, Author at My Learning Springboard

Abigail Jenson

January 23, 2025

Abigail Jenson is patient, calm and supportive. Her experiences in education range from PreK to middle and high school students. She is from Utah, where she studied Family and Consumer Science Education at Brigham Young University. In June of 2024, she left her beloved job teaching child development, early childhood education, sewing, and fashion design to high school students to pursue a master’s degree at New York University in Environmental Conservation Education. She currently holds a teaching certificate for the New York State Education Department for Family and Consumer Science Education. Within her teaching experience, she has assisted in curriculum development, spoken at leadership and educator conferences, collaborated with colleagues creating learning resources, and participated in professional development opportunities. She genuinely enjoys being a teacher in formal and informal settings and values her students and relationships built in the process of teaching and learning together.

As a private tutor, she meets her students where they are at. Her approach begins with the student: their goals, understanding, challenges, and diverse learning needs. She incorporates scaffolding techniques that support student learning at a comfortable pace and yet challenging enough to promote greater understanding. Abigail has a strong understanding of developmentally appropriate practices that contributes to her ability to support student learning across a broad range of ages and learning needs. She has strong executive functioning skills, including adaptability, organization, problem solving, planning, and prioritization.

When she isn’t teaching, she is making and creating! She stays busy altering and making wedding gowns for clients, as well as running a business making and selling apparel and, more recently, technical outdoor gear she designs and sews from recycled materials. Her true colors shine when she is in the creative process, whether it’s designing a functional bag, making a Claymation, or writing a poem. As a lover of nature, she is passionate about educating people about the environment and motivating people to act for the conservation of the planet. Some day she hopes to run a business of her own teaching people how to sew and repair their own clothing and understand the complex impacts clothing production and consumption have on the environment.

When To Begin College Planning Efforts

January 6, 2025 Brad Hoffman

College planning — it’s what keeps high school juniors and seniors (and their parents) up at night. But although college planning efforts reach their height in eleventh and twelfth grades, the buildup begins much earlier. Below is a guide to begin your college planning efforts at 7th grade and continue through senior year so that your child can enjoy a smooth and successful application process.

7th Grade

Maybe your child attends a school that ends after 8th grade, so you know that they will need to apply to high schools. Maybe your child attends a school that goes through 12th grade, but you think another school might be a better fit. Either way, 7th grade is the year to start thinking about high-school applications. You can draft a preliminary school list and help your child begin preparing to take the ISEE or other similar tests. Because the ISEE and SSAT are both designed as significantly above grade level measures, a longer runway for preparation is best. Therefore, we encourage families to organize ISEE diagnostic work in January of the 7th grade year. This 7th grade school year is also a really important one to organize a comprehensive evaluation if there are any concerns about inattention or learning challenges. Both ACT and College Board look for a documented history of challenges and accessing accommodations at school as part of their approval process. ADHD, for example, is best documented by age 12. High school planning and accommodations planning are both critical components of your college planning efforts.

8th Grade

Fall of 8th grade is high school application season. After open houses and other school visits, you and your child can narrow down the application list. As you help your child choose schools, the foremost guiding principle should be this: a happy student is a successful student — and vice-versa. Beyond core academics, does a given school offer electives that will engage your child? Are your child’s interests reflected in the extracurricular offerings? If your child has an exceptionality, what sorts of supports does the school have in place? If your child is already interested in certain colleges, has the school sent any graduates to that college recently? Fall of 8th grade is also admissions testing season, and you’ll want to schedule your child’s test dates strategically. For instance, students can take the ISEE up to three times a year, once in each of three four-month windows; most of our families have their child test once in November and once in December. This ISEE or SSAT preparation always serves to bolster high school readiness and is prerequisite content for the ACT or SAT.

9th Grade

Ninth grade is a crucial year; research has shown success in 9th grade to be a strong predictor of success in future grades. Your child’s grades should indicate that they are mastering the foundational skills necessary to thrive in higher level courses — especially in math and foreign language, which are heavily sequenced. Speaking of foreign language, many selective colleges require three years of a foreign language and prefer four, so it’s important that the language your child chooses in 9th grade is one that they will want to stick with. At the same time, 9th grade, which frequently offers a student’s first experience with electives, is a time for the student to explore which subjects and extracurriculars they find most exciting. Because of all of the standardized testing that’s underway beginning in high school, it’s an important school year to review any previous evaluations from elementary or middle school to determine if updated testing is needed. Psychologists often have wait lists, and it’s best to avoid an evaluation scramble.

10th Grade

10th grade should find your child building further on the skills from 9th grade. It’s also the first year that most students take the PSAT, which schools typically organize. Significant preparation for the PSAT is not necessary unless a student is trying to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship. January to March of 10th grade is a good time to choose whether the ACT or SAT is right for your child (colleges accept either) and to start preparing for that test. For students taking Advanced Placement classes, May of 10th grade is their first encounter with a heavy testing schedule that simulates college exams; students should start preparing for AP tests months ahead of time. The summer after 10th grade is a great time for at least one “practice” college visit, or a few preliminary college visits as part of your college planning efforts. It’s also worth considering possible tours for the fall of junior year. Moreover, January of 10th grade is the time to be seriously considering and beginning to apply for pre-college summer programs.

11th Grade

Many students will begin taking the ACT or SAT in fall of junior year; the goal should be to finish SAT and ACT testing by the end of 11th grade. Most of our students test officially two to three times. 11th grade is also the second PSAT year. Again, significant preparation for the PSAT is not necessary unless there’s a goal to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship. Midway through 11th grade is a good time to formulate a preliminary college list and to schedule visits over school breaks if not already underway. Your child will want to put particular effort into studying for AP tests in the winter and spring terms, if applicable. Spring term of 11th grade is the time to start the main Common Application essay, which typically undergoes several drafts (essay prompts are typically released in February or March for the following year). Summer is also the time to finish up college visits and finalize your child’s school list, which should include a few “very likely” schools, several “just-right” schools, and a few reach schools. The Common App opens in early August, and your child can start filling in forms and writing responses to the supplemental essay prompts listed under individual schools’ pages in the application. All of this hard work over the summer allows your child to enjoy a senior year that is not entirely consumed by college applications. Moreover, January of 11th grade is the time to be seriously considering and beginning to apply for pre-college summer programs.

12th Grade

Early September is the point to make any last decisions about Early Action or Early Decision schools, as some colleges’ deadline is as early as November 1. After that, with deadlines for each of your child’s schools written down, you and your child should sit down with a calendar and work out a schedule for doing the rest of their application work. If your child is interested in applying to arts or conservatory programs — for instance, in theater or visual art — they also must look up those application requirements early in September, as those programs sometimes have earlier deadlines than the rest of the college. Early September also is the time to recruit teachers to write recommendations; many teachers get multiple requests, and it’s best to give them as much time as possible to compose their letters. Later in September, as applications progress, can be a time to interview with representatives from each college that offers them. Application deadlines will stretch from November to February; after that, the waiting is the hardest part. By May, your child will have some difficult but happy decisions to make as a result of your college planning efforts.

If you’re starting to think about college planning for your family, our team can help to organize a customized plan.

Please contact Brad Hoffman or Faya Hoffman by using this contact form.

By Brad Hoffman, MS.Ed. and Board Certified Educational Planner, Faya Hoffman, M.A. and Board Certified Educational Planner

Educational Assessments: Three Big Bucket Categories

November 30, 2024 Brad Hoffman

We experience a lot of parent confusion when it comes to making sense of school report cards and classroom performance as measured by teacher-made assessments in comparison with performance on grade-level standardized achievement tests or standardized admissions tests. It’s not uncommon for a parent to feel surprised, disappointed, and/or frustrated that their straight-A student – or their student consistently “exceeding expectations” on a report card rubric – has performed below average or within average ranges on grade-level standardized achievement testing. This same student might perform well below average to average on a diagnostic admissions test in one or more sections. It’s critical that parents understand we are not comparing apples to apples. Educational assessments serve different purposes and should be categorized for comparison.

There are three big bucket categories of educational assessments that students regularly encounter for school: 1) teacher-made assessments, 2) grade-level standardized achievement tests, and 3) standardized admissions tests. Let’s explore their differences.

Teacher-made Assessments

The first category of educational assessments that we’ll explore are teacher-made assessments. From diagnostic assessments to formative assessments (aka incremental benchmarking) to summative assessments (aka unit test), teacher-made assessments come in many shapes and sizes and serve different purposes.

In terms of the format types, they may include short answer responses, multiple-choice selection, true-false items, extended essay responses, project-based performance, or a combination thereof. These assessments can be shorter quizzes, papers, unit assessments, midterms, finals, projects or presentations.

Typically they directly align with classroom instruction and content standards specific to a unit, quarter, semester, or term. They impact course grades and internal placement decisions, inform daily instructional planning, and, hopefully, allow for timely feedback and a post-game experience, such as an error analysis, as a learning exercise. In many cases, these assessments follow intensive study of particular skills and concepts where considerable repetition has been in place. Moreover, there may be access to a clear teacher-made study guide that defines a narrower pool of potential content.

Grade-level Standardized Achievement Tests

The second category of educational assessments that we’ll explore are grade-level standardized achievement tests. These tests are designed to assess student achievement relative to grade-level content standards and expectations. Typically they’re given in the spring, but sometimes schools will give the previous grade level test in the fall term of the following school year. Examples of these grade-level tests include CTPs by ERB, MAP testing by NWEA, and state testing programs, like the New York State Testing Program. Internationally, the IGCSEs, for example, serve a similar purpose.

In the case of public schools adhering to state testing programs, the curriculum mapping across grade levels is backmapped from the state content standards. In the case of independent schools, each school’s curriculum is most typically NOT specifically backmapped from the publisher’s content standards. Rather these tests are considered “lower stakes benchmarking” in order to have some measures on student performance relative to national norms and independent school norms, but the day-to-day classroom experience is driven by internal curriculum mapping and faculty professional judgment.

Standardized Admissions Tests

The third category of educational assessments that we’ll explore are standardized admissions tests. Admissions testing includes a variety of tests, such as ISEE, SSAT, ACT, and SAT.

Because of the timelines associated with admissions processes, students often need to test and demonstrate mastery of content before it’s instructed in the classroom. Therefore, these tests often require considerable new instruction ahead of classroom exposure to certain content (aka frontloading). It may seem unfair, but it’s necessary work nonetheless. And before the more advanced content can be tackled, any prerequisite content needs to be mastered, which often includes some remedial work.

It’s important to keep in mind that “coverage” and “mastery” are not the same thing. Content can be “covered” in the classroom but not necessarily “mastered” by a student. True mastery requires that students can nimbly apply skills and concepts to novel situations. A teacher can “get through” the course or unit of instruction, which is “coverage”; truly “mastering” the content is a much higher standard. Moreover, these tests aren’t specifically aligned with a particular school’s curriculum, so earning straight A’s, for example, doesn’t necessarily translate to “acing” the admissions test. While teaching strategies is important, it’s not a substitute for mastering content. The two go hand in hand.

In the case of the ISEE or SSAT, these educational assessments are intentionally designed to be well above grade level. For example, a 5th grade student testing in the late fall or early winter will face content that includes all content standards for grades 1-7 or 8. An 8th grade student testing in the late fall or early winter will face content that includes all content standards for grades 1-10. To be successful, a student has to have mastery of all prerequisite content leading up to their current grade level in addition to frontloading content through their current grade level and well beyond their current grade level.

Each of these tests has three levels. The Lower Level ISEE is designed for students applying to grades 5 and 6. The Middle Level ISEE is designed for students applying to grade 7 and 8. The Upper Level ISEE is designed for students applying to grades 9-11 (though 11th grade applicants often submit PSATs).

Similarly, the Elementary SSAT is designed for students applying to grades 4 and 5. The Middle Level SSAT is designed for students applying to grades 6-8. And the Upper Level SSAT is designed for students applying to grade 9-11 (though 11th grade applicants often submit PSATs).

Our most successful students typically need 11-12 months of lead time and 60-75 instructional hours in order to properly pace it out. These are beastly tests that are meant to be approached as a marathon and not a sprint.

In the case of the ACT and SAT, these tests, in theory, assess academic achievement that is meant to be representative of classroom learning through grades 10 and 11. A “typical” high school experience should be sufficient for managing the content of these particular tests, but experientially we know that’s often not the case. For example, depending on when a student has completed algebra 2 and geometry (in the case of the SAT) and precalculus (in the case of the ACT), these tests usually require somewhere between “a little” to “a lot” of new instruction for a student taking them officially between the winter of grade 10 and the spring of grade 11. Any reading comprehension work, vocabulary development, grammar study, or math skills that are foundational and prerequisite to more advanced content on these tests must be solid before students can progress. For international students or students enrolled in IB programs, their curricula doesn’t align as neatly, and significant new instruction is typically needed.

Preparing For Educational Assessments

Between these three types of educational assessments, we’re truly considering very different measures and formats that require different skills, approaches, pacing, and stamina. With time, patience, consistency, and skillful instruction, we regularly experience success with our students. This success requires content-driven instruction in combination with practicing strategies to support efficiency and effectiveness.

Study skills and organizational skills should be a part of the preparation process for all three types of educational assessments, and many students need explicit and skillful instruction to develop these skills. What does it mean to study for a particular test? How do you backmap a studying plan leading up to the scheduled assessment date(s)? Which study skills are applicable to the task at hand? Which strategies should be emphasized and applied?

Private tutoring and test preparation for all three types of educational assessments is common. Setting the intention and explicitly delivering both content-driven instruction and executive function coaching simultaneously is uncommon and a seriously missed opportunity. We specialize in this integrated approach, and it seriously differentiates our work.

Scheduling An Appointment

Whatever your testing needs or wonders may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. An initial planning meeting is usually the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps. We’re committed to developing unique solutions for unique learners!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman,
Co-Founders and Learning Concierges, My Learning Springboard

Supplemental College Counseling: How To Assess The Right Partner

November 21, 2024 Brad Hoffman

The Fast-Changing World of College Admissions

In today’s fast-changing world, Faya and I believe that a different approach to supplemental college counseling is necessary.

Our students live across the globe from NYC to LA, from London to Paris, from Dubai to Singapore, from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon. And these students are often considering colleges and universities in more than one country, which most commonly includes the United States, the UK, Canada, France, Italy, and Spain.

There was a time when incoming freshmen represented a far less diverse population (broadly defined). When legacy status carried more weight. When development carried more weight. When independent schools were known to be feeders to certain colleges or universities. When a rolodex sat on your desk and the contacts didn’t change that often. When standardized test scores were an absolute requirement with no gray zone. When AP courses were the standard at independent and public schools, and SAT subject tests were available and abundant. When students and parents weren’t expecting very much differentiation or individualization from colleges and universities regarding learning support, housing options, counseling services, and flexible timelines to complete degrees.

That is no longer the situation. All of the above has changed, and it continues to do so. Admissions policies are subject to change year over year, and it seems that nothing has stayed constant for the last four years. Today’s US college admissions process, and many European colleges (not including Bocconi in Milan), are driven by a holistic review process (of varying degrees). Geopolitics and social issues impact preferred schools from one admissions season to the next. Global citizenship means that students are looking at a diversified college list in terms of geography. And colleges and universities regularly make changes to their program offerings, courses and majors, and faculty in response to an evolving economy, new career paths and fields, and consumer expectations.

Global College Exploration

No one supplemental college counselor can be a walking encyclopedia for every college, in every location, and at any moment in time. Given how diversified students’ interests are likely to be, a strong research partner and mentor is a better expectation. Successful supplemental college counseling today requires college counselors that are more nimble, more strategic, more tenacious, more technologically-savvy, and more informed than a college counselor idling in pre-pandemic norms. It’s simply too risky and unrealistic in today’s college environment to only apply to Ivy League schools, for example.

Generally speaking, our students focused on US colleges are applying to 15 schools on average. The UCAS system in the UK only allows for 5 selections. Our students considering Spain or Italy or France, for example, are usually only seriously considering a handful of colleges or universities. Whether we’re pursuing a US-based college process only or a bifurcated or trifurcated approach that spans multiple countries, we’re usually considering 12-15 colleges or universities in total.

Supplemental College Counseling: Checks and Balances

The college application process has checks and balances. Various school-based stakeholders bring different perspectives to the table, including a school college counselor, dean, advisor, or other administrator. These faculty members hold a confidential, big picture view of the entire senior class and competing priorities. They typically have a strong stance on which colleges or universities a student should apply to, which college or university should be prioritized for a binding Early Decision pick, how many colleges or universities in total the school will support, and ultimately they have to endorse the final working list. Their intel is important and useful, but sometimes pushback and negotiation is necessary.

Among their many responsibilities, school college counselors directly facilitate on-site college visits and communications with regional representatives from colleges and universities. They write a necessary student recommendation, they gather – and potentially backchannel – with individual teachers writing recommendations, they shepherd all of the official school documentation through school-based portals, and they communicate the context of their school’s grading system and course offerings. These are critical responsibilities that bolster support for a particular student and the school’s brand and reputation.

With the above responsibilities covered at school, families and private college counselors can focus on other matters. Our approach to supplemental college counseling continues to evolve as we observe changes and intentionally differentiate the experience for each of our students in order to meet them where they are. In large part, we’re focused on the process skills related to the college application process as well as fact-checking or balancing advice that may be coming from other well-intentioned inputs, including school faculty, other parents, other family members, or friends.

Differentiating The Experience With Us

For the families that choose to work with Faya and me on supplemental college counseling, they’re not usually out in left field unsure of what a working college list might include. Creating an initial working college list is important and necessary, but it’s the sum total of all of the components described below that make our process dynamic and unique. Digging into program specifics, comparing and contrasting majors or courses of study, and exploring the resources available at a particular institution is far more interesting work. Application processes and portals have variations, but knowing a portal inside out doesn’t define a good college counselor. Portals change. Application processes change.

What defines a great college counselor – whether you’re focused on US college admissions, European college admissions, or both – is a professional partner with a sufficiently broad perspective and track record of admissions success who can effectively guide your family through all the twists and turns that will surely arise along this journey while keeping you and your student focused, motivated, and engaged. Change is constant in today’s world. Let’s lean in together and go for it!

Our success is the result of hard work, flexibility, dedication to each family, and all of the following:

Our flexible approach and diversified expertise provides families with the option of working on specific aspects of the process or working comprehensively (from grades 7-12), which may include test preparation, private tutoring, and/or independent study and mentorship as well as middle school planning, high school planning, and summer enrichment or pre-college program planning in order to authentically build a strong college application.
Our relational and motivational success with students and parents.
Our keen ability to spot trends, adapt to trends, and avoid “traps” that result from misunderstandings and misconceptions about changes and the current climate.
Our balanced approach to managing an application strategy that is sufficiently broad in order to mitigate disappointment and maximize options given each student’s individual context.
Our expertise with learning differences and scaffolding instruction and tasks to meet the needs of each student.
Our effective and tenacious research skills in order to curate a working list of colleges and universities for each student and present the information in a meaningful way, taking into account any customizations that a family may request.
Our integration of executive function coaching as related to the project management inherently involved with the college application process.
Our intentional digital coaching to help students develop necessary, lifelong skills for: 1) subtasking a larger project, 2) developing email management skills, 3) developing formatting and proofreading skills within Google Documents and Google Sheets, 4) developing organizational skills for Google Drive at large, 5) aggregating online research and virtual college visit notes, and 6) managing various types of portals and being systematic and accurate.
Our success with helping students to tailor their writing to a specific audience of college admissions officers and providing explicit instruction regarding grammar, sentence fluency, organization, and word choice.
Our track record with helping families to strategically manage any outreach or networking that may be applicable.
Our creativity with helping students and parents to troubleshoot and navigate any necessary negotiations or courageous conversations with school counselors, deans, advisors, or other faculty members that may arise during the college application process.
Our compassionate and patient approach to facilitating decision making and any related philosophical conversations in order to compare and contrast possible pathways.
Our hypersensitivity to privacy and confidentiality on behalf of each student and family.

Scheduling An Appointment

Whatever your college counseling needs or wonders may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. An initial planning meeting is usually the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps. We’re committed to developing unique solutions for unique learners!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman,
Co-Founders and Board Certified Educational Planners, My Learning Springboard

Neurodiversity: it’s all of us

November 12, 2024 Brad Hoffman

The topic of neurodiversity – which applies to all of us – has become an everyday discussion in our world. To me and Faya, it feels like there’s more awareness and acceptance than ever, and even so this topic still needs more attention.

Neurodivergence: A Possible “Superpower”

That no two people have the exact same brain function or behavioral traits is what makes each of us unique, interesting, and valuable! Out-of-the-box thinkers and highly successful people are disproportionately neurodivergent, including Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, Barbara Corcoran, Charles Schwab, Octavia Spencer, Ingvar Kamprad, Elon Musk, Greta Thunberg, and Michael Phelps – the list goes on and on. We should look at neurodivergence as a potential “superpower” that we encourage and develop, and everyone’s neurodiversity should be celebrated and embraced. Notably, self-actualization requires all students to channel their intention, enhance their metacognition and executive functions, and develop compensatory strategies in order to harness those special strengths and manage any relative weaknesses.

In the age of AI and seemingly constant technology innovations, which has also become an everyday discussion, we focus on enhanced hardware, memory chips, processing speed, and programming. When your mobile phone or laptop struggles to keep up, you simply swap out the device or you make changes to specific components when you can. Wifi mesh systems, routers, or switches can be upgraded. Cables can be swapped and upgraded. Sluggish computers can be reset with a hard shutdown and restart. Human brains don’t come with these same options, and we wouldn’t want them to! Our neurodiversity is our strength and our humanity; it’s what makes us unique, and teamwork benefits from this variation in the human experience.

Think about the adults in your workplace or family with whom you collaborate. Think about those people with exceptional creativity, focus, attention to detail, ability to identify trends, recall of details, fast processing speeds, or visual processing skills. Based on your working understandings of various diagnoses (as related to neurodivergent learners) and neurodiversity at large, can you begin to speculate as to who might have ADHD, who might be dyslexic, who might be on the autism spectrum, or who might be highly intelligent but a slower processor? What strengths do each of these people bring to the table? Are they essential members of your team? Have they developed successful compensatory strategies in order to be successful? Have you developed strategies to differentiate your approach and collaborate successfully with each of these valued people?

Generational Differences

Learning differences exist on a continuum, and we’re firm believers in advocating for students of all ages and providing targeted instruction and justified accommodations to level the playing field for each student as appropriate. The fields of neurology, neuropsychology, and psychiatry have evolved tremendously since Gen X and Baby Boomers were kids. Evidence-based pedagogical research is abundant, and our sophisticated abilities to target and differentiate instruction are light years ahead of where they were. Millennials and Gen Z have particularly reaped the benefits of better informed teaching practices, such as the “science of reading” that we regularly hear about today, which helps to explain why we see so many more comprehensive evaluations, diagnoses, IEPs, 504 Plans, private school learning plans, and approvals from standardized testing publishers in today’s environment. Gen X and Baby Boomers, for the most part, simply had to cope and stay out of trouble, which had some pluses and some minuses.

Traps With Embracing Neurodiversity

Despite our progress, there are certain pitfalls that could hold any student back, regardless of their specific learning profile or neurodiversity, and we need to avoid these traps:

Pathologizing – we can’t allow labels to dictate or define limitations or let students wallow in any “can’t-do” attitude. Self-fulfilling prophecies are dangerous and counter productive.
Lowering the bar – maintaining high standards and a growth mindset coupled with compassionate, skillful, and targeted instruction is the only way forward. “Yet” is a small but powerful word and should be part of our key messages for all students.
Avoiding hard work – confronting challenges regardless of your learning profile is the harder road to take, and it’s critical that we support our students in choosing this path. Leaning into hard work, developing compensatory strategies, and getting comfortable with the uncomfortable is the only way to shore up lifelong success. Building confidence is best done by building skills through a scaffolded approach, racking up accomplishments, and overcoming adversity. We need to respect differences in pace and an individual student’s ability to produce, thus success should be defined situationally and on an individual student basis. “Appropriately challenging” each student requires careful consideration and ongoing partnership between all adult stakeholders.
Leaving it entirely up to schools – all schools have limited resources within the context of what they’re equipped to do and staffed to provide. Despite the best intentions or tuition cost, there is a breaking point to the level of customization and individualization that classroom teachers, learning specialists, or administrators can manage on their own, which holds true whether we’re talking about mainstream, specialized, or therapeutic school environments. We see that many independent schools, for example, are often quicker to suggest getting an evaluation than they are able to put all of those instructional recommendations and/or accommodations fully into place; an idealistic level of differentiated instruction requires parent partnership, creativity, and open-mindedness in addition to a considerable investment of time, energy, and resources.
Analysis paralysis – perfect should not be the enemy of good. Parents know their children best. When a parent senses something isn’t right, they should follow their gut instinct. See something, say something, and DO something. Don’t wait for the school to come to your rescue. Don’t wait months to dig into remedial work while you organize a neuropsychological evaluation. Put a starting plan into action and then refine it as more data becomes available.

Rising To The Challenge

As we think about raising productive, successful, and happy human beings in today’s global economy, developing grit and character remains as important as ever. So is cultivating divergent, critical thinking. Embracing neurodiversity means embracing all of us. Each person is special. Each person brings a unique perspective to the table. Each person deserves to pursue life, liberty, and happiness as defined on their own terms. Each person deserves to have their strengths celebrated. Our differences really do make the world go round.

To be in a position to make informed and strategic decisions as students age up, we need to work together and hold our young people accountable in reasonable and supportive ways. Over-protecting, swooping in too quickly, or pathologizing their challenges cuts them down rather than building them up. Blaming schools isn’t constructive. Instead, we need partnerships. Independence, critical thinking, compassion, creativity, and grit must be cultivated over time in close partnership with all stakeholders involved in helping your student to succeed. Some “tough love” is appropriate so long as it’s informed, balanced, intentional, constructive, and delivered by trusted adults.

At My Learning Springboard, Faya and I continuously experience the joy associated with our students rising to the challenge, taking the harder road, overcoming challenges, and developing the necessary coping skills and compensatory strategies to self actualize. Growing with families over time informs this perspective, and it’s the most rewarding aspect of our work. We’re inspired everyday by exceptional students, parents, grandparents, educators, and colleagues across many related fields. Our collective neurodiversity and skillfulness coupled with a growth mindset, readiness to take action, collaborative spirit, transparent communication, and tenacity are key ingredients to our success.

Scheduling An Appointment

Whatever your need or wonder may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. An initial planning meeting is usually the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps. We’re committed to developing unique solutions for unique learners!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman,
Co-Founders and Learning Concierges, My Learning Springboard

Abigail Jenson

When To Begin College Planning Efforts

7th Grade

8th Grade

9th Grade

10th Grade

11th Grade

12th Grade

Educational Assessments: Three Big Bucket Categories

Teacher-made Assessments

Grade-level Standardized Achievement Tests

Standardized Admissions Tests

Preparing For Educational Assessments

Scheduling An Appointment

Supplemental College Counseling: How To Assess The Right Partner

The Fast-Changing World of College Admissions

Global College Exploration

Supplemental College Counseling: Checks and Balances

Differentiating The Experience With Us

Scheduling An Appointment

Neurodiversity: it’s all of us

Neurodivergence: A Possible “Superpower”

Generational Differences

Traps With Embracing Neurodiversity

Rising To The Challenge

Scheduling An Appointment

Company Overview

School Planning

Private Tutoring

Test Preparation