BALTIMORE (PRWEB) January 12, 2021
Sylvan Learning, the leading brand in supplemental and enrichment education, has partnered with Elevate K-12, the leader in live-streamed teaching, to revolutionize teaching not only for students, but for the professionals that dedicate their lives to education.
Sylvan brings over 40 years of experience and more than 750 points of presence across North America to the partnership. It’s an established brand that millions of students and families have come to trust for before-and-after-school education supplementation and acceleration.
Elevate K-12 partners with Sylvan with a laser focus on providing the best possible live-streamed teaching service in the world. Elevate K-12’s dedication to quality educators, curriculum and engagement with students positions them to thrive in association with Sylvan’s network of teachers.
The partnership fits a natural need in each company based on their business models and hours of availability.
Things clicked for Sylvan and Elevate K-12 when Sylvan Learning’s VP of Education Emily Levitt and Elevate K-12’s COO Kim Kross recognized both companies had something the other needed.
“Sylvan has teachers teaching remotely after school, and we are always looking for strong teachers that can teach during the day as well,” said Levitt. “Elevate K-12 had the same need, they have teachers busy during the school day who can pick up hours before and after class.”
Both Sylvan and Elevate K-12’s core values overlap and allow for collaboration because both brands focus on finding absolute top teacher talent.
“The teachers that we’re sharing already come to us vetted, they’re already background checked. It saves us and our franchisees time and money because they’ve been screened,” said Levitt.
“I’m always thinking about how to make our supply of teachers better,” Shaily Baranwal, CEO of Elevate K-12 said. “When we thought about which other organizations have high-quality teachers, we immediately thought of Sylvan Learning. We only partner with the best.”
For Baranwal, the partnership with Sylvan isn’t just a marriage of convenience, but a way to adapt the teaching industry to the challenges of the future.
“The problem we’re solving at Elevate K-12 is the teacher shortage,” said Baranwal. “The Learning Policy Institute estimates that in the U.S. there are a total of 500,000 teacher vacancies and subpar teachers. That data is only from the states that were reporting, many states did not report numbers.”
“The problem plagues lower income areas,” she said. “A lot of the work we do is on reservation camps in Arizona or urban fringe areas where teachers don’t want to teach. If it’s hard to find a math teacher in some zip codes, then how will they find the calculus teacher?”
That’s where Elevate K-12 steps in. Elevate K-12 allows schools to bring in teachers even for just one or two periods without having to invest in a full resource. Now the cost of those teachers can be spread across the country, where any classroom with any number of students can tune in to the live teaching.
“We are not in the business of providing teachers to just address a shortage. We're in the business of providing engaging, awesome teachers. We’re selling engagement, selling happiness. We’re not a staffing company, we’re an instruction company. We’re always training the teachers to make sure the quality of instruction remains strong,” Baranwal said.
Elevate K-12’s teaching program allows them to teach at any school in the country from any zip code, a feature Baranwal says the teaching industry as a whole needs to evolve.
“We provide teachers the flexibility that many industries that work remotely already have. Teachers want to live in a low-cost area so they don’t need to look for that high paying job. Some 83% of teachers are women and most of them are moms. Now they can work from home while their kids are asleep,” she said.
By partnering with Sylvan, Elevate K-12 can provide those teachers more flexible work hours throughout the school day. For example, if the Sylvan teacher is tutoring students after school, the teacher may choose to teach for Elevate K-12 during the school day.
But for Baranwal, the partnership with Sylvan goes far beyond simply providing better hours.
“Nobody is talking about the teaching workforce of the future,” she said. “It's not just about, ‘Let’s share our teachers,’ it’s a most strategic rethinking of teacher workflows, of the flows of human capital in the industry.”
For Sylvan, Elevate K-12’s extreme focus on teacher quality and commitment seals the deal.
“We have a really nice alignment because we believe that good teachers make all the difference. You can have the best curriculum in the world, but if you don’t have the best teacher to be in the child’s corner rooting for them, the child won’t engage,” said Levitt. “If Elevate K-12 and Sylvan can have access to more great teachers, that benefits everyone, especially the kids.”
ABOUT SYLVAN LEARNING LLC
With more than 40 years of experience and more than 750 points of presence throughout North America, Sylvan Learning is the leading provider of personal learning for students in grades K-12. Sylvan is transforming how students learn, inspiring them to succeed in school and in life. Sylvan’s proven tutoring approach blends amazing teachers with SylvanSync™ technology on the iPad® for an engaging learning experience. Sylvan also leads the way with Sylvan EDGE — STEM and accelerated courses — and Sylvan Prep — college and test prep courses. Sylvan supports families through every stage of the academic journey. For more information, visit http://www.SylvanLearning.com or SylvanLearning.com/blog.
About Elevate K-12
Elevate K-12 is a Chicago-based instruction-technology company that brings high-quality live streaming instruction into K-12 classrooms. Schools and districts partner with Elevate K-12’s unique instructional solution to solve their teacher shortage challenges, overuse of long-term substitutes or low-quality teachers. Its tech-enabled service comprises Proprietary Live Instructional Management Technology, Live Instruction Service, Curriculum and Classroom Management to provide the necessary tools for collaborative teaching and learning that emulates the experience of a real, physical classroom. Elevate K-12 currently operates in 11 states and is rapidly expanding to new states across the U.S. in K-12 schools. For more information, visit http://www.elevatek12.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.