Baton Rouge-based MasteryPrep, which launched its ACT test prep program in local schools six years ago and now sells the curriculum to 1,000 schools in 16 states, is getting ready to roll out a comparable SAT program that could double the number of states the company serves in the next year.
Mastery Prep is currently raising $1.5 million in debt and equity financing to complete the development of the program. Both the fundraising and new test prep material are expected to be completed by late fall, with the program available for sale to schools and districts in January.
Development of the SAT test prep comes in response to market demand. For much of the early 2000s, the ACT far outstripped the SAT as the preferred college entrance exam. In fact, 16 states, including Louisiana, have policies in place that cover the cost of administering the ACT to students and preparing them for the test.
In 2014, in response to its dwindling market share, the College Board substantially revised the SAT. In the years since, 14 states have now adopted similar policies around the SAT, and MasteryPrep executives say there’s a need in those states to help students prepare.
“We should be in the schools by January, which will still give them time to prepare kids for testing in the spring,” says Mastery Prep founder and CEO Craig Gehring, who has built his company around the perfect scores he earned on the ACT and SAT as a Baton Rouge High student in the early 2000s. “Then, we’ll really be ready to go by fall. We’ve had a lot of interest.”
MasteryPrep, which has revenues of around $8 million, is on track this year to serve 175,000 students—up from 131,000 in 2018 and just 6,000 in its inaugural year of 2014. With the addition of the SAT prep material, Gehring expects the number of students to triple.
“We expect to see the most growth in Texas, which just adopted the major policy for the SAT,” he says. “So we will be spending a lot of time with our friends in Texas.”
