Huntington Learning Center of Silver Spring

How come this location doesn't show up on the Huntington Website?
Aug 23rd, 2019

Caution! I used Huntington several years ago in an attempt to help my learning disabled daughter. They were not qualified to help her. Their method is rote repetition which was not, I later learned, appropriate or helpful. When I cancelled I was stuck with a bill for thousands. DO NOT SIGN their contract. It was a nightmare. I am so thankful to be able to warn others and sad to see from recent reviews that little has changed.
Jul 3rd, 2016

I agree with this review. My experience was very similar. My son started at the center last year and when I came in the door my first request was to work on the area of math. That was his weak area. He was on level with his reading, in fact slightly above his level. He was swept off to do testing and after it was completed, I was presented with a binder showing me what his test scores were. Well they indicated he could use help with the area of reading and vocabulary and spelling,which I knew wasn't totally true, but I followed their line of thinking which was to work on all the area, including math in order to round out the experience and make him stronger in all of the areas.I was promised a meeting with his teachers so they could further assess what his work was like in school and what his teacher and Huntington could come up with as a structured plan to assist him and make his tutoring session a success. Well I think Joann reached out once to the teacher and the teacher responded, however, they never met, she never followed up and needless to say, they never had one meeting with any teacher at my son's school.  I was very disappointed about this and I kept reminding her that the teacher was waiting to meet with them as soon as they would set up the meeting. It never happened. At the first consult with the staff, I mentioned my concern again about more focus on his math. They told me, oh yes we will give him more math. I never saw any math, but kept seeing card on vocabulary words that he mastered. There were a couple more opportunities I had to ask about more focus on the math skills. However, there was a little, but not as much as was needed.After my son's programs was one week from over, I was called in by, Mona,  to discuss the program. This was actually an effort to get me to spend more money after they had determined they needed to focus more on his math skills, "REALLY!!!" Excuse me people, I told you that when we began the program. Ugghh!!  Anyway, I sat through a meeting where they tried to get me to spend more money with them so we could now focus on his math skills, by the way, his teacher is still waiting for that meeting we never got!! I asked if I could have a close out report which charted all the progress he had made. Never received it. I let them know I was not happy with the service we received and that I surely would not spend another dollar with them. In two words, "RIP OFF"!! Yes, they appear to be knowledgeable, but they are unorganized, not responsive and maybe in over there heads. I am very disappointed.
Jun 15th, 2015

We signed up for some coaching for our high achieving son at this place because it was recommended by a friend.  What we discovered was that they may be very good for students who are behind or have emotional or learning issues, but they are not effective for boosting an already high-achieving kid.  I have broken the review into three areas below:The ConsultThe two main directors:  Joanne and something starting with an M, come across as very knowledgeable and competent during the consult.  It is only later, during execution, that you find out that they really may not have given you all the information you needed, and are very disorganized.  In our case, we were there for high school admissions test prep.  My son took a sample test to create a baseline, and then we met with both directors for an hour.  Their "scoring system" was broken when we arrived for our consult, and Joanne rushed to score manually, making us wait 45 minutes.  She then read us his seemingly excellent scores, which turned out later to be wrong...he did even better than their first guess. Nonetheless, they rallied and described what sounded like a solid plan to push him over the top, address his weak areas, and put him in position for "scholarship money,"  according to Joanne.  Since many of the private high schools we are looking at are pricey, that, of course, appealed  to us.  Later,  it turned out that they really didn't know what constituted a "great" score, which affected the direction of our tutoring, and most of the schools don't offer merit-based "scholarship money."We never were able to receive a copy of his actual baseline scores.  Every time I requested a copy of his scores, they were somehow in the possession of the other director who was not there at the time.  The EnvironmentThere are no private spaces for your child to be tutored.  You go to the center, and they seem to have a very high concentration of kids with behavioral and learning issues who wander around and often interrupt other students being tutored.  They will not allow the parents to go back and see where their child will be tutored or to meet the tutors...that should have been a show-stopper for me.  But I was trusting that recommendation from my close friend!The Actual TutoringTheir tutoring is EXPENSIVE.  If it had been effective, it is probably a competitive price.  I don't want to write a book here, so suffice it to say that the tutors themselves were actually probably (since I didn't meet them) very good.  The problems with the tutoring were with the architecture...I believe that points to the directors.  They made commitments as to what would be covered that were not met.  They never worked with him on his essay, for example, which they promised the first day.  They did not seem to know how to craft a tutoring approach that was specific to him and focused on his weaker areas, but, rather, they stuck to their formulaic book and forced him to waste precious (expensive) time on subject matter that he had mastered...of which there was a great deal.   So, not surprisingly, there was not enough time to adequately address the areas he truly needed help on.  When I addressed the fact that his major weakness was vocabulary and they had spent no time at all on that, I was told by Joanne that they couldn't help him with that, that was up to him.  Huh!?!?  And, of course, when he finally took the real test, that's where he fell down.  And his other scores, overall, went down or stayed the same.I wrote two emails to the Executive Director, Karen Donald, and received no response.  Overall, a VERY disappointing and costly experience.
Dec 26th, 2014