How to Decode Results Highlighted by Learning Centers

When choosing a learning center in which to enroll your kids, you will naturally take a look at the center’s competition results before deciding. You would follow the belief that the program with the best results will clearly provide the best outcome for you and your children as well.

Sadly, this isn’t always the case. Many parents aren’t aware of the fact that several programs actually misrepresent their results as a way to draw you in. So what should you look out for when trying to deduce whether or not results published by learning centers are distorted?

In this post, we will help you pinpoint the discrepancies that are red flags for common misrepresentation tactics, so you understand the importance of analyzing and evaluating results before making your enrollment decision.

1. Distorting results by including current performance by alumni.

Some learning centers keep track of students who attended their program at any point of time, even if it was just for a short while.

Take this example: a child attended their center in 3rd grade and participated in their program for three weeks. The student did not enjoy the program, so she joined another one instead. She did this new program for three years, and in 5th grade she received a perfect score in a competition. The first learning center then takes the credit, listing her on their website and her achievements as an alumnus of their program.

As you can see, this clearly distorts the results. So how can you tell if a company is engaging in such practice? Unfortunately, there is no easy way to do this. It is worth speaking to the center and asking them for relevant information about how long that person studied with them. To have a clearer understanding of the situation, you may also request that the center put you in contact with that person, so you can ask for firsthand experiences.

2. Creating fake teams for competitions and tournaments.

When it comes to performing in tournaments, centers want the best of the best teams on board. The problem is that some learning centers seek out students from outside their program.

They acquire outside students who are all too happy to join a professional center’s team to have a high likelihood of winning. However, many of these students are already achieving without the help of that learning center but are now competing under the learning center’s name.

How do learning centers attract these students? They offer free classes for top performers in the area. Yet these classes never actually materialize; the students are simply used to promote the learning center, despite never having attended it.

So how do you deduce whether a business is creating false teams? Firstly, take a look and see if they are offering free classes to top performers, as this is a tell-tale sign. You can also dig deeper into their competition wins to look at the students on the team or reach out to them if you want the full story.

3. Not measuring results in terms of percentages.

If a company is sharing results as an absolute number rather than a percentage, it is worth considering whether they have something to hide. When searching for the right learning center, you want to find the one that provides your student with the highest percentage of success.

For example, say 85% of a learning center’s students are producing extraordinary results. As an absolute number this may only be 1000 students, but as a percentage it shows how successful the program is.

On the other hand, a large company could advertise that they have 10,000 students producing extraordinary results. However, if they have 80,000 students in their program, only a small percentage is actually succeeding.

Results should be measured in terms of percentage of successful students, and if they aren’t, you should definitely ask!

4. Misleading results.

Results should highlight successes in the most recent year. You want to know how a learning center is doing in the moment, not just how they have done in the past.

Some learning centers include results from years ago, just to highlight their past success. Don’t be fooled into thinking these are current results.

How can you tell if the company is displaying misleading results? Look at the dates. If the center does not publish their results with corresponding dates, you should call the center and ask. With a bit of fact checking, you will be able to discover how honest they are being.

Here at Random Math, we want you to know exactly how successful our program is by highlighting all our achievements. We go out of our way to ensure all results published are accurate and based on fact. If you have any queries, we are more than happy to help.

Your child’s education is extremely important, so you want to ensure they are receiving the best education possible. Make sure you choose the program that best fits your needs!