Sylvan Learning
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This article is about the learning center; for the professional wrestler, see Sylvain Grenier; for the faction in Heroes of Might and Magic V, see HMMV
Sylvan Learning (formerly Sylvan Learning Center) (NASDAQ: EEEE) is one branch of the corporation Educate Inc.,[1] which operates a variety of for-profit educational businesses. Sylvan Centers are franchises which provide test preparation and tutoring services to paying customers. Formerly operating under the NASDAQ symbol SLVN, the company, as of now, is listed under the ticker symbol EEEE.
Commonly advertised on TV commercials which are aimed directly at parents, some franchisees may also contract with public and parochial schools.
Sylvan Learning Center offers instruction designed to supplement the public school curriculum. This can be in the form of helping a student with learning disabilities, who is failing, behind in their classes, or offering enrichment programs for students looking to get ahead in school. Some Sylvan Learning centers also offer proctoring services for third-party companies (e.g. real-estate testing). Sylvan also offers SAT prep courses.
Students are first given a diagnostic test to assess how well he or she understands each subject tested. There are also scheduled tests that allow Sylvan to constantly tailor and re-tailor the individual student's curriculum. Based upon the results of the tests, the staff creates a personal program for the child, which includes length of program, topics of instruction, hourly fee and payment schedule, among other things. Due to the cost of Sylvan, the company also offers a loan program, through Sallie Mae.
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[edit] Promotional Information (i.e. "The Sylvan Advantage")
- Sylvan Learning uses texts, lessons, software and techniques designed specifically for Sylvan Learning.
- Sylvan also uses a token reward system. Tokens are given out depending on each student's needs, for example: a student who has difficulty staying on task may receive more tokens if he or she completes a lesson without distractions, whereas a student who has trouble with math will receive tokens for completing a math assignment correctly.
- Sylvan Learning's teaching techniques are patented.
[edit] Corporate Information
Joseph Duffey served on Sylvan's Board of Directors one year after leaving his position as head of the US government's propaganda agency, the U.S. Information Agency. His wife, Anne Wexler, is one of the top 10 corporate lobbyists in the US.
Sylvan is part of the privatization movement of public education. In North America, where public school funding decreases, and thus students need to turn to private tutors to do well, Sylvan benefits from attacks on teacher unions and the general deterioration on classroom conditions. English as a Second Language (ESL) students fall behind when ESL teachers cannot be hired, and so ESL classes effectively become outsourced to a private cram school such as Sylvan.
The cram school system is a commonly used by Japanese juku, South Korean hagwon and Taiwanese buxiban where Sylvan runs its schools in these counties under the name "Wall Street."
Educate Inc. spent a total of $240,000 in lobbying expenditures in the US in 2005.
[edit] Trivia
- Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, referred to Sylvan Learning by name in explaining in his view how they psychologically manipulate students into being enthusiastic about learning and thus allowing the students, for their own benefit, to better meet the needs of modern technological society. (See paragraphs 148, and 152 in his manifesto Industrial Society and Its Future)
