Sylvan Learning Center Rips off Teachers
Posted June 14th, 2005 @ 11:02am by Erik J. Barzeski
Carey, having a full-time teaching position with Millcreek School District this fall, began looking for summer work in mid April. After all, we've got a new house! Cash is good, in any form. One of the first places she looked was at the Sylvan Learning Center on Peach Street here in Erie.
Parents can send their children to Sylvan for the low low rate of about $40 per hour. Teachers are tasked with helping three to four students at a time, netting the center anywhere from $120 to $160. Teachers - who must be certified and pass Sylvan's own battery of tests - are then tasked with little more than helping students work on Sylvan-prepared worksheets.
How much are the teachers paid? Eight measly bucks an hour.
My recommendation is simple: if you have a child who is in need of tutoring, find a teacher who is good at what they do and offer them $15 to $25 per hour. You'll pay less and get your child individualized attention that likely fits better into your schedule.
I made more than $8/hour working at Boston Market in 1996.
Posted 14 Jun 2005 at 11:33am #
Sylvan does a pretty good job of ripping off parents and students, too.
About six years ago my parents had me spend a day being tested at Sylvan and while I aced everything they threw at me they decided that my parents had better keep paying them money because I had below average "study skills", a fact they probably arrived at from the one or two questions they asked about how much time I spent on homework a night.
The whole thing was insulting, I didn't do the silly worksheets they gave me and I didn't want the silly rewards that they gave to the students who did.
The entire system felt more like babysitting than tutoring. I got out after a couple of sessions.
Posted 14 Jun 2005 at 12:14pm #
Hey, they have to pay for all of those TV commercials some how!
Posted 14 Jun 2005 at 2:33pm #
...and the Google ads...
Posted 15 Jun 2005 at 12:37am #
Wow that is pretty bad. Are there regular increases in pay or some other benefits involved?
Posted 15 Jun 2005 at 2:49pm #
No.
Posted 10 May 2006 at 3:48pm #
I was a classroom teacher. I found that my students had wonderful results at Sylvan Learning Center. I was so impressed by the communication that I received from the Sylvan director about the kinds of things my student my working on. You must remember, Sylvan uses a battery of tests to find out what skills are missing so that those skill gaps can be filled in. A classroom teacher does not have the tools to uncover skill gaps that happened 2 to 3 years before that student was ever in your class. I would highly recommend Sylvan to anyone. I later went on to work for Sylvan as the center director. Sylvan does not clears $150 or more on a table of students. The monthly cost to operate a Sylvan center is around $5000 to $10,000 per month. The Sylvan owners pay their own advertising, they have to buy all of the Sylvan materials, payroll etc... The cost to even open a sylvan franchise is around $200k and that doesn't include any build out cost that might be required to the building.
My Sylvan teachers started out at $9.00 per hr and received a pay increase at the end of the 90 day probation period. They received bonuses for student growth etc and yearly raises.
Posted 10 May 2006 at 10:28pm #
$9 and hour! Darn. I'm glad I checked on those guys because they are contacting me to set up an interview. Just think of how much of these measily bucks will fly away to cover gas!
Posted 29 Jun 2006 at 9:52pm #
I just spent three hours "training" at Sylvan only to learn that my teaching degree and 5 years classroom experience would get me $9/hour. I'm going back to waitressing.
Posted 02 Jul 2006 at 7:08pm #
I'm not surprised. With what I've read on this blog and what I experienced in my first interview, I've concluded that these jokers are educator wannabees. C'mon, 9 measily bucks for teaching? These people live on another planet.
Posted 28 Jul 2006 at 2:45am #
Our teachers start at 10.00 per hour; Algebra teachers start at $12.00. They have the privelege of just teaching and motivating these kids and watching them succeed. There are no long hours of grading papers, lesson plans, etc. They have an assistant to bring them materials or whatever they may need during the teaching hour. The students don't do "just Sylvan worksheets" as one poster put it. They complete from five to ten assignments per hour and the Sylvan prescriptions are researched-based--a lot of the research came from Johns Hopkins university; and each students program is very individualized, and the teacher motivates and guides the student according to what type of learner he or she is. During their initial diagnostic assessment, the student is identified as a visual, auditory or tactile learner.
It's a program that works for the majority of the students. And I give my teachers all the snacks they can eat, and cokes for 25 cents--plus a dinner once a month and a drawing for giftcards!
Posted 03 Aug 2006 at 6:49am #
I work at Sylvan as an English teacher. I was a math student at Sylvan after I had graduated from college in preparation for the GRE. I was missing math skills from second grade. They took me from 2nd grade math skills I was missing all the way through college math. The big difference was that if I didn't "get" something, they would teach it to me over and over again in a different way until I did get it. I scored 300 points higher on the math portion of the GRE after Sylvan. I don't have a problem with the pay. I believe in Sylvan.
Posted 21 Aug 2006 at 12:21pm #
What is the average pay rate for the Sylvan Center Diretors? Im thinking about working for them and was wondering what was their average salary?
Posted 28 Aug 2006 at 5:26pm #
I am the owner of a Sylvan Franchise, and would like to add that my employees, teachers and directors alike, are all making pretty good money. My full time staff salary starts at $30k + full health insurance + quarterly bonuses. That totals around $40k/year. Teachers start at $10/hour, with increases in pay every few months + bonuses. If this seems too low, please keep in mind that teachers work only part time (4-16 hours a week), have no preparation to do, homework to grade, or any other "teacher" duties. We are a family here, we love teaching and we love seeing students succeed. We provide supplementary education, and should be considered a supplementary job. And since when do teachers choose their profession for the money? If money is all that you are after, no, Sylvan may not be for you. If you want to make a difference in a student's life, come in and fill out an application.
Posted 05 Oct 2006 at 4:55pm #
Recently I enrolled two students at the local Sylvan center. Sadly, these kids are in a real crisis situation and need expert one on one tutoring. They must make up years of gaps in the education provided by the Mesa AZ school system. I was led to believe that Sylvan would provide that tutoring in a individualized, comfortable atmosphere. At no time did any of the personnel tell me that one tutor has at least 3 students at a time, that the classrooms were actually one room that was noisy and distracting, and that Sylvan would be assessing the kids progress based on tests I couldn't review as they had been taken originally. (Sylvan uses a bubble test and claims copywrite infringement if they were provide a copy to me) So far, the kids have been given worksheets to fill out and absolutely no individualized help. I should have known something was not right with the center when the emails they sent me had words spelled wrong and grammar errors. They estimate almost $50K in tutoring hours are required for these two kids. If, after 36 hours of tutoring, an improvement of one grade level is not achieved, they will provide 12 hours of free tutoring. Basically, they are grading themselves and don't allow you to have a baseline to assess developement, or achievements by the students,and therefore Sylvan as well. The first 100 hours have been paid for, the remaining funds will go to an in home tutor that will help these kids. It would take a lot to convince me that Sylvan is anything more than just a business with the almighty dollar the real goal. That is the lesson they provided, a lesson I will never forget.
Posted 29 Oct 2006 at 11:18am #
As a former center director of Sylvan I am amazed at the comments from the teachers. Let's assume you make $8.00 per hour for your teaching 3 Sylvan students, proportionally what would you receive for the 24-30 you teach at your full-time job? $8.00 times 8 times as many students would be $64.00 and nine times $72.00 and if you taught 30 like I did in public high school math $80.00. Now lets do a little more math at the lower figure $64.00 times 40 hours the minimum any teacher I know puts in that is 2560.00 per week and teachers work 39 weeks per year, assuming no pay for vacations. So with the $99,840 you are apparently making at your regular job, why are you working part-time anyway?
My teachers started at $9.00 per hour in 2004 they received a fifty cents raise after 90 days and an additional quarter for each subject they taught, they also got a raise at 6 months and 12 months. Additionally each teacher got cash bonuses that totaled about $250.00 per year (tax Free). Most of our teachers were making 10.50 an hour in a small town. The average pay for a part-time job was around $7.25 per hour.
Furthermore I would like to remind the teachers that seeing the light in a child's eye should be the reason you teach. My teachers often remarked that they loved coming to Sylvan because it gave them the opportunity to experience real success with a child. In a time of overcrowded classrooms, violence in schools and children as parents many classrooms have become glorified daycares where the teacher spends more time breaking up fights and doing weapon checks than teaching. I would tell all my parents that you can take a mediocre teacher and give them only three students and there performance will sky rocket, but with an exceptional teacher their growth will be limitless and the exceptional teachers are the ones we want. I couldn't sell it if I didn't believe it and see it on a daily basis. Sylvan works and the teachers that we want are the ones that love to teach and take pride in seeing their students succeed.
Lastly I would remind teachers and parents that Sylvan is a supplemental educational service provider, we supplement because someone failed. We do not go into the community and tap students with a magic wand that places them 2,3 and 4 years behind grade level, that is a result of over-crowded schools, poor instruction and classroom management (in some cases), teachers retiring while still on the job (you educators know what I mean), parents not sending children to school prepared and not supporting the good teachers the students have, administrators telling teachers students have a right to sleep in class, administrators not supporting teachers, and low salaries being paid such that good teachers are driven to other fields. I would love to see Sylvan learning center out of business because their was no need for supplemental services, I would love to see my tax dollars be sufficient to see that my child is properly educated, but that is not the reality today, and until it is I know the 142 students that have succeeded as a result of my meeting with their parents and outlining an individualized learning prescription, my Director of Education assigning the specific skills to overcome those deficits and the very best of TEACHERS giving quality instruction, would ask that we keep doing what we do. I would further encourage you all to visit a Sylvan talk to the parents, students, and teachers they will give you their honest feedback and you too will become a believer.
Posted 04 Nov 2006 at 8:50am #
In the fourth grade our class was reading James and the Giant Peach. A whole quarter I think. We had a work packet to complete, place into our reading folder at the end of each chapter, to be turned in at the end of the book. I never got past page three. Never did the work, never turned in the folder, but I passed fourth grade reading..... my folder must have been lost, we all said. Really, maybe my teacher had a lot of students. I was lost in the crowd, my problem never identified. Most asked for help when needed. I did not. That was just the begining. I barely passed seventh grade pre algebra, eighth grade algebra, failed ninth grade english. B.S.'d my way through yearbook. By my senior year I was still enrolled in advanced classes, but skipped school nearly every day. My teachers and parents just thought I was lazy, and that I didn't care. Truth is, I did! I cared alot! Despite my wonderful teachers, I was rarely able to complete an assignment, not able to learn. I am so glad to know that there is a program like Sylvan that helps to identify the needs of individual children and helps them to succeed in thier studies! Had I been so lucky to have had that extra giudence back in the fourth grade, school might not have been such a challenge. I give thanks to the teachers that care enough to give thier extra time to children in need of a more individualized learning program.
Posted 07 Nov 2006 at 4:37pm #
I have taught at Sylvan for over a year and currently make 10/hr. It is a wonderful place to teach and really make a difference in a child's life. Many of the children that come to Sylvan need much more than than just tutoring. Lots of these children suffer from poor self-esteen and other problems. Sylvan offers a safe haven for these students to learn. So, if your primary goal is not to help a child succeed, but only to make an extra dollar for yourself then please, please don't even consider working there.
Posted 08 Nov 2006 at 2:37pm #
I was wondering if anyone ever gets their money back from the Sylvan money back guarantee. If so how? My son went there March, April, May, June, July, and August of 2005 because he was doing so badly coming out of the second grade and going into the third. He did two hundred something hours of Math and two hundred something of Reading. We spend so much money to help him catch up to his peers. When he went to third we couldn't afford the huge bill so he saw a school tutor all throughout the third grade. He passed by the skin of his teeth. 240 of the End of Grade testing is to pass to the next grade and he scored a 241. This year he is sunk without hope and we still can't even pay off the first Sylvan bill. How can we get our money back because he clearly never caught up to his peers like they said he was.
Posted 11 Nov 2006 at 2:53am #
Coolidge and Tangie, what's it like to be a center director? Were you able to produce your own marketing strategies and increase enrollment? How much were you paid? It sounds like an interesting job.
Posted 15 Nov 2006 at 1:32am #
First, most of the response are sad and representative of where the mindset is with our society. Sylvan, nor any other business for that matter owes its teachers or staff any more than the going wage. If solid teachers with verifiable backgrounds are willing to work for 9-$10. 00 per hour then thats the market.
With that being said, stop complaining and do something about it. Most, went into to teaching knowing full well that it pays below average. Most often, teachers have quite a few other benefits that many do not have. It appears most responding to this blog don't have a clue as to what potential costs go into running a business. If Sylvan earns $120.00-$140 per hour are you really that neive to believe thats 100% net income?
Use your math and college degrees and figuire it out!
Posted 17 Nov 2006 at 5:27pm #
I thought I would add that if you look at Sylvan's annual report they only make a 13% net after tax margin on the services they deliver after expenses. Those retail locations costs lots of money. Sure they aren't paying teachers enough, but after there operations costs they aren't making that much either. They offer a convenient service that works that parents are willing to pay for. I support teachers but you have to look at the fundementals of their business, and labor costs are only a piece of that story. Most people don't realize a Sylvan facility averages 3,000 sq. ft. and that space rents for up to 24 a sq. ft. per year. That's $72k just for the business. Then account for workmans comp inurance and 8% social security tax on top of the wage there paying teachers. It adds up.
Posted 17 Nov 2006 at 8:50pm #
Virtually everyone here is missing the point I personally hoped would get through. It's really very simple.
If you're a parent and your kid is behind, don't send them to Sylvan. You'll get far better results by paying a tutor $15-25/hour.
Sylvan charges parents entirely too much, gives your child little to no personalized instruction, and doesn't have quality teachers due to the small hourly wages they can afford to pay.
Posted 20 Nov 2006 at 7:47pm #
I am a hard working single Mom. The school advised me to sign up for this sylvan program.. Sooo, I have just enrolled my daughter in sylvans center. It cost me $250.00 for a 4 hour test , $ 50.00 for a enrollment fee and then I was told that my daughter needed to come 4 times a week at $42.00 per hour... (( WHAT ))? This is tapping me out!! MY QUESTION IS : Does the school get a kick backs $$$ for recommending them to parents?? I went to the office and explained I can not aford to drop all this money and they made me feel like a really bad mom for not wanting the best for my daughter.. I have spend alot of money so far $1, 140.00 ( this is for only a month).
Posted 27 Nov 2006 at 12:18pm #
I am interested in being a Center Director. Can anyone give me advise on the pay scale as well as growth opportunities? Someone asked the same questions earlier and there wasn't a reply.
Posted 28 Nov 2006 at 3:06am #
Erik's point is a ridiculous one. $15.00-$25.00 per hour would barely cover the cost of supplimental materials needed fro your child to work on. Or is he ploanning on getting extra materials from school, they frowned on that kind of thinkg when I was teaching, except for YOUR STUDENTS of course. People drive mMercedes because of the quality they bring and yes they cost a little more Sylvan is the mercedes of supplimental education. We hire the best teachers and they provide the best service to your child.
Those interested in the center director position it is quite challenging and rewarding. Pay will typically be a base salary bonus. The ability to market depends on who owns the center, most owners are hands off and want you to take the ball and run with it. With this kind of franchisee you would be in heaven, still some are control freaks and can't let you truly run the business this makes it tough. Most franchisees want you to run the business and succeed, I suggest you stop by a Sylvan one day and chat with the CD. I really loved this job.
Posted 28 Nov 2006 at 9:31am #
Coolidge said on November 28, 2006:
Children being taught by their own teachers wouldn't need supplemental material - they'd be working on the stuff they're learning in school and using their own textbooks. Students are allowed to take their textbooks home. Some even have one book at school and one at home. There is no "extra" material.
Coolidge said on November 28, 2006:
At $8 to $10 to maybe $15/hour, you do not hire the best teachers. You're kidding yourself if you believe otherwise. You hire teachers who want to work a little over the summer or you hire teachers who couldn't get jobs elsewhere. Some Wal-Mart employees make more than Sylvan "teachers" do.
The simple fact of the matter is that spending money on Sylvan is nearly as beneficial to your child as flushing money down the drain. Children receive little to no individualized attention, spend most of their time doing worksheets, and benefit only from actually being made to do work, not by learning things relative to what they're doing in school at the moment.
Posted 26 Dec 2006 at 9:09pm #
I work at a learning centre similiar to Sylvan. I have worked there almost four years, and have not had a raise in three and a half years. What many have said here is true. The teacher shortage is long over. I cannot get a job other than supply teaching. I work at the learning centre for experience and money...not GOOD money. However, learning centres want the benefit of being able to say they employ"certified teachers". However, the teachers don't benefit at all financially. For every two hours I work, I spend at least 15 minutes before teaching reviewing materials, making photocopies etc. Then I stay after the lesson at least a half hour marking, writing comments, reading/marking essays,talking to parents, putting books away etc. I am not paid for this extra time. Apparently, I am supposed to do this DURING the hour I am with my students. If I actually did this, I wouldn't have time to even talk to my students,answer their questions or mark their work. I would simply be a paper pusher...and THAT is what my pay is based on. I love teaching, I care about my students. I just can bring myself to do a half-assed job reflective of my pay. Yup, I am being taken advantage of...but I have no one to blame but myself. Many learning centres rely on a teacher's desire to go above and beyond for free.
Posted 03 Jan 2007 at 4:36pm #
I am reading these posts and amazed at the comments some of you leave. Coolidge, I agree with every comment you made, I am a Center Director at a Sylvan and love my job! I love to see what being at Sylvan for 6 months can do for a child's self esteem and how confidence can soar! Our teachers start at $13/hr and can raise that to well above $16 over time, so I'm not sure where you all are coming from. Our teachers love what they do and love working for Sylvan because they see the difference. As for paying your classroom teacher $15/hr., perhaps you should think about WHY your child isn't getting what he or she needs from that teacher all day....how would a few extra hours help her? Plus, we go back and find the holes and missing pieces and fill those in and then the student can feel successful. That's the reason for the test. And, the program is completely individualized, but the reason for 3 students is so the child can also learn to work independently after skills are learned. After all, the classroom isn't exactly 1:1 is it?
I'd like to see some of you who criticize Sylvan actually go there and "feel" what is happening during instruction....students who want to learn and teachers who love teaching. No amount of money can match any of that.
Amen.
Posted 13 Jan 2007 at 3:28am #
seems Sylvan's cd's and teacher's aren't really on the same page as far as pay scale goes.
Posted 18 Jan 2007 at 3:10pm #
Some of you have mentioned that tutoring places like Sylvan must not have quality teachers because only the 'poor quality' teachers would accept the low pay.
Doesn't have quality teachers?
I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education (my second Bachelor's degree by the way). I live in the NW Indiana/Chicago area and cannot find a teaching job ANYWHERE, despite sending out literally 100's of resumes - there are simply not enough teaching jobs to go around in this area (others I graduated with cannot find teaching jobs either). The only way to gain the necessary experience to 'get my foot in the door' as a classroom teacher is to tutor or sub.
Do I like the reality of low pay for teachers (tutoring or in the classroom)? Of course not. But please don't get the erroneous idea that unless a teacher is employed by a school corporation, that he/she is not a quality teacher.
Posted 18 Jan 2007 at 3:39pm #
Dawn Covello said on January 18, 2007:
Dawn, you may or may not be a good teacher. I obviously can't know. But please don't use "I got good grades and two degrees" as proof that you're a good teacher. It doesn't prove - or disprove - anything.
Posted 20 Jan 2007 at 7:15pm #
shannon degasperis said on November 20, 2006:
My husband and I are looking into this as well for our son. He has reading comprehension issues and fluency problems. He gets good grades in everything except reading that involves comprehension, and things like social studies and math that involve him understanding instructions over a long period of time. Regular math problems, and spelling, he excels in. The school system in KY will only help in those areas if he's failing school. Why should we wait to address this if he gets below a D? He should be making at least b's in most of his classes, and he does if this comprehension issue isn't involved. Good luck to all the parents out there, fight for the best education for your kids, even if it means private school, which may be where we go next.
Posted 26 Jan 2007 at 2:15pm #
I worked as a teacher and then an Assistant Director and then a Center Director. My salary started at $6.50, I kid you not. They moved me up to $7 after 90 days. I eventually was paid $8 for teaching. The Director job was salaried at $30K with some benefits.
All that said, I've been on both ends of the Sylvan thing -- management and labor. I think the diagnostic test is good to get a feel for what skills are missing, but I think parents are better off taking that information and giving it to a private tutor. The hour of instruction will actually be an hour, not an hour divided by three kids, and subtract the time used while a student is waiting for the teacher to finish updating paperwork and recording rewards. It's a huge waste, IMO. I would never send my kids to Sylvan. Seriously.
Incidentally, I really resent, as a teacher, the idea that a person isn't a good educator if they expect to be paid what they're worth. No one is in it for the money, but a person with a degree should expect to be paid more than a person working at McDonald's. Period. So there's no need to get all self-righteous about the idea that a certified teacher should expect a certain amount of pay.
And to get the the heart of the issue with directors -- let me relate a conversation that took place among a group of directors and myself one morning. During the meeting, we were discussing the issue of student enrollment. I made the statement that I believed that it was our job to make ourselves obsolete -- that we should be striving to make our students no longer need us. That's because this is how a *teacher* thinks. You'd have thought I had just grown a second head from the looks I got in that room. The directors think like managers. Most of them aren't teachers, or they've forgotten what it means to be in it for the good of the students. The bottom line is the money. They want to get the students in there and keep them there -- the idea is to start by getting students up to speed, then move them into "enrichment" programs, and then to study skills, etc. It's a racket.
I have no doubt Sylvan helps some kids. I've seen it myself. But I also have no doubt that a private tutor would come a lot cheaper and help much faster. If you insist on taking your kids to Sylvan, have to good sense to realize that the director is out to keep you there for as long as possible.
Posted 27 Jan 2007 at 12:38am #
Elizabeth and all,
I read your comments, and I am so torn over what choice to make for my daughter. My ex-husband and I are very concerned about our Taylor. She is in first grade, has a bubbly personality, blossoms socially, and is slowly catching on to phonics, but not so much mathematics. Now her report cards, both thus far, reflect all "1s" and few "2s" in reading comprehension and all mathematic skills. The one's stand for working below grade levels with accommodations, and the two's are at grade level with accommodations. The school year is half over, and despite all my efforts at home with supplemental activities, work, memorizational techniques, writing, v-smile games, online learning games, ETC. we are still not confident she will progress to the second grade. Three conferences have revealed that she is an excellent student, with good personable skills, but her teachers feel she is developmentally unequal to her peers due to her age (she is 6, and will not be seven until July of this year) and they have mentioned that she may need to stay back because of this, to actually grasp things better. Now, this scared her father and I. I have leaned towards still helping her and encouraging her, and if she does not make it, understanding it was necessary for her to repeat this grade...it is a hard thing to accept, but I want the best for her. What if holding her back is the best thing? I don't know. Now, to get to the bottom of this, her father mentioned Sylvan to me, that a teacher told him it was the best, I naturally wanted to do my own research. I have seen so many conflicting stories, and high rates, and do not feel confident as of yet, and I have also sent all of my findings to her father. Do you or does anyone else here have any advice for our particular situation? I know most of you say private tutoring is best...I am beginning to see that, but even one tutoring service we checked into (ClubZ) was outrageous, and did not impress during the home visit. This would be her father footing the bill, and I know he may or may not be concerned about the money, and honestly, I am not either. I understand the need to charge, but is it the best thing? My main concern is what is best for Taylor. Now, I don't lilke that there is no one on one with Sylvan, she needs this obviously, not just another classroom setting, that is not working.....any help?
Posted 27 Jan 2007 at 2:17am #
I thought about doing a little tutoring this summer and so decided to call Sylvan to hear about what they charge a parent per hour and what they pay. In Spokane Washington they said they pay teachers $10 and charge parents $41.
I am a teacher at a private school and have had two children go to Sylvan with good results. One child loved it, the other was at one point overworked and refused to go after a while but still benefited.
I am sure it helps children otherwise why would it exist at all? However does it help all children? There is no such thing as all and always but one must find what works for their child. There are several ways to skin a cat (just an idiomatic expression I love cats) and when you do, it will be the cat's meow for your child. There is nothing like a child who finally starts doing well in school again. It changes more than their grades.
Non the less I bet parents can find tutors for less than $41 and who maybe even have the diagnostic tools Sylvan have. As a classroom teacher I am thinking of charging $25 - $30. I will not work for about 2-3 dollars above the minimum wage. I could easily offer diagnostic reading tests, and math tests to see what a child knows using a computer and paper pencil and observation and questioning. Questioning is a big one and a computer test does not ask motivational questions, or get to the bottom of why some kids are not learning.
If Sylvan gets your child up to speed and then starts offering "enrichment" as someone wrote, I might suggest that you can supply enrichment yourself simply by taking your child to a museum, hiking, reading a book with you child, teaching them how to build something, knit, paint, visit an old person's home, visit any number of businesses, factories, government agencies on and on. The more the better. Enrich like crazy because the more they see the more they will be able to write from experience, understand when they read and will even understand why math is important. (TV is not enriching in most cases- too passive)
Hope this helps. And remember. Paying a classroom teacher $25-$40 per hour (my brother pays $40 in Massachusetts for his daughter) is not too much really when you consider what is at stake in the long run. The price of failure or mediocrity is far greater. Anyway they can always go to Walmart and work for $10 per hour (after just a year) if they work smart. Your call.
Posted 30 Jan 2007 at 10:29am #
My daughter has had hearing problems since birth. She has had three surgeries on her ears, adnoids, tonsils, and again ears. She was diagnosed with 40% hearing loss in one ear and 20% on the other, this was in the beginning of kindergarten. Throughout her schooling (she's in fourth grade now) she has struggled with reading and reading comprehension along with some math skills. The girl struggles to maintain A's and B's and consistently has to work harder then her peers. We sought out Sylvan and so far after three months my daughter is above her grade level in reading, math, and is almost up to grade level on comprehension. Sylvan has been a wonderful learning experience for my daughter, those "prizes" someone mentioned earlier have actually motivated her more to meet her goals.
If you want to compain about pay look at the pay and wages of a U.S. Airmen, Soldier, Marine, and Sailor. They fight for our country and they make $7.00 an hour. Enough said.
Posted 01 Feb 2007 at 12:24pm #
Ferris said on January 30, 2007:
Let me preface this with the fact that I'm thrilled your daughter has had good results with Sylvan. We saw plenty of students that we were able to help. I just think that as a general rule, help can be found cheaper and quicker elsewhere. Sylvan certainly never hurt anyone -- it's just a ridiculous expense for what you actually get, IMO. Since there are three kids there, you're not paying $40/hour, but actually paying about $40 for twenty minutes -- so if you can find a private tutor charging less than $120/hour, you come out ahead, and so does the child who has more attention. But it's your money and your child. Do what works for you.
But I have to address this servicemember comment, as it's rather annoying. I'm married to an active duty member of the AF, and the pay certainly isn't what it should be given the sacrifices we make. But I can also tell you that those who make $7/hour do not have a degree. Officers certainly make more than that. Enlisted servicemembers are underpaid, no doubt, but that's an apples and oranges comparison. A degree and certification are avenues to advanced pay in our society, and enlisted servicemembers can achieve rank more quickly by obtaining an academic degree, so even in the military, getting an advanced education results in higher pay. (Having said that, getting shot at should result in higher pay as well, but contact your Congressman about that -- we're talking about private enterprise here.)
Christy Holmes said on January 27, 2007:
I can't speak to your situation without observing her personally, but I would suggest contacting her teacher and asking if any of the teachers there tutor privately or contact a private school and ask them. The teachers there generally earn considerably less and may be looking for outside income. If it's a developmental problem, no amount of tutoring is going to bring her up to speed, but only time. I'm not advocating holding her back -- she may hit a developmental "turning point" tomorrow. But I would suggest a private tutor who can be with your daughter one-on-one who can evaluate the problem. Sylvan tutors really don't have the time to get to know a student, since there is so much else going on in there (at least if it's during a busy hour). Also, Sylvan tests are strictly about detecting weaknesses in academic areas -- they cannot tell you about developmental problems. That's more of a pediatric/psychological testing area. I would probably also give your pediatrician a call. But that's just me.
IMPORTANT ADDITION to my first post:
I should have mentioned this in my initial post, but it slipped my mind. When I first started teaching, Sylvan had me teaching Algebra to students at one point, as well as doing teaching the math prep for the SAT. **I am a certified English teacher!!** The only Algebra I have had was high school Algebra I and II, and I wasn't very good at it then, plus I'd had ten years to forget it! (I had Math for Art majors as an undergrad and that's it.) I told the director this, but she needed a body in the chair, so there I was. This went on for at least six to eight months before they hired an actual math teacher, but even then, I still had to do it from time to time. But the director told the parents that I was a certified teacher teaching their kid. This was true, but I wasn't certified to teach math at all.
So it's important to be sure that your child's teacher knows their field. They'll stick any warm body in a chair sometimes if they're hard up for a teacher. I'd have been furious if I was a parent to find out I was paying for that.
FWIW
Posted 01 Feb 2007 at 2:14pm #
Thank you. I actually have arranged for a private tutor, someone I know well just did not know they tutored. Her first lesson is tomorrow. When I said developmental I did not mean "slow" or as in developmentally challenged. I meant that she is much younger than her other classmates, and perhaps I should have waited to start her in kindergarten, pre-k, and first grade. She gets a clean bill of health all around from her doctors. The issue is mainly her stubborness and confidence levels, along with her age compared to her other classmates. Her tutor is a High School Math teacher, with a Master's specializing in Education of course, and Mathematics. Being a personal friend of mine, he adores my girls, and knows he can help open Taylor's eyes better, and does not want me to pay him, but I will not let him refuse. I got lucky this time.
Posted 26 Feb 2007 at 10:47am #
I don't work for Sylvan, but Huntington Learning Center, which seems to be very similar. I am not certified, but I do all the work that certified teachers do at the center, and I get $12-13/hr. depending on the task.
Funny thing about Huntington -- There's a printed list of employees above the time clock where we punch in. The list ALWAYS has new names written in at the bottom, yet it never grows longer than one page. Hmmmm -- can you say "continuous turn over?"
Send your kid to a center for anything except test prep and they will sit there for hours doing worksheet after worksheet. There is very little teaching going on and NO consistency because of the turnover.
After 9 months, I'm fed up, and hoping to jump ship over to Princeton Review, where i can immediately double my pay and focus only on test prep.
Posted 14 Apr 2007 at 10:24pm #
PEOPLE- You Don't Understand Tutoring
For high school students (who do not need remediation) but need help in a current subject such as a high math, science, or foreign languages, a decent tutor will fairly charge between $25-$60 / hour. . . . Parents can probably find 'cheaper' alternatives, search craigslist for the bottom feeders, but know that quality will surely suffer.
For younger students and anyone in need of basic remediation, a learning center's program for remediation for basic math, reading, writing (such has the curriculum offered by a franchise like sylvan, huntington, or tutoring club) will cost between $35-$45/ hour. . . . Parents will not find a less expensive alternative, because nothing short of a proven program really works. . . . Meaning, any tutor, at any price, simply can not do what the curriculum of a reputable learning center can do. . . and it's a very sad rip-off when they try. Parents are simply throwing away their money in the same way that people don't buy 4 tires for $100 and expect them to last very long. Even a current or retired English teacher can not teach a child who is behind in reading in the way that a learning center's proven reading curriculum can. . . . nor can a math teacher remediate a math student who is behind . . . oh, it might help for that day's homework, but it doesn't address the core of the problem - those missing skills. At a learning center, parents are paying for a proven systematic program to permanently fix the child's "skills gaps", not just the $9-14/ hour teacher delivering the instruction.
From the outsite, to an uneducated observer, the "systematic" nature of the program might look like worksheets, but that's the learning process in action. Sorry is appears boring, but it is what it is and it has worked for many many decades. . .
Lastly, truth be told, all fees at all learning centers are negotiable. . . most centers would much rather waive the fees to get your tuition than let you walk out the door.
Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 9:22pm #
What bothers me the most........is our children spend 7-8 hours a day, five day's a week at school. Why do we have to pay other people outside of their school to really educate them? Sometimes I consider becoming a stay at home mom so that I can educate him myself. As most of us know, it just simply not possible. I am a single mother and work two jobs to survive. Why do our children need further education?
Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 1:52pm #
As educators, there are times when we all wish we had a remote control to "pause" the classroom. There are children who don't always "catch on" and teachers do not have the time to make sure that each chlid "gets it." Due to the rigors of standarized testing and end-of-course tests, teachers must press on, as frustrating as that is to everyone.
While it is expensive, these learning centers spend more money on making sure they have the resources to help every student who comes through that door. I know centers that have over 800 pieces of curriculum ranging from Pre-K to adult. Show me a private tutor/teacher with those resources. In addition, how many parents are able to do background checks on their own personal tutors?
Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 10:33pm #
Blah, Blah, BLAH!~ when was the last time anybody told a doctor that they should be into their profession to "just to see people get well, and to NOT be into it for the money?"..I am a recent graduate with teacher certification and all I am seeing is how people feel they DON'T have to pay teachers what they are worth! as professionals, deserve to get paid a professional wage. Teachers have spent years on our education (need I mention the constant demand on continuing education) and no one seems to see the value in it. We have racked up student loan bills just the same as any other professional; Doctors, Lawyers etc. etc.
It sounds to me like Sylvan is trying to get the biggest bag for their buck. Yeah sure, the teachers don't have prep to do, and they get weak raises every few months...but what about their knowledge and experience? why does Sylvan think they can get that for free?