As a former instructor at a Sylvan Learning Center, I am sorry to report that the rumors are true. Sylvan Learning Center does not have your child's best interests at heart. They are more interested in your wallet.
The bottomline is that Sylvan is a business, and businesses are interested in making money. Businesses make money by keeping their clients around. If Sylvan truly was creating independent thinkers and learners, they would have a big client turnover. They don't. The same students (and their parents) will find themselves dependant on Sylvan for success, and several thousand dollars lighter at the end.
Sylvan hooks the client by diagnosing your child through testing as either below, at, or above grade level. No matter what your child tests at, Sylvan will recommend a program to begin immediately. To guarantee continued success they'll talk you into more programs. I can safely say that well over half of my students didn't need to be their, all they needed was supervised study time that any babysitter (or better, parents) can take care of. They're salespeople who hire teachers fresh out of school (or retired, or on maternity leave) who are desperate to payback student loans or for a few (and I mean a few) extra bucks while they look for a real job (I should know, I was one!)
Their claim of offering "personalized instruction" is a fallacy. Depending on where your child tests in, they will need to go through the same skill sets as the 2 other kids sitting next to them; the longer it takes them, the better. They pay their teachers around $9-12 dollars/hour, so where do you think the rest of your money is going?
My advice? Listen to your son/daughter's actual teachers to find out where they need help. See if you can be that help. Nothing works like parents sitting down for an hour to help with homework. If you still need assistance, hire a private tutor, save a bundle of money, and get real individualized instruction.
If you want your child to be an active, engaged, and successful student, and not a mindless robot doing exercises out of workbooks that are 20 years old, you'll steer clear of Sylvan. They are barely a band-aid fix for your child's educational needs. They create dependant / mediocre learners at best, and at worst, they do nothing but take a whole lot of your money.
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