Off a narrow white hallway lies an array of rooms, none larger than a mud room, and inside each one finds a table, two chairs, a whiteboard, and quotes on the wall from famous educators. Sitting adjacent from each other are a student and teacher with a long, thick book open in the center of the two.  They’re preparing for college standardized entry exams. Although each room may look identical, and each student is preparing for the same test, Academic Approach fosters personalized learning and therefore no two students–at least in theory–are on the same lesson.

Academic Approach was founded in 2001 by CEO and founder Matthew Pietrafetta when he was a Columbia University grad student in New York City. “As a graduate student preparing to be a professor, teaching college freshman in literature,” Pietrafetta said, “I was also tutoring high school students for the ACT or SAT, and I started to look at those tests very differently.”

Pietrafetta began to see parallels between the skills he was teaching his college freshmen and the high school students he tutored. “They are quite relevant skills,” Pietrafetta said.  “My big insight was that they are not just silly tests but relevant assessments for understanding, discussing, teaching, and learning some of these very important skills.”

From 1996 to 2001 Pietrafetta began to develop his “academic approach” to test preparation. He found that most test prep could be “cynical,” with tutors approaching standardized tests in a “test-centered” way rather than a way that allowed for true academic growth.

“I created a phrase called ‘Teaching Beyond the Test,’ which I was actually able to trademark,” Pietrafetta said.  “I thought, ‘Let’s not just teach tips and tricks for the test but rather skills that you can actually take to college and even into your high school classrooms.’”

Junior Steven Son sees the prep working two ways.  “Since Parker doesn’t necessarily teach us how to take standardized tests, I think it’s important for students to prepare for it if they want a good score,” Son said. “Even though I did all this work for one single test, I was able to benefit from it in my schoolwork too.”  

To ensure students take full advantage of the resources the company offers, Academic Approach has students take a diagnostic test and meet with teachers and tutors to discuss the results and where to go from there. “Within the sections there’s differences–you might be stronger at the English section and weaker in the math section–so then you want to start with the math,” Pietrafetta said. “We focus on different skills, whether you are high proficiency or low proficiency.  Even within a subject you are not going to be the same as a student who is next to you.”

Sophomore Sarah Jayne Austin took a diagnostic test proctored at Parker through College Counselling but provided by Academic Approach for use by the sophomore class. “I have always thought of the ACT/SAT as something far off and intimidating,” Austin said, “but I’m feeling a little less scared now that I’ve been introduced to it.”

Once Pietrafetta moved to Chicago, Academic Approach found its first home on Orchard Street. Since then they have moved locations to Armitage, and now have expanded to Winnetka, New York City, and, as of this summer, West Suburbs offices. Academic Approach reaches far more than the three tutoring offices they currently have. Though many one on one clients are unaware, as Pietrafetta noted, Academic Approach has a CPS program that was founded a decade ago.

Pietrafetta met with students and teachers at CPS to ask what they needed in terms of test preparation, and he found they wanted three things: assessments and reporting about where the students were, professional development for faculty to learn more about the tests, and instruction for students to help deliver the skills to students to raise their scores. “I told CPS what I did,” Pietrafetta said, “and I wondered if this could be useful in public schools.”

Academic Approach teaches teachers ways to implement skills students need for these tests after analyzing data from students test scores. “A lot of students who walk in here will never know that is going on,” Pietrafetta said, “but there is a second floor department called School Programs, and those folks are going all around the city all day long.”

In whatever way is necessary for the student to succeed, Pietrafetta said, the teachers at Academic Approach work to meet the student where they are to bring them to where they want to be. Pietrafetta said, “Our mission is that all students can improve their levels or scores or at whatever level they are starting at.”