Education Veteran Turns to Virtual Environment

A lifetime in education and a mission to empower both students and staff are what drive Margaret Mary Wilson, Ed.D. Like any good student, Dr. Wilson is still pursuing new learning experiences after more than 30 years in education. Her most recent challenge as the new executive director of Tutapoint.com brings her into the emerging frontier of online academia.

Tutapoint.com, based in Connecticut and Manhattan, offers live, one-on-one, Internet-based math and science tutoring to students in grades 9 through 12. Tutors are available on-demand or by appointment.

“We are extremely pleased to have attracted someone with such a passion and depth of experience,” said Tutapoint.com co-founder Ryan Duques. “Dr. Wilson’s experience will help lead Tutapoint’s mission to answer the increasing need for supplemental education throughout the United States.”

Dr. Wilson, a resident of Tennessee, has been a long-time proponent of the benefits of academic enrichment programs throughout her distinguished career, which has included professorships at Tennessee universities and colleges and consultant posts with several school districts and state departments of education.

As the founder of EdSolutions, Wilson designed and implemented an after-school enrichment model in response to the shortage of quality academic after-school programs in the Nashville, Tenn., public schools. EdSolutions later became a leading provider in the supplement education services industry. Before the firm merged with Knowledge Learning Corporation in 2005, EdSolutions served more than 25,000 children in more than 300 schools with $20 million in revenues.

“Students in the U.S., as compared to other countries, spend half as much time in core subjects annually. If our students are going to be competitive in the global market then we need to provide more academic enrichment activity opportunities,” Wilson said.

And to be competitive in the global market, students need strong backgrounds in math and science—the areas in which Tutapoint.com specializes.

“Tutapoint is filling a gap left vacant for secondary education in the areas of math and science,” Wilson added. “The No Child Left Behind Act raised the bar for skills mastery in reading and language arts, math, and science, but our students today are struggling to achieve adequate progress. In the last eight years the focus has been in providing after school services to elementary school children, but now the pendulum is shifting to high school students.”

Beyond subject matter, in Wilson’s view, online tutoring offers busy high-school students one other important advantage.

“Online tutoring allows flexibility for the student,” Wilson explained. “They can receive assistance 24/7, where in traditional tutoring the student would need to adhere to a specific schedule. If a student was having difficulty understanding a new concept that had been introduced today in school, he could go online and get immediate clarification. In the traditional tutoring framework, that student might have to wait days before he would see his tutor, which could result in a missed opportunity for clarification, then the student could fall further behind in his subject area.”

Dr. Wilson’s first task at Tutapoint.com will be to develop a strategic plan with Duques and co-founder Michael Callaghan.

“I have committed the next five years to making Tutapoint one of the largest national providers of online tutoring services with national brand recognition,” said Wilson. “Who knows? Perhaps we will add additional offerings in professional development, executive leadership, and management!”

To learn more about Tutapoint.com, visit www.tutapoint.com.