How Sylvan Learning's School Support Program Partners with Corporations to Help Working Parents and Their Students Achieve Their Education Goals

Like millions of parents across the U.S., Linda Ashby was struggling to cope with the pandemic. With a demanding full-time job at Science Applications International Corporation and two children in school, she found herself burning both ends of the candle trying to stay on top of her job and her children’s education. For weeks Ashby stressed, knowing her oldest son, a 14-year-old just starting high school, was falling behind in math.

But the Ashbys weren’t alone, and big, forward-thinking companies like SAIC were starting to notice.

That’s when SAIC approached Ashby about Sylvan Learning, a supplemental and enrichment education franchise with 750 points of presence across North America and more than 40 years in the business.

“Our company sent out correspondence for everyone who may have a child, stepchildren or even grandchildren,” said Ashby. “They really encouraged us to take advantage of an educational benefit they offered in the form of Sylvan’s School Support service because a lot of parents had struggled with virtual learning.”

Sylvan’s School Support was an innovation born out of necessity as schools around the country remained closed as the pandemic continued. Sylvan has long been a provider of high-quality tutoring and forms deep bonds with the families it serves. When families reported having little time to monitor their children’s online learning, Sylvan created School Support, a program where parents can drop off kids at a Sylvan center or have online support with a certified tutor to help the family through the technical and/or educational challenges of the situation.

Within just two weeks, Ashby noticed a dramatic improvement in her son that impacted his grade, mood and overall confidence with learning.

Sylvan has spent decades focusing on how best to reach each individual child, and they do it by getting to know them and their needs before even cracking a textbook.

“He needed help in math and Sylvan was very good at keeping him on track,” said Ashby. “They asked me when he got up in the morning and what time of day was best for him and his style of learning. With just two sessions a week at a convenient time, he was on track in math.”

Often, when a student doesn’t perform well in a particular subject, the child, and even parents and teachers, may simply peg them as being “bad” at math, reading or any other number of subjects. But Sylvan’s teachers know each child has near limitless potential, and it has carefully refined its tools to help students bloom and regain their confidence.

When asked if Sylvan’s School Support made her son any more enthusiastic, Ashby couldn’t hold back her praise.

“Oh my goodness, it’s great. It completely changed,” she said. “He went from an F to an A in math. My son has always struggled in math. It took about a couple of weeks and Sylvan’s tutor had him up to a low A. He was able to resubmit the work, and the tutor kind of backtracked a little bit with him. She was very accommodating and she started from the beginning — the basics of his algebra course.”

Because Sylvan is adamant about children seeing results in school, Ashby never had to worry about keeping on top of her son’s progress. Now, she was free to work her job full-time just like she did before the pandemic.

“I was so excited that Sylvan paired him up with a great tutor,” said Ashby. “The whole process was wonderful, easy and seamless. Staff members would call and check every couple of weeks just to see how it was going. I really, really appreciated it. I never felt like a number. They’d just call and ask how my son was doing and how the tutor was doing. They didn’t waste much of my time and just checked in. I knew I never had to contact someone because they would call me.”

Now, when Ashby talks to coworkers also struggling with distance learning, she’s the first to recommend Sylvan.

“I’ve spoken to several people in the company and friends who say their child isn’t doing well and I always recommend Sylvan School Support,” said Ashby. “Sometimes, benefit programs at work are more hassle than they're worth, but this one turned out great. The company paid for the first five hours of tutoring per child, so we only had to pay a certain portion of the costs.”

For parents whose employers haven’t offered educational benefits yet, now is the time to ask. Federally, employers are allowed to offer education benefits to employees. And these days, education thought leaders predict that this will become the ultimate deal sweetener in recruiting talent.