Our Story
Mike Maggart was a high school math teacher at one of the top private schools in the U.S. Like many math teachers, he worked in the evenings as a private tutor. As he traveled from house to house, Mr. Maggart was frustrated by the inefficiency and exclusiveness of private tutoring — he could only reach a few students a night, and only the wealthiest students could afford it.
Realizing that private math tutoring was inaccessible to 99% of the students who needed it, Mr. Maggart began to think about ways to address this problem. At the time, interactive multimedia was just beginning to appear on personal computer screens, and when Mr. Maggart saw a demo of the technology, he knew he had found his solution. Here was a way to replicate the entire private tutoring experience – not just the instruction, but the practice, the feedback, the actual feeling of a teacher by your side – so that all students could have access to the math help they need.
Enlisting the expertise of a multimedia developer, Michael Shappell, Mr. Maggart initially created a series of Algebra 1 lessons which he piloted with his own students. The first day the program was available, he left 15 CD’s in the library for the students to check out, and they were gone within minutes. The next day he left 30, the next 50, and so on. Encouraged by the response from his students, he began development on a complete Algebra 1 course. Soon thereafter, Mr. Maggart and a business partner, Charlie Hermes, founded the company that is now MathHelp.com.
Over the years, MathHelp.com has continuously developed new lessons, adapted its lessons to the latest delivery platforms, and expanded its offerings. The company now offers comprehensive tutoring covering 5th grade math to Algebra 2, math test prep courses ranging from the SAT to the ACCUPLACER placement test to the ASVAB military test, as well as complete homeschooling math courses.
We hope that you’ll give MathHelp.com a try. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish when you receive the kind of private math tutoring that was once only available to the most privileged students in the world.