COEUR d'ALENE - Rookie of the Year.

Michael Hoag likes the sound of that.

Not bad for an engineer from Montana.

The owner of Sylvan Learning centers in Coeur d'Alene and Missoula, Mont., since August 2011, received the honor in November based on several factors including customer satisfaction, academic growth of students, and commitment to growing and improving services.

He noted that Sylvan operates more than 800 locations throughout the U.S. and other countries - and North Idaho won the award.

"Awesome," he said. "It's nice to be recognized. My first year in business I learned a heckuva lot. It's nice to feel like it was for something."

Two major initiatives that Sylvan in Coeur d'Alene and Missoula started in the last year under Hoag's leadership included investing in digital technology and teaching its core math and reading programs on an iPad. Sylvan's entire curriculum was transferred to an iPad and teachers interact directly with students for instruction on the iPad.

Sylvan is the only company in the world using iPad technology in an interactive teacher-student format, Hoag said.

"Many schools use student-led applications and play games on iPads, but this is not on the same level as what we are doing with the technology," he wrote.

Sylvan works with students in grades K-12, and college. Its core programs are math, reading, writing, but it also has programs in study skills, ACT/SAT test prep, and advanced college readiness courses.

The Coeur d'Alene office has a full-time director and 5-10 hourly teachers, depending on enrollment, which fluctuates throughout the year. Hoag is working on opening more satellites throughout North Idaho.

"I don't teach myself. I just need to be able to hire and maintain the best people, and give them guidance on what we're trying to do," he said.

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How does Sylvan work? How is it different?

It's been around 30 years or so. It's based on a model, skill mastery instruction, which you're not able to do in a typical classroom. We test the students, math, reading, we find out what is their skill level. Regardless of the grade level, what is their skill level, what skill gaps do they have? We take those results, the curriculum would be based on whatever the goals of the student and the parent are to get to grade level, to be successful in the classroom, to feel confident.

What's the classroom atmosphere?

We have a 3 to 1 teacher to student ratio, so it's very personal, direct instruction, but at the same time, it's not one to one, which is intentional. The students need to show us they can work on their own. The skill mastery is what's important here. We don't move them on until they've proven to us they understand that concept.

For instance, it's so common for us to have parents come in with high school students and say they're struggling with algebra and geometry, they just don't get this. We test them and find out. They're not quite grasping fractions taught in fifth, sixth grade. We'll go back and close that gap. Then, the student goes, 'This makes sense. I can follow what the teacher's doing.' It puts it all together. That's what we do.

How did you get involved with Sylvan Learning Centers?

I grew up in Missoula, Mont. I went to school at Montana Tech and was hired to work for an engineering company in Southern California, worked there for about 10 years and gradually had more and more responsibilities, got my MBA. Really what I was doing for my company, I was a project manager. At the time I left, I was managing an $18 million project with anywhere from 20-50 employees. But it wasn't satisfying for me in a way, I just didn't feel like the work I was doing, I had a passion for.

So I was looking for something, to get back closer to home. I found that both this center and the one in Missoula were for sale. My wife is a teacher. I have a couple young kids myself, so it was really about getting back to something that was good for our family.

How did your background help with your new career in education?

You know what really helped? I had a lot of exposure working with a lot of different people. That's why I was successful before. All it is, is trying to figure out how to solve problems, how to get people to work together, how to understand people. This is a relationship business. What I've tried to bring to this, it's a customer first model. If we're not successful, the customer doesn't feel 100 percent satisfied. So that's what I brought to it. I've seen and experienced what happens when you don't put other people first.

People are trusting us with their kids. They're trusting us with their money, they're letting us provide these services for them. So we have to prove to them we can do that. We want people to leave here feeling like it was the best money they spent.

Since you took over Sylvan in Coeur d'Alene, what's it been like?

I think in this area, North Idaho, it's a complex area because it's really spread out. We're trying to figure out how we can make it the most convenient for the most people. We've looking at opening up a couple satellites in the spring.

Can you talk about using iPads in the classroom?

Anybody can download hundreds of thousands of education applications on an iPad, but none of them are meant to be teacher led. So we had Sylvan develop this curriculum that's teacher led. It's real plain data. Every night, whatever the student's worked on, the progress that they made, it's put on our server and we send it to the parents. Every day they can check their progress.

I can teach a kid here one day, the next day I can teach them anywhere. All I have to do is bring an iPad and connect to the Internet. All the materials are there. It's opening up a lot of opportunities for us.

What makes Sylvan Learning Centers effective?

Because it's personal. There are a lot of tutoring options out there where a student brings in a book and you work on what that student is working on today. But that doesn't get down to what the problem is. Why is this child struggling? We work really hard to figure that out. What specifically. Just because they're struggling in geometry doesn't mean they don't understand geometry. There's something somewhere else. Why is that?

It might be one very simple little thing. We will work with parents and students to figure that out.

A tutor can't do that?

A typical tutor can't always do that. They'll read more, they'll work on whatever today's lesson is. So we go back and go into the history of this child. It's a personal experience, we want the parents to come in and talk to us as much as they can and give us updates. We will get ahold of teachers. We'll go to the school and ask teachers what they're seeing with a student. Here's what we're working on, what are you working on? How can we do this together?

Did you get straight A's in school?

No. I got good grades but not straight A's. That's part of this too. I see what education can do for kids. I know myself, I grew up in Montana, I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do. I got decent grades, I worked hard, I worked myself through college. I got an opportunity to work for this big company in California and from there I literally traveled the world. I was president of a grade association. I got to go to Mexico, Puerto Rico, China, all because I had this educational base. It just opened up everything.

If there's one thing you could say about Sylvan Learning, what would it be?

That we can help every child, whether your child is struggling or they're at grade level and doing fine. We can always help you do better. We can help get your child ahead, we can help get them caught up.

There's a lot of ways people can learn. I really believe we are the only company that will work to make it that personal for people.

This is a personal experience. If your student comes here and works with Sylvan, we will help them feel more confident. It's going to be a good experience, we are going to do everything we can to make this a good experience for you, to make it worthwhile.