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Supplemental Education (Tutoring) Data sheet
#1

Supplemental Education (Tutoring) Data sheet

Supplemental Education market (k-12):
Supplemental Education, in one form or another, is something that most children in America,that want a successful education, will need/experience over the next 20 years because of the sad state of our educational system. Whether your aim is to get your child into a gifted program or private school, to “catch up” or master difficult material, or simply as enrichment, supplemental education providers need to be part of your parenting tool belt.

This is an area that has seen a lot of “hot new things” that will change “everything” yet, for the most part is unchanged. Having been in the business, in one form or another for over 20 years, I’ve seen it all and think I have some perspective on what works and what doesn’t.

Tutoring providers generally fall into one of three camps, as follow:

Tutoring Center - You bring your kids here and leave them for a hour or two at a time.
Sylvan Learning
Huntington Learning
Tutoring Club
Mathnasium
Many, many others…
Sylvan Learning is the 800-lb gorilla of this market. Everyone that lives in America has seen their TV spots and probably their online advertising. When you call, you will be scheduled for a diagnostic test which costs from $75-200 and lasts for a couple hours. At the end, they will tabulate the results, give you an estimate of the hours needed to remediate your student and attempt to lock you into a contract.

While the testing is usually reasonably accurate and often gives insight into the issues (Little Johnny can’t do Algebra because he can’t do fractions, not because Algebra is so difficult. Little Susie can’t do Biology, not because she doesn’t “get” science but because she reads at a 6th grade level, etc.) the “estimates” part is calculated at the highest rates in the industry, often higher than in-home tutoring and is padded with incredible amounts of extras. As an example, not uncommon, I saw a young girl the other day that had been to Sylvan for testing. Using their testing results, I estimated a total cost to bring her reading up to grade level (6th grade) from her current 3rd grade level of $3,600, to be paid monthly at $300/month with no penalty for early withdrawl (if you want to be a dick and not get your kid the help she needs, far be it for me to force you to step up!). Sylvan had quoted the family $12,000 and expected them to sign a contract!

Sylvan, Huntington, TC and others are franchise organizations with slick marketing materials and solid educational systems. They ARE effective but the 10-20% that the franchisee pays to the parent org comes directly from your pocket. From a parental perspective, if the owner/operator is in the business talking to you, this is a great option. If not, then the rates are going to be sky high and the commitment to your child low to non-existent. From a business perspective, if you love kids, this CAN be a great business but you need a rich clientele and you have to be able to SELL.

In-home
Tutor.com
WyzAnt.com
Club Z
Private individuals
Individual tutors, usually teachers that take some extra hours on the side, are the historical basis for this entire industry. Thousands, maybe millions, of students are helped by private tutoring every day of every year. The difficulty from the parent side is identifying a good tutor, with time and interest, when your kid needs help. Great private tutors are expensive and booked. The neighborhood kid that got an A in Calculus, may or may not be any good at teaching Jr. High Algebra.

In that chaotic environment, innumerable start-ups have tried to achieve critical mass and become the hub for in-home tutoring. Their pitch is always “We have great tutors. You need a tutor. We’ll connect you and make the process work.” None of them has ever delivered. There are a number of problems with this model.
First, quality control, I and the kid down the street can both become “highly qualified tutors” by signing up on the online sites and by doing a cursory “interview” with the franchise-based businesses like Club-Z.
Second, dependability, most tutors are not in tutoring for the long-run, they are doing it while some other part of their life (university, job search, etc) plays out. They tend to come and go and each time, your schedule needs to be resettled.
Finally, and the reason I stopped doing in-home tutoring despite the profitability it offers, lack of tutor control (and that your kids act like hell when you are around). When a tutor comes to your house to teach little Johnny, I’m a guest in your house. Johnny is in his element and when I have to get tough, he invariably will suddenly need a snack, or need to go to the bathroom, or be “tired”, or, or, or. As soon as mommy, or daddy, undermines me by letting the lesson end early, or bringing drinks, or calling Johnny to the phone, the tutors effectiveness drops by 50% and the end of the engagement is coming.

I have seen excellent success with in-home tutoring, but that was either short-term with a serious student, or long-term with an established tutor and a no-bullshit parent, 100% committed to backing up the tutor. As I mentioned, I refuse to to in-house these days and when parents leave my services to pursue it, I wave goodbye with a big smile and know that they’ll be back sooner rather than later.

Online
tutor.com
Chegg
Other
This is a broad category, that has been HOT(ish) over the last 10 years. Princeton Review owns Tutor.com. Chegg is well-funded (I don’t remember who by) and there are a, seemingly endless string of Indian start-ups offering cheap tutoring using sophisticated whiteboard/conferencing/classroom software.
This category has been, in general, a huge disappointment. These solutions, work well for motivated students that WANT to learn and will make their appointments, do their work and generally cooperate. But, what these solutions can never be is plug-and-play for an unmotivated student, where mom and dad can trust that the problem is being solved. This goes right back to the In-home situation where the kid is in charge, AND they have the “the connection dropped” excuse to make it worse. While the potential is there, online tutoring forces parents to be “the hammer” a role that most don’t want.

Other
Kahn Academy
Kumon

Both of these are often thought of as tutoring but really are not. Kumon is a system of graded worksheets that break math down into bite-sized chunks. It’s a highly effective system that works fabulously in Japan. Kahn Academy has garnered a lot of attention from Gates, College Board etc., but is essentially a free, online version of Kumon (with video tutorials). Both work well for motivated kids that like a lot of work.

In Kumon, your student takes a placement test, then is given a packet of worksheets to do over the next week. At the end of the week, you bring the worksheets in for grading, and are given new worksheets. Rinse and repeat endlessly. At no time is there any direct instruction, so the process is incredibly slow and tedious.

Kahn Academy started as a series of videos explaining math concepts and has now grown into an online version of Kumon with videos. The videos are well done and are great for help with a new concept. However, it can be difficult to find one that directly applies to a student’s specific question of the moment. More importantly for our discussion, working through their entire curriculum takes an enormous amount of time.

Both Kahn and Kumon are effective learning tools but they are NOT ways to get a struggling kid caught up. The lack of active teaching will always make them tedious at best. However, from a business perspective, if you have a lot of Asian parents in your community, the low start-up, high profitability of a Kumon Center might make it an attractive investment.

In the final analysis, I as a Tutoring Center owner have no fear of being run out of business despite the resources being expended to do just that because, with online tutoring, mom and dad have to be the hammer. At my center, all mom and dad have to do is drop off the kid, after that, I or my teachers can get them to work and if they will work, they will learn, far faster than their classes at school can progress. Hence, they WILL catch up.

"I remember reading an article from the NY Times, where women made significantly more money than their husbands - and one wife was like, "I made 7 figures this year and he stayed home, I'm not sucking his dick" - WIA
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#2

Supplemental Education (Tutoring) Data sheet

Interesting data sheet, thanks.

A few questions:
-Where do you see the education and tutoring markets going in 5-10 years - what are the biggest drivers and risks?
-How do you identify a good tutor vs. a bullshitter ? Especially since not all great athletes make great coaches.
-in broad terms, what's the most time efficient way to combine traditional learning (grinding from books), online MOOCs, and tutors to learn new skills for practical application (example: coding, as mentioned on several threads here)?

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#3

Supplemental Education (Tutoring) Data sheet

Quote: (04-17-2016 07:35 PM)polar Wrote:  

Interesting data sheet, thanks.
Thanks.

Quote: (04-17-2016 07:35 PM)polar Wrote:  

A few questions:
-Where do you see the education and tutoring markets going in 5-10 years - what are the biggest drivers and risks?

Legitimately, it will be about the same as it is now. But, larger, our schools' continued focus on testing, on the one hand, and lack of challenge, on the other is going to continue to breed kids that are bored, miss things, then get over-whelmed later. Technology won't ever be able to really address the remediation market because students will always resist their parents. Hopefully, WASP Americans (of which I am one) will wake up to the importance of academics. (I can't count the number of times I've had WASP parents delay tutoring until the summer while continuing sports lessons, despite their kids being YEARS behind in Reading/Math. News to ALL PARENTS - Your kid is NOT going to be a professional Baseball/basketball/football/lacrosse/soccer/fencing/tennis/curling/rowing/skier/snowboarder/track player!!! And, if you sacrifice their education for sports, you are handicapping them for the rest of their lives!!)

For enrichment, I love trivia games, Quizlet (online flash cards), Coursera/Udacity/etc. (I guided a group of 12 year-olds thru a Rice University Python Programming class a couple years ago) and am implementing NanoDegree curriculum for a few High School students,

Quote: (04-17-2016 07:35 PM)polar Wrote:  

-How do you identify a good tutor vs. a bullshitter ? Especially since not all great athletes make great coaches.

Absolutely, the best Mathemeticians/Engineers are often the crappiest of teachers. I look for empathy. People that just "understand" when they see math, don't understand that the rest of us morons have to work to understand. I want teachers that can tell me they struggled at their chosen subject and loved it enough to put in the time to get good. If they can, they can understand a kid that is confused why the Least Common Multiple, is actually more common than the others (YES, I have had a high school student ask me about this!!).

Quote: (04-17-2016 07:35 PM)polar Wrote:  

-in broad terms, what's the most time efficient way to combine traditional learning (grinding from books), online MOOCs, and tutors to learn new skills for practical application (example: coding, as mentioned on several threads here)?

Ahh, NOW you're hitting the good stuff!!! I've been thinking about this topic for the last 10 years! I think there are great possibilities. The efficiencies of working with a tutor combined with self-study access to world-class material is an awesome combination. But the glaring downside of ONLINE anythign educational is MOTIVATION. The completion numbers for online high school classes are ridiculously low. The first problem the student hits, they fall off the pace, then performance gets worse and worse until they don't even bother logging in.

But, combining face-to-face teaching, mentoring with online has great possibilities I believe. Last September, I launched a High School that I believe combines the best of Online Curriculla, MOOCs, Running Start (taking JC classes while in high school), Independent Projects, direct tutoring and frequent field-trips. I call call it Awesome Schooling (not the name of the school, but it should have been!) If you'd like to know more, PM me. [/quote]

"I remember reading an article from the NY Times, where women made significantly more money than their husbands - and one wife was like, "I made 7 figures this year and he stayed home, I'm not sucking his dick" - WIA
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