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Tutors located in Mesa, Gilbert, Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, Goodyear
(and online)
Accepts AZ ESA (Classwallet vendor)
Accepts NC ESA+ (provider)
Colleen Cubberley, M.A.
Colleen Cubberley, M.A.
Dyslexia Consultant
Barton-approved Dyslexia Screener
Certified EBLI instructor
Academic Tutor: Reading, Writing, Math
AZ Certified Teacher: K-8 & Special Education (Deaf Ed) K-12
Certified Barton Reading & Spelling Tutor
Colleen is a student-centered educator passionate about making learning accessible, meaningful, and empowering for all students. She began her professional teaching career after earning her Master’s degree in Special Education—Deaf Education from the University of Arizona in 1999, following her Bachelor of Science in Family Sciences—Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Brigham Young University in 1996.
Her experience spans teaching reading and writing across K–12 settings and at the college level. As a homeschooling educator, she has guided her own children through a full K–12 education, with her youngest graduating in 2026. Her work with students with dyslexia and autism spectrum disorder—both within her private tutoring business and with her own children—has further strengthened her ability to individualize instruction and meet diverse learning profiles.
She is passionate about literacy and realizing her formal education didn’t address effective writing instruction for students, she sought out methods and curriculum for how to teach the writing skills needed to create independent strong writers. Drawing from the 6 Traits of Writing, initially and then discovering the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW), she implements structured, scaffolded approaches that equip students with the tools they need to become confident, capable writers. She is dedicated to fostering a learning environment where students feel supported, challenged, and empowered to take ownership of their growth.
We are excited to share our passion for effective and efficient reading intervention and empower more students by closing the reading achievement gap!
Meet Our Awesome Tutors
Meet Our Awesome Tutors
Rita Santos
Rita Santos
Rita has been a reading interventionist and a private tutor for more than 18 years. While working at a public charter she became frustrated that the same students were referred for intervention year after year. After researching possible reasons and solutions for their stalled progress, she discovered the traditional way of teaching reading that started with written words known as print to speech was not the best way to learn to read so she became trained in Reading Simplified and certified in EBLI, both of which use the sounds of speech first (speech to print). This speech first approach makes more sense to students so they make gains much more quickly; they often become confident readers in just a few months. Rita loves the joyful look on students’ faces when they accurately and confidently read their first word, sentence or paragraph and start to believe that they CAN read.
Accepts NC ESA+ scholarship funding (provider)
Gabriela Armenta
Gabriela Armenta
Gabriela holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication and is passionate about helping students
become confident, successful readers and communicators. Her background has given her a
strong understanding of language, effective communication, and the importance of meeting
each student where they are in their learning journey. She is excited to support students through
the Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction (EBLI) program, an evidence-based approach that
helps students develop strong reading, spelling, and literacy skills by building a solid foundation
in the structure of language.
Barbara Waters
Barbara began her journey working with children early in life, which led her to earn an Elementary Education Degree with a specialization in Early Childhood from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (1994). She went on to teach children attending a special needs Preschool, in kindergarten, elementary age, and Head Start. After moving to Arizona in 1996, she received an Arizona teaching certificate (2000).
As her own children graduated from (homeschool) high school, and have become adults, Barbara continued her influence and began teaching and tutoring non-speaking autistic children. This experience has re-emphasized the key premise of presuming competence when teaching all students. After discovering Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction (EBLI), she began her training and has enjoyed the holistic, effective approach EBLI offers the students she has taught.
Jennifer Parent
Jennifer is an educator with over 25 years of experience helping children grow in confidence and reach their unique potential. She first discovered her passion for teaching as a young teenager while giving piano lessons—a calling that has shaped her career ever since.
Jennifer earned a bachelor's degree in Speech-Language Pathology with a minor in Family Science from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education, with an emphasis on working with deaf and hard-of-hearing children and their families, from Lewis & Clark College. As a certified teacher in Oregon, she taught in a bilingual (Spanish-speaking) special education preschool, provided in-home early intervention and service coordination for children from birth to age three, and partnered closely with families to support each child's unique and diverse learning needs. She later operated a literacy-rich preschool from her
home and has taught a wide variety of classes in Oregon and Arizona's homeschooling communities since 2007.
Jennifer believes every child can learn to read with the right instruction, encouragement, and individualized support. Her experience in special education, speech and language development, teaching students from preschool through high school, and homeschooling her four children with diagnosed learning differences has equipped her to recognize each learner's strengths, adapt instruction to their needs, and celebrate every success. Using the EBLI (Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction) approach, she provides personalized, one-on-one instruction that builds strong, comprehensive, integrated literacy skills while fostering resilience and a love of learning. Her goal is to partner with
parents, caregivers, and learners to create a positive, encouraging environment where every student feels empowered to become a confident reader and writer.
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