- Report: #421708
Complaint Review: Educate Online Sylvan Learning Catapult - Baltimore Maryland
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Educate Online Sylvan Learning Catapult
1001 Fleet ST Baltimore, 21202 Maryland, U.S.A.
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410-483-8000
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Educate Online, Sylvan Learning, Catapult Unfair labor practices, deceptive advertising, parents & taxpayers ripped-off Baltimore Maryland
I have been working for Educate Online, otherwise known as Sylvan Learning and Catapult for 4 years. To get my job, I needed a background check, fingerprinting, a 4 year college degree and a teaching certificate. My starting wage was $10/hr. We were also paid for an extra 10 minutes to write up reflections on each lesson per child for the parents and other evaluators.
It was supposed to be a nice little side job, to make a few extra dollars. At the time of my initial training, we were told that we would be working with one or two students online per hour. Parents were being charged $50/hour.
Today, I am still making $10/hr. Still, no benefits. We now must work with 4 students at a time. Our extra 10 minutes to write up notes has been removed, and we are now required to fill in 5 boxes of reflection notes per child, on our own time.
Parents and school districts are told they are getting individualized tutoring. Nothing of the sort. The worksheets we use haven't been revised once since I have been there. The lessons are canned. There are frequent errors, and when I alert management as to erroneous information, I am ignored. At the most, I can spend 15 minutes out of an hour per child. That 15 min is scattered across the hour, as I must attend to the other 3 students.
When I complain about not getting my promised raises, or having to deal with 4 kids at a time (all working on different lessons), or a host of other miscellaneous problems, I am told I have to 'go along to get along' and do my best through these difficult times.
What difficult times? This company made 21% profit last year. The CEO J. Cohen makes $300K. Much of the money comes from school districts that can't make AYP, and so they are forced by the NCLB law to send their failing kids to tutoring. It is our tax dollars that are making this company rich. They are using the 'depression' as an excuse to rip off their employees, forcing us to work for free. As more and more schools are deamed failures, NCLB will force more schools to send their kids to Educate Online. This is a booming economy for this industry. If 4 parents or school districts pay $50/hr, that means I get paid $2.50 per head per hour, or 5%.
Because almost all of the over 10,000 employees are part-time, and work from home, they can't unionize, they have no voice. If they complain, they can get fired.
Before you think I am just another disgruntled employee, know that I love the job. I see kids turn their learning abilities around. I know that EO actually does what it promises, it does make students better learners. But why is that? Because the 10,000 highly qualified teachers make it happen, despite their awful treatment. Most of these teachers are female, by the way.
But, I cannot continue to be lied to, I cannot work for free (that is a violation of the 13th Amendment, last I checked), I cannot sit by and watch a company advertise something it can't deliver. I can't tolerate a company that keeps using the economy to further enrich itself at the hands of the taxpayers, while demeaning its employees. The USDE needs to investigate. The school districts need to be held accountable to their taxpayers. If they knew how the tutors were being treated, they might think twice.
Mamabear
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
It was supposed to be a nice little side job, to make a few extra dollars. At the time of my initial training, we were told that we would be working with one or two students online per hour. Parents were being charged $50/hour.
Today, I am still making $10/hr. Still, no benefits. We now must work with 4 students at a time. Our extra 10 minutes to write up notes has been removed, and we are now required to fill in 5 boxes of reflection notes per child, on our own time.
Parents and school districts are told they are getting individualized tutoring. Nothing of the sort. The worksheets we use haven't been revised once since I have been there. The lessons are canned. There are frequent errors, and when I alert management as to erroneous information, I am ignored. At the most, I can spend 15 minutes out of an hour per child. That 15 min is scattered across the hour, as I must attend to the other 3 students.
When I complain about not getting my promised raises, or having to deal with 4 kids at a time (all working on different lessons), or a host of other miscellaneous problems, I am told I have to 'go along to get along' and do my best through these difficult times.
What difficult times? This company made 21% profit last year. The CEO J. Cohen makes $300K. Much of the money comes from school districts that can't make AYP, and so they are forced by the NCLB law to send their failing kids to tutoring. It is our tax dollars that are making this company rich. They are using the 'depression' as an excuse to rip off their employees, forcing us to work for free. As more and more schools are deamed failures, NCLB will force more schools to send their kids to Educate Online. This is a booming economy for this industry. If 4 parents or school districts pay $50/hr, that means I get paid $2.50 per head per hour, or 5%.
Because almost all of the over 10,000 employees are part-time, and work from home, they can't unionize, they have no voice. If they complain, they can get fired.
Before you think I am just another disgruntled employee, know that I love the job. I see kids turn their learning abilities around. I know that EO actually does what it promises, it does make students better learners. But why is that? Because the 10,000 highly qualified teachers make it happen, despite their awful treatment. Most of these teachers are female, by the way.
But, I cannot continue to be lied to, I cannot work for free (that is a violation of the 13th Amendment, last I checked), I cannot sit by and watch a company advertise something it can't deliver. I can't tolerate a company that keeps using the economy to further enrich itself at the hands of the taxpayers, while demeaning its employees. The USDE needs to investigate. The school districts need to be held accountable to their taxpayers. If they knew how the tutors were being treated, they might think twice.
Mamabear
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Educate Online Management Team
Baltimore,Maryland,
Educate Online in 2013
#2UPDATE Employee ..inside information
Fri, December 06, 2013
Dear Mamabear,
We have recently come across your review and are sorry to hear about the negative views you hold from your experience working at Educate Online from 2005-2009. In 2005, we were eSylvan, a division of Sylvan Learning before we spun-off as Educate Online, Inc. in 2007. The vast majority of the information you mention has no relation to the company in existence today. The employee numbers, profits, CEO, etc. are not Educate Online.
Throughout our history, we have continuously strived to improve our model. Today, we update teacher materials and curriculum on an ongoing basis. Since 2012, we have been under new management and have welcomed and listened to our teachers' suggestions regarding our work process in order to build an environment based on trust, mutual respect, and collaboration.
As a growing education technology company, we believe that our highly-qualified teachers are the heart of our organization and are revising and creating policies to reward our staff and faculty for good work. We deeply apologize to teachers in the earlier days who felt the way you do. We want to convey to any school districts, future Educate Online faculty, and to you that the information in the review does not reflect in any way the company in existence today.
Sincerely,
The Educate Online Management Team 2013
