got it. This question is for other tutors that are listening and we're probably thinking about scaling up. You spoke about you know having 500 students across various services that you provide. What's your philosophy when it comes to hiring the right tutors? So I think the way that we do it is we hire people that first meet the qualifications right so they have to have experience they have to be degreeed and or certified teachers so they have to meet all these qualifying factors and then they come in and they'll meet with us and we'll ensure it's a good personality fit and then they do a mock session either with our director or with my little personal guinea pigs my 16 year old or my 13 year old and just to make sure that they can have that rapport and they can teach it because sometimes we can have all the knowledge up here in our brains but then can we relate to students and will they trust us to teach them you know so that they have to check all those boxes. Got it Lauren. I conclude with this question. What would you like to tell you know families who you know who are looking to balance? Get a good balance between quality of test prep tutoring and the kind of money they spend for the same. I think you want to ensure that you're getting what you're paying for by communication so I think that understanding what your students are doing is really important and then an element of monitoring so can you see the results and sometimes the results are not the numbers right sometimes the results are starting in a confident shift sometimes the results are starting in that growth mindset where that belief in myself and things like that so I think that that's kind of what you're looking for you want people that are qualified that have the background and that are going to empower your students to be able to do it on their own. They should be talking more your students should be talking more than the tutor should be talking. The kids need to be answering questions and processing information not just somebody's spitting it all out at them so it needs to be it needs to be brain friendly in my opinion. Got it Lauren. Lauren thank you so much it was a pleasure talking to you. You too have a good one. All right thanks for listening and while you wait for the next episode go and check out edicinos.com the digital testing platform for all standardized tests.