East Coast Director
Neil
College admissions and executive functioning. He starts with why a goal matters to the student, then builds the habits and systems to reach it.
Middlebury, Columbia · 13 years with Oxford Tutors
About · The Oxford Tutors Method
Using the Socratic Method, we help every student recognize that everything they need to succeed is already within them.
The Socratic Method is question-based learning that activates critical thinking and creative problem solving rather than rewarding rote memorization. Ask most tutoring companies how they teach, and they hand you a program that was written before your child arrived. Ask here, and the first move is a question: who is this child? Everything follows from the answer. It is the oldest idea in teaching: one student and one tutor, thinking aloud together, for years.
What never changes
Five things we do, every time.
- 01
Start with the student
Before the first lesson, we work out how this particular mind moves. We meet it where it stands, not where a grade level says it ought to stand.
- 02
One tutor, matched by hand
A single senior tutor, chosen for the subject and for the temperament. Most families keep the same one for four to six years. That continuity is the point.
- 03
Ask, do not tell
This is the Socratic Method: question-based learning that activates critical thinking rather than rewarding rote memorization.
- 04
Teach the whole student
Focus, follow-through, the nerve to try: the things beneath the schoolwork belong inside the schoolwork, never bolted on beside it.
- 05
Watch the growth, not the grade
We track whether a student is becoming a genuine thinker. The scores rise as well. They are simply not the thing we aim at.
Why it fits learning differences
Teaching that bends to the child, rather than asking the child to bend.
A classroom teaches thirty children one way and hopes each one fits. We teach one. Nothing has to be standard, and nothing has to be forced. For a child who learns differently, that is not a bonus. It is the whole reason the method works. The method fits learning differences precisely because it was never built for the average learner.
- Personal by design
- No standard mold to fit
- Built for how they think
Who directs it
Elisabeth Gray
Founder & Director
Raised by a behavioral developmental pediatrician, Elisabeth grew up immersed in the wide range of learning types and abilities she encountered through her mother’s practice. At Oxford University, she discovered the one-on-one tutorial system, where the Socratic Method replaced rote memorization and activated her to think for herself. In 2005, she founded Oxford Tutors to bring that approach to students in the United States, from high-achievers seeking deeper challenge to complex learners navigating systems that weren’t built for them.
For more than two decades, Elisabeth has created bespoke education solutions across the globe, from California public schools to the Upper East Side, from elite prep schools to rural wilderness programs. Today, she serves as the firm’s intellectual architect: refining pedagogical frameworks, cultivating clinical and school partnerships, and mentoring the next generation of Oxford Tutors educators.
- Oxford University BA (Hons), English Literature & Language
- Yale University M.Div. Theology & Literature
Our Tutors
The people behind every partnership.
A small, senior bench. Most have taught for a decade or more, and hold degrees from the places our families are aiming toward. We match on subject and on temperament, and we name the tutor we have in mind on the first call.
Director of Academics & Senior Tutor
Jay Ben
Executive function, admissions, and the humanities. He teaches by asking questions and helps students build systems they can run on their own. He wrote The Common Sense Guide to the SAT.
Dartmouth · 10 years with Oxford Tutors
West Coast Director
Chase
Test prep and executive-function coaching, from the SAT and ACT to the graduate exams. He gets to know a student before building a plan, and he's honest about what's realistic.
Whitman, Fordham Law · 13 years with Oxford Tutors
More of the team
Senior Tutor
Ben
Test Prep, Academic Tutoring, Admissions Strategy, Financial Literacy, Post-College Transition Support, Learning Differences Support, Anxiety Management
Haverford, UCLA Law · 7 years with Oxford Tutors
Senior Tutor
Ellie
Learning Differences Support, Executive Functioning, UK Admissions
Oxford University · 5 years with Oxford Tutors
Senior Tutor
Spencer
College & Graduate Admissions Strategist, Writing Specialist, Great Books (High School & College)
Yale University, Notre Dame (PhD) · 7 years with Oxford Tutors
Senior Tutor
Nic
Writing Specialist, Great Books (Middle School Division)
Yale University · 8 years with Oxford Tutors