In February of 2017, I enrolled my 8th grade son with Sylvan for assistance in math to include homework assistance and Algebra Edge.
More than once, he brought homework to his session for assistance and came back with sub-par work.
The final occurrence that caused me to remove him from Sylvan was that had taken a test in school that he failed. The teacher provided him with an alternate test to take with him to Sylvan for help. He brought it to his next session, and turned it in the next day. Imagine my surprise when the teacher emailed and said "I don't know who you're working with at Sylvan - but he failed the test again.
I was beyond upset. I immediately contacted the local staff, Renee and Marianne. Quite frankly, they were of little help. They reached out to the tutor, and a few days later called me back to explain that when my son showed up at his session, he told the tutor he knew what he was doing, and proceeded to complete the test. He was allowed to leave the session without the tutor checking over his work.
When I asked why, they would only repeat that (1) this tutor is apparently the "best" they have and on track to be a Principal at a local school next year, and (2) they would only repeat that my son said he knew what he was doing. Um, no - he didn't - which is the whole reason I have him in tutoring! I love that he's confident - but I was paying them to help him.
When I pushed further, I was told that the tutor/student relationship is important and the tutor didn't ask to check his work because he didn't want to break the student's trust. Excuse me??
I'm paying for tutoring - not trust exercises. And my son should have been able to trust that yes - he felt confident in taking the test, but he should have had confidence that the tutor would check it and either say "good job buddy" or "hey, let's work on this skill..."
It wasn't until I escalated it to the owner that I learned that the tutor had, in fact, failed in his duties to my son and that they should have checked it AND they should have made a photo copy of it so that they had a record - neither of which were done. I'm sure there are some Sylvan locations that are fine, but it comes down to local leadership as to whether it'll be a successful experience or not. I can't recommend this particular location as they failed to deliver even the minimum standards of tutoring. read more