In the News
The Kelter Center’s New Cutting-Edge Math Program
Seeking a new, results-oriented program to help students with learning differences grasp essential math concepts, The Kelter Center has partnered with the Center for Mathematics and Teaching and its former UCLA mathematicians and educators to introduce MathLinks, an innovative yet straightforward program to help struggling students with learning differences grasp essential math concepts.
About 20-30 percent of students in Los Angeles struggle with some type of learning difference. Typical health problems resulting from learning differences include: extreme anxiety over school assignments, eating disorders, falling behind grade level, headaches and stomaches and low self-esteem. The drop-out rate for kids with learning differences is much higher than for other students.
Since 1977, The Kelter Center in West Los Angeles has been teaching kids how to learn. The Kelter Center specializes in helping students who are struggling to keep up in the classroom. Many of The Kelter Center’s students have average to above average intelligence, but have learning differences, which cause them to struggle to acquire basic skills. Other students have attention challenges that cause them to miss some basic instruction. Still other students are in academically challenging environments but have not developed the necessary basic learning skills to meet classroom expectations.
Sasha Borenstein, founder and Chief Educational Officer of The Kelter Center is thrilled to announce the Center’s new math partnership with the Center for Mathematics and Teaching. “Their MathLinks program is the most innovative and effective math literacy program I’ve ever seen. We have already started our students working with it and the results are extremely promising.”
The MathLinks program is most effective for middle school students who have struggled to learn California’s 6th grade, 7th grade, or algebra standards. It is especially appropriate for students identified as “far below basic” or “below basic” on the California Standards test, for struggling English language learners, and for others with special needs.
Shelley Kriegler, President of The Center for Mathematics and Teaching, states, “We are thrilled to partner with The Kelter Center because we share the Kelter Center’s goals—backed up by our own extensive experience—that teaching math to students with learning differences requires a highly skilled, trained teacher who can deliver the cognitively demanding curriculum using appropriate strategies.”
“Our goal has is to reduce anxiety among our students and help them learn to learn. We have 30 years of experience helping struggling students boost their self esteem when they grasp the material they are working on. Watching their faces when they hit the “ah-ha” moment is priceless,” said Borenstein.
The State of California has recently adopted Common Core State Standards for mathematics, and The Kelter Center is one of a very few learning centers that has launched a program for students with learning differences that incorporates these in math.
At The Kelter Center, unlike many other math centers, teachers do not distribute worksheets and supervise homework. Instead, they get to the core of how the brain learns math concepts and teach each student individually through innovative activities that include visual learning tools, interactive software, game-playing, and exercises that engage all the senses.