Sylvan Learning Celebrates 45 Years of Revolutionary Education Support

With over 700 locations across the nation, Sylvan Learning, the leading supplemental and enrichment education franchise that drives proven results with personalized education support, has established a robust network of professionals and a rich history of meaningful community support. Now, as it celebrates its 45th anniversary, the team behind Sylvan Learning is reflecting on what has changed since its founding and how it continues to impact students nationwide.

“We’ve been doing high dosage, low student-teacher ratio tutoring using personalized programs for 45 years,” said Sylvan CEO John McAuliffe. “Technology has allowed us to significantly enhance that experience when it comes to developing individualized learning programs. The beauty of our technology investments is that our programs will actually adapt for the child. That’s what makes our programs so unbelievably personalized for kids and gives us a distinct advantage. There’s really no one out there that does what we do in terms of the use of technology.”

Sylvan has always provided personalized programs, but with the smart use of technology, instructional adjustments can be taken off of a teacher’s plate, allowing them to focus on what they love.

“I want to make it clear that the teacher component of our business is critical,” added McAuliffe. “As teachers motivate kids, they drive the level of learning. No child is going to learn without an educator who supports and believes in them. Before we had these technologies, teachers would realize what a child was or wasn’t mastering, and it would take a manual effort to update the program. Now, technology does that part, making the entire process more efficient and allowing the teacher to do what they do best, which is to teach, rather than taking on the administrative work of updating programs for each child.”

Emily Mitchell, vice president of education at Sylvan, also agrees that the combination of efficient technology and teacher focus is the recipe for catching up students quickly.

“Our technology allows us to refine the personalized education even more to avoid spending time on concepts students already understand. All of our time is focused on supporting students in the areas where they really need it,” added Mitchell.

As Sylvan has grown, it has incorporated new methods of support, offering study skills, writing, homework support and even SAT and ACT preparation. But throughout its evolution, the brand has built structures to ensure it stays at the forefront of the industry. 

“We have an education department that stays abreast of state standards,” explained McAuliffe. “If there are any changes in the learning environment, we can adapt our programs accordingly. If standards change and you have a paper-based program, you can’t roll out brand new standards very quickly. Our technology allows us to go in and work with our content to make sure that it is always aligned with state and Common Core curriculum standards.”

Sylvan’s continued growth will only hone the processes even further, but Mitchell says the team will never lose sight of the heart of the business.

“Kids are kids, reading is reading, and math is math,” she said. “There might be different strategies, and how we teach might change, but the needs are still the same.”

Students need personalized support in an environment that allows them to have direct access to their teacher. Sylvan does just this, and over the past four decades, it has been able to positively impact millions of students with its proven methods.

“Sylvan itself is very exciting, and the ever-expanding use of technology in our business only helps,” said McAuliffe. “Artificial intelligence is helping us develop our curriculum at a much faster rate and will allow us to translate our content into different languages. There’s a lot more coming for Sylvan, and we’re excited to continue expanding the reach of our impact.”

To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visithttps://1851franchise.com/sylvanlearning