Niceville Tutoring has more than doubled its staff and significantly expanded its services since launching less than two years ago, growing from about 20 tutors to around 50 educators while serving over 200 active clients across the Emerald Coast.

• Owner Rebecca Beard, a licensed Special Education K-12 teacher specializing in Math and Science, has transformed her one-woman operation into a thriving educational support service.

The locally-owned company has added comprehensive college planning services and expanded its test preparation programs to meet growing demand from families in Niceville, Fort Walton Beach, Crestview, Santa Rosa Beach, DeFuniak Springs and Freeport.

“We have grown significantly,” Beard said, referring to the company’s growth since its initial launch. “I have a pretty large team of contractors that work with me now, and we cover kindergarten through college.”

The company is certified as a Step Up provider through the governor’s school choice initiative that provides funding for tutoring services. This certification has become increasingly relevant as the homeschooling community grows, particularly among military families seeking educational continuity. 

• “It’s growing pretty fast,” Beard noted. “Especially with the military community, it’s becoming more popular with them to homeschool because it keeps the continuity for the kids.”

New college planning services launched

The company recently onboarded two college planning specialists to guide families through the complex college admissions process. Kimberly Camosse brings 12 years of experience including college admissions, while Alicia Franklin has over 20 years of college planning and preparation experience from Collegiate High School.

• “Both of these ladies bring extensive experience, and we have three packages that we’re working with now with college planning, and these will cover anything from college admission to planning, to essay writing to help finding scholarships,” said Stephanie Fletcher, customer service manager at Niceville Tutoring.

The college planning services range from single consultation meetings to comprehensive two-year programs beginning in junior year of high school. The full program includes building personalized college admission roadmaps, SAT and ACT guidance, application assistance, and financial aid and scholarship advice.

“Our team will help guide them through the college application process. They even have a ton of knowledge about the common app, which is how most students work through college admissions now,” Fletcher said.

Click here to learn more about College Planning services

Test prep program expands dramatically

The company’s test preparation services have grown from owner Rebecca Beard working alone to a team of around 10 tutors, including two who work completely online. The program covers ACT, SAT, CLT and PERT tests.

• “It’s such a huge part, especially here in Florida, with the Bright Future Scholarship of having certain scores for your ACT and for your SAT in order to reach those milestones for the 75% or the 100% bright futures,” Fletcher said.

The test prep tutors received professional development through ACT Instructional Mastery courses, typically offered only to schools. The company also joined the National Test Prep Association, providing access to a network of professionals and updated testing information.

Click here to learn more about Test Prep services

Specialized services expand

Niceville Tutoring’s Orton-Gillingham reading intervention program has expanded from one group to seven groups running throughout the week. Teresa Gee, the lead instructor with 15 years of experience helping students with dyslexia, is a board certified behavioral analyst and certified Orton-Gillingham instructor.

“We originally started with around one Orton-Gillingham group. We now have seven groups that run throughout the week,” Fletcher said. The company added a specialized morphology group for middle and high school students recently diagnosed with dyslexia.

Click here to learn more about Orton-Gillingham services

Flexible approach maintained

Despite significant growth, Niceville Tutoring maintains its no-contract policy to serve military and international families who may relocate frequently.

• “We still do not do contracts because we want our families to be happy with our services,” Fletcher said. “We service military families and we don’t want them locked into a contract and for that to be something else that they have to worry about, specifically our military families when they’re PCSing.”

The company’s approach focuses on identifying and addressing individual student needs. “We spend a lot of time figuring out what is going on with the student,” Beard explained. “Why aren’t they scoring well? Why are their grades slipping? We try to find what the deficits are because normally we want to approach those deficits first before we make strides.”

This personalized approach allows tutors to identify and address fundamental skills that may have been missed in a traditional classroom setting. 

“I have some kids that were struggling in math, even in elementary school. We found that one of the key deficits was that they did not know their times tables,” Beard said. “So we always spend time going back, making sure that they understand their times tables, and then go ahead and build on the harder concepts that they are learning.”

• The company’s tutoring team includes retired teachers, current educators seeking part-time work, and specialists in various subjects. “That’s the beauty of having a bigger team,” Beard said. “We have so many kids with unique needs that we’re able to match them with the best fit because all of us have our comfort levels and our strengths and weaknesses.”

“We take a very hands-on approach when matching students, because it’s personal for us, because we want our students to be successful,” Fletcher said. “We want our tutors to be successful.”

Meeting community needs

Fletcher said the company’s rapid growth reflects the increasing demand for personalized educational support in the community.

• “The biggest thing that we’re hearing from our families is that we’re meeting a specific need that was not there,” she said. “Our team has grown tremendously in the last year because we want to be able to meet that need.”

The company now offers services in foreign languages with an ASL tutor on staff, along with ESOL-certified teachers for English as a second language and ESE teachers for special education support.

Click here to learn more about the ESE Advocacy Program

Families can contact Niceville Tutoring through live chat on their website, phone, text, email at info@nicevilletutoring.com, or by completing service-specific contact forms for general tutoring, test prep, Orton-Gillingham, or college planning services.