Our young professional volunteers work with our talented students on Saturdays during the school year to help them improve their academic skills, gain acceptance to college summer programs, and eventually gain admission to a four-year university. Under the close direction of our Dean's Office to guarantee cooperation amongst all branches of academic affairs in achieving our specific goals and long-term mission, Minds Matter of Cleveland has implemented several rigorous academic programs. Likewise, our volunteer-to-student ratio of nearly 3-to-1 affords prompt, thorough, and customized feedback from a close-knit team of instructors, tutors, and expert writing councilors committed to academic excellence.

Writing & Critical Thinking Program: + 82% Improvement

Our Writing & Critical Thinking Program is an innovative and rigorous course of study designed to enhance verbal, written, and critical reasoning skills for our sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Directed, designed, and implemented by our deans, Cleveland’s unique curriculum systematically targets argument deconstruction and delivery, stylistic and grammatical fluency, semantic accuracy, thesis research and development, and academic paper preparation. Students are required to complete online examinations licensed through the Foundation for Critical Thinking, submit weekly written assignments, develop papers for national essay competitions, engage in debates on current affairs, critique audio-visual materials, and develop oral presentation skills. Upon the completion of the program each fall, students receive ongoing written guidance from the Minds Matter Writing Council whose expert writing concilors ensure students employ the skills they have learned to produce highly competitive essays for summer program applications.

Students have enjoyed much success and documented score improvement.  For instance, one of our students won a coveted Gold Key Award from the Alliance for Young Writers and Artists ranking in the top 1,300 out of 140,000 applicants nationwide for his essay.

Math Matters Program: + 45% Improvement

Recognizing the importance of mathematics to the success of our students, Minds Matter of Cleveland launched the first Math Matters program in 2008 with outstanding results.  The Math Matters Program builds fluency in targeted topics such as algebra, geometry, problem solving, and probability. Cleveland’s unique curriculum systematically reviews essential mathematical concept areas through a dynamic and interactive classroom setting that encourages students to collectively and competitively sharpen their analytical skills to ensure success both on standardized tests such as the ACT and in eventual college studies.   Students enjoy detailed feedback on weekly assignments from our dedicated instructors who assess student performance through a variety of examinations and homework projects that dovetail with their performance in school and other standardized tests.

To date, students have enjoyed tremendous improvement in their scores on from the diagnostic to exit examinations administered through our program.

Kaplan SAT Prep Program:  + 252 Point Improvement

Recognizing that strong standardized test scores are an indispensable component of the increasingly competitive college admissions process, Minds Matter of Cleveland has partnered with Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, through Kaplan's Community Outreach Program, to provide effective and comprehensive SAT preparation for our students.

Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, a division of Kaplan, Inc, is a subsidiary of the Washington Post, has 160 centers worldwide, and is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training of the US Department of Education. Kaplan's ethos meshes well with our goals at Minds Matter for as Kaplan explains, "As part of Kaplan's mission to help individuals achieve their educational and career goals, Kaplan is committed to reaching out to individuals and communities that might not otherwise have access to services. Throughout the year and across the country, Kaplan professionals provide discounted test preparation courses to low-income students, fix up schools, collect books for local charities, donate books and services, and mentor high school students."

Upon the completion of their writing and critical thinking and Math Matters classes, Minds Matter sophomores and juniors can benefit by enrolling in Kaplan's SAT prep classes, which run from January through May. Specifically, students must complete eight sessions conducted by an expert Kaplan instructor, and an additional four sessions of full-length practice tests. Students receive an array of course materials including classroom texts, flash cards, additional workbooks, and much more to ensure their fluency with Kaplan's proven score-raising methods and strategies for success. Likewise, students are assigned additional practice through Kaplan's online QuizBank at www.kaptest.com.

Minds Matter of Cleveland deeply appreciates the stellar team at the Cleveland Kaplan Center who are committed to providing our students with close individualized feedback that is critical to ensuring our students reach their maximum potential on Test Day.

Our students have experienced tremendous improvement in their scores from the diagnostic to exit examinations administered through our program.  We look forward to building on this momentum this year!

Tutoring Program:  + 17% Improvement

Minds Matter of Cleveland has launched a structured tutoring program designed to supplement our SAT Program with periodic opportunities for our students to review test questions and topics with math, verbal, and writing tutors.  Under the close supervision of the Dean's Office and managed by our Head Tutor, our tutoring staff is selected based upon their fluency in the requisite topics and/or professional experience in related fields.  Tutors then receive training in techniques to assist students in building substantive familiarity with these topics.  Tutors are thus primarily not engaged in test prep methodology which is the purview of the Kaplan SAT program.  Tutors have thus come from many different backgrounds such as law, professional editing, engineering, banking, and many other fields.  We are always looking for additional tutors to participate.  To date, the tutoring program has achieved much success as evidenced by the increasingly strong scoring metrics of our students on the SAT.