The first Montgomery County location of a national math tutoring company opened on Fairmont Avenue last week.
Bethesda resident Barry Fausnaugh is running Mathnasium, The Math Learning Center’s newest location, which he opened at 4918 Fairmont Ave. last Sunday.
The math-only tutoring center focuses on students from second-grade to high school and typically includes a separate lesson plan from school work, though Fausnaugh said tutors will dedicate some time to homework help.
“It’s kind of been my general experience that kids struggle a little bit with math once they start getting into a little bit higher levels,” Fausnaugh said. “Math is one of those things where all your knowledge builds upon itself, so you want to fill in those knowledge gaps.”
Fausnaugh became interested in the company earlier this year and traveled to Mathansium’s headquarters in Los Angeles for a tour. The company has more than 300 franchise locations throughout the country.
Bethesda, he said, works well as a location for a math-only tutoring company. Students pay a monthly fee and the recommendation is they come 10 times a month, twice a week and then two additional times to iron out any skills they may still struggle with.
The student-to-tutor ratio rarely exceeds 3-to-1, Fausnaugh said.
“There’s a lot of variety of people here, families and kids,” Fausnaugh said. “The approach here is to really meet kids where they’are at but also to build up their confidence.”
