Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School carries the name of one of Stanford’s founders, and our tutors are Stanford students, so tutoring JLS students has always felt like a natural fit. We work one-on-one, at your home in Palo Alto or online.
Tell us about your student, and we’ll match them with a Stanford tutor who fits.
Meet our tutors
Two ways through JLS: the main program and Connections
JLS runs a choice program called Connections alongside its main program, with its own teachers in 6th, 7th and 8th grade and an emphasis on inquiry, projects and presentations. Families apply through the district’s choice lottery. Project work rewards planning more than last-minute effort, so with Connections students we often break a long project into dated steps and rehearse the presentation. In the main program, JLS 6th graders spend five of their seven periods in core subjects and a Flex period, and our tutors help keep that core strong.
Writing that builds to MLA essays in 8th grade
JLS English moves from structured paragraphs in 6th grade to full essays in 8th, with claims, textual evidence, commentary and MLA citation, and the English department’s page links a JLS Writing Handbook. Our English and writing tutors can work from that handbook, helping a student find evidence, explain it and revise a draft at the kitchen table until the process is one they can run alone.
Our middle school tutors, in parents’ own words
All reviewsFind a coding tutor“I have been absolutely impressed by her lessons over the past few months. Lily also loves working with her. She has been making great progress with her programming and writing.”
“I find your tutor quality to be excellent and a perfect fit!”
Find a math tutor“Our tutor is truly amazing! He is so patient, explains things well, asks great questions, and checks for understanding. Owen really enjoyed working with him and they accomplished so much. This is really a game changer for us! I had high hopes and he exceeded them.”
Find a math tutor“Second, our tutor connected with my 8th grade son immediately. What we needed was a mentor and homework coach, to engage my son and keep him focused to ensure concepts were cemented in cranking out homework.”
Find a Tutor“Fantastic tutoring service. The tutor (who was a Stanford junior) really connected with my son and inspired him to learn. He had some great study tips and was able to help my son raise his grades by quite a bit.”
Find a math tutor“She found a perfect match for my son… He is stellar. My son has grown leaps and bounds in math. Our tutor is not only a subject matter expert but teaches very well, highly prompt, flexible when needed.”
Find a math tutor“My daughter went from a C in Algebra II to an A- in one semester. The tutor was great, she really related to my daughter and made learning fun for her.”
Find a Tutor“Very professional service with excellent teachers. My son loved his teacher, called him the best he ever had! I can very highly recommend it.”
Find a Tutor“I am usually not one to write a review, but I wanted to communicate how great Cardinal Tutors was for my child. They had a very flexible plan which helped accommodate my child's needs and I saw a tremendous return (grade-wise) from their services. Could not recommend more highly.”
Find a math tutor“The tutors themselves have been great: well-prepared, thoughtful and on-time. At each level of math needed, we found these Stanford students to be not just helpful tutors but great mentors as well.”
Find a math tutor“The subsequent long term tutor that we had for pre calc and for ACT tutoring was amazing. She was completely professional, organized, thorough and easy to work with.”
Find a math tutor“You have been a wonderful inspiration for Eli and we are very grateful for having you in the past half-year!”
Find a coding tutor“The program has been awesome for us. Theo loves working with our tutor and has learned so much.”
“Our tutor is just outstanding — great with Theo and very communicative with me. Super helpful!”
Find a Tutor“I reached out to Cardinal Tutors and was lucky enough to find the most amazing tutor. I wish I had found him earlier.”
Find a math tutor“We used Cardinal Tutoring again in the Spring 2018 for precalculus. Once again, she had a great tutor she really liked and who really helped her this year. My daughter is a senior so we won't need Cardinal Tutoring again, but I highly recommend them!”
Find a Tutor“We have had an excellent experience with Cardinal Tutors for the past two years. Neil was very responsive whenever we had any questions. We definitely strongly recommend them and plan on using them again in the near future.”
Find a math tutor“It was great to find a couple of really smart young women who helped not only with the subject matter, but became great role models.”
Find a Tutor“You connected Leo with a great tutor and made the process seamless.”
Find a math tutor“We used Cardinal Tutors and were happy with the level of professionalism and responsiveness we received. The math tutor selected for our son was a good match for him.”
Find a math tutor“Perfect fit to jumpstart my son's new habits and attitudes towards math.”
Find a math tutor“Nora enjoys her sessions with her tutor and it's already helping her confidence with math.”
Four languages, three years of math and two high schools
JLS teaches French, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish, and its two-year 1A and 1B sequence equals the first year of high school language. In math, JLS students take Foundational Math, Concepts in Math and Algebra 1, the three-year Palo Alto Unified sequence that leads into high school Geometry. JLS also offers a Math Workshop class for 7th and 8th graders who need extra help, and a math tutor can give that same support with one student instead of fifteen. JLS 8th graders go on to Gunn or Paly, and we help them arrive with algebra and essay writing in good shape.
Get in touch and tell us a little about your JLS student. We’ll match them with a tutor for this year at JLS and the step after it.
Tell us about your student, and we’ll match them with a Stanford tutor who fits.












