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Score expands learning centers chain

By Jacquelyn Bivins

Jacquelyn Bivins is president of Kaleidoscope Communications, a West Caldwell, N.J.-based marketing and communications consultancy.

Score, a tenant combining education and sports for children, is out to win big in the service/retail arena with a rapid expansion.

The company helps children aged 6 through 13 master the critical skills of reading, spelling and mathematics by making learning fun. It also provides children an educational alternative to the karate and game entertainment venues that have sprung up in many strip centers around the country.

The educational curriculum is computer-based, and the centers play off a sports-oriented environment, with academic "coaches" working closely with each student. The students enroll for two one-hour sessions each week, at a cost to their parents of $94 per month plus a one-time registration fee. Classes are scheduled for after-school periods and weekends.

The centers range from 1,500 square feet to 1,700 square feet, and are located in heavily trafficked neighborhood strips and in "secondary" downtowns. This makes them convenient for parents wishing to accomplish other errands while dropping off their children, said Neil Soskin, director of real estate.

Demographic criteria for these sites include a minimum of 5,000 children in the appropriate age range living within a 10 minute drive of the center, coming from households with an average $75,000 income.

At the learning sessions, the student works independently, utilizing a customized curriculum that enables each to work at his or her own pace. Accomplishments in mastering a particular lesson are acknowledged by having the student shoot a basket or two.

"The whole idea of Score is to provide kids with access to a highly individualized, adaptive curriculum that they can use at their own pace, and then to wrap the learning experience into a whole sports-oriented environment that will keep them motivated and excited," explained David Rosenburg, director of marketing. "Our ultimate goal is to help kids develop a love of learning."

While some parents bring their children to Score for remedial help, most want to enrich their academic experience, he said. "They are coming in because they want their children to be challenged, and they want to reinforce what's going on in the classroom."

Children are growing up in an ever more competitive environment, another executive observed.

"Parents are demanding high-quality educational enrichment that gives their kids an advantage in school and in life," said Rob Waldron, president of Score.

The first Score was opened in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1992 by Alan Tripp, the concept's founder and Score's general manager. Mr. Tripp initially developed the software used at Score for home use, but concluded it would be too expensive to be a commercial success. Instead, he made it accessible to students by opening public facilities.

The company was sold in 1996 to Kaplan Educational Centers, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Co.

Among its dozens of locations across the country, Score has 12 centers in the Greater San Francisco Bay area. In Los Angeles and Orange Counties there are 12 Score centers, with 21 expected to be open by the beginning of 1999. The company also is entering San Diego and Chicago, according to Mr. Soskin.

On the East Coast, Boston, which already has four centers, will get one more, while the Greater New York area will see five centers in Long Island, two in Connecticut, at least one in Westchester County, one or two in Queens, a unit in Manhattan, and about six in New Jersey by year's end, Mr. Soskin said. In the Washington, D.C./Fairfax County, Va./Montgomery County, Md., market, Score is planning to have six centers at the end of the year.

Mr. Soskin explained that when the decision is made to move or expand into a market, Score generally uses a primary broker to identify sites. "We are looking for primary real estate, usually in a grocery-anchored center or in a secondary downtown," he said.

Score also plans an advertising campaign in the markets where it plans to grow, Mr. Soskin said. This will include running television ads either by the third quarter of this year or in the first quarter of 1999.

As part of the brand-building efforts, the company also is developing with Simon & Schuster a series of books focusing on learning experiences at different ages and grade levels. At the centers themselves, meanwhile, a new program called "Personal Training" is being tested, focusing on problem-solving skills. Such changes are necessary to keep kids coming back, executives said.

Currently, students stay for about a year, and there is "a phenomenally high referral rate," he said. "Because we help build confidence, teach kids to set goals and to achieve them, we have the same impact on them mentally as do activities like karate, ballet, soccer, all of which we see as our prime competition. We want to help every child achieve the most that they can."