Interestingly enough, her past troubles are the reason Moore has been running her own home-schooling and tutoring company in Los Gatos for the past 25 years.

"I understand where a lot of these kids are coming from ... with sports or music being the one aspect of school they excel in and have recognition for," Moore says. "I know that is what keeps them there, because that's how I was."

In a comfortable apartment decorated in memorabilia and lively colors, Moore has developed a streamlined system for aligning failing students with academic and emotional success.

Several bedrooms have been converted into classrooms, with long tables pushed against the walls, accompanied by chairs, a set of computers, a copy machine and a full bathroom. The number of enrolled students varies between five and 10 for her home-schooling program, with several more receiving tutoring in various subjects. She has students from Los Gatos to Morgan Hill, ranging from fourth grade to high school.

Moore initially began tutoring when she was a swim coach for Los Gatos High School. Her swimmers needed help to keep their grades, and thus their eligibility, intact. Moore began with a handful of students, which quickly expanded to more than 40 students.

It was then that she decided to start a tutoring company. "I told Ted Simonson [the former principal of Los Gatos High School] and he just looked at me and said, 'You're going to start tutoring?' because he knew me as a former student. Well, that made me want to do it even more," she says.

Moore had fortunately already received her teaching credential, as well as a special education teaching certificate, from San José State University after finishing her undergraduate degree there. Her father believed it would be a good fallback option. "I wanted to be a swim coach, an interior designer and a stewardess," Moore says. "Teaching was never one of my choices."

Once her tutoring was under way, Moore began to explore other issues impeding academic success. She soon expanded her company to help students in danger of expulsion or suspension because she saw the multilayered issues that had brought them to that point. It wasn't a matter of not studying, she says, but often situations involving self-esteem issues, discipline problems and medical conditions that included everything from depression to mononucleosis.

"The kids needed somebody between Mom, Dad, the teachers and the psychologists," Moore says. "The parents needed to have a choice other than sending their kids away for behavioral problems. I wanted to keep them in town with their families."

Most of the curriculum at The Tutoring Company is derived from the students' respective school districts. Moore has a large closet filled with schoolbooks and binders of instructional material. She stays in contact with the students' teachers as much as possible, following the in-class material closely and pacing the students accordingly.

"My goal is to keep them here for as short a time as possible," Moore says. The reason for this is not a response to the fact that all the kids hate her (and she says they do) but to maintain consistency in their school lives and to get them up to speed on their studies so they won't fall even farther behind.

Bettie Smith enlisted Moore's services two years ago. Her grandson was in the sixth grade and was unable to read. He had been pushed through several schools and never given special attention, so Smith called Moore, who had been referred to her by a friend.

"She gives them what she calls 'tough love,' and that is exactly what those kids need," Smith says. In little more than a year, Smith's grandson was able to read.

"He is not an easy boy to work with," Smith says. "But Sandy just did miracles with him." Smith relates that her grandson is now in high school, and although he is still behind in his studies, he "can read anything."

"It's more mental than academic," Moore says of her tutoring style. "Most of these kids have high IQs. They just don't understand the application or are not giving the effort to do homework." Moore also recognizes the "staggering" amount of pressure on children to perform these days—she has encountered many grade-schoolers already in SAT prep—which she believes can overwhelm some students, causing a shutdown.

"Sandy has the ability to reach students that other people have had problems communicating with, and getting them to perform," says Simonson. "She has a really good touch with kids that were defeated or rejected by the system. I believe she has provided good counseling as well as tutoring."

Assertive in her teaching methods, Moore is avid in helping students succeed, no matter what barriers they use to avert her efforts.

"I'm strong, firm and very disciplined. It's either my way or they flunk," she says. Moore lightly refers to stories of students yelling at her and writing essays about how horrid she is when they first come to her. "As long as the grammar is correct, I don't care," she says.

As a self-proclaimed jock, Moore believes the discipline of athletics in her former years laid the groundwork for her to be a strong-willed tutor and teacher.

Despite teaching and mentoring students for 25 years in her tutoring company, Moore asserts that she could never be a teacher. "I swear too much," she says. However, this happens to give her some credibility with her students, who often come to her with "lots of attitude."

Although her general hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Moore does not set specific closing hours for her students. She has been known to stay at the center until 3:30 a.m. or make house calls that last past midnight.

"You can't get into this business and clock it by the hour," Moore says. "And the parents don't care what I do as long as I get the job done."

In order to get the job done, Moore has been known to use duct tape on occasion. She chuckles at the thought, mentioning that her students sometimes refer to the business as The Torturing Company. "I don't make it easy," she says. "I want there to be salt in the wounds. But once they survive The Tutoring Company, they are going to believe in themselves a lot more and feel they can do anything they set their mind to."