14 Responses to “LearningRX Complaints: Falsified Test Results”

1. Tanya Mitchell says:

   June 23, 2012 at 3:03 pm

   I have trained and tested for Learningrx. Testers do not
   Get paid more for better test results and training
   Is not to the test. They also have test results on
   Over 25,000 students. Many franchisees are
   Parents of kids that had learning difficulties. They
   Have very high morals. When one franchisees results
   Were questioned, the franchisee was terminated.
   The writers of the wj3 know exactly how
   Learningrx uses the test and approved the
   Use for measuring results within a 3 month period,
   (Not a year)

   Also, pretty suspicious of the comments
   Since they are all written within a couple days
   Of eachother. Maybe the commenters
   Are trying to sell something else?
2. Laura Hamilton says:

   August 15, 2012 at 9:57 pm

   We placed our daughter in Learning Rx to improve her reading, math, and language skills, and it was the worst decision we have ever made for her.

   I do believe the director honestly tested her, but she was dishonest about the center’s experience with children with autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Our daughter struggled through the rhythmic activities and cried at nearly every session. Whereas her test scores at Learning Rx jumped tremendously, she showed no improvement at school.

   I should have realized the only guarantee was an improvement on their test scores, not in her actual learning skills. When we expressed our concerns regarding our daughter’s performance at school after completing the program, the director said that we would see improvements later, and it could take up to year after completing the program for the training to take effect, which never happened.

   I can see where some of the activities may enhance a learning skill, but it cannot help learning disabilities or severe learning problems as the director promised. I regret wasting several thousands of dollars at Learning Rx. Since then, I have found a language program at a local university to help my daughter, and it has been far more effective and costs only a couple hundred dollars.
3. Michael from Colorado says:

   October 9, 2012 at 1:44 am

   I only comment that Tanya Mitchell is the daughter of Ken Gibson (the founder) and a Vice President within this company. Why does she pretend to be just a trainer and assessor for ‘this company’? This is not at all straightforward and is a problem.

   Tanya says ‘they’ in reference to Learning RX. Does Tanya have high morals for talking as if she is not an executive for the company and that ‘they’ includes herself, her father, her sisters, brother, uncles, and whoever else is there at the home office. (Tanya, you have test results on over 25,000 and these only matter if you make sure the testing is accurate.)

   Hey, she did give her real name. That much it good. You can google her and find who she is.

   It does not surprise me that people say that tests have been falsified. When guarantees are made around test result improvements, when center directors hate to go into final reviews with parents without good test results, when trainers are incentivized based on test result improvement there is going to be pressure on test results, even if assessors are not incentivized themselves. However, most people in this company would be offended to hear that a single test result was ever falsified. The people I have met are all good people. I guess the question is whether good people under pressure are doing bad things.

   People I care about work at this company.
4. Damian says:

   October 24, 2012 at 12:14 am

   Hi Laura,

   Would appreciate if you can share the contact of the language program provider and website in which you seek help from.
5. Trainer says:

   November 28, 2012 at 4:59 pm

   I am also a trainer in NJ and test results are definitely falsified. I’ve been asked to remove certain results from the test initially and make note to not show these areas on the final test results. If the final test results didn’t come back showing the improvement we wanted to see, we would lie to the parents and say the test results were lost by corporate and we needed the student to retest-sometimes coming in the next day to do the test again. Parents pay a lot of money for this and I think something needs to be done so you get honest results.
6. Mom says:

   December 13, 2012 at 11:52 am

   I have put three children through the program and couldn’t be happier. I trust the center as well as the people who run it because I see the results in my children. Results that can and can not be measured. My child who could not read now reads, her memorization skills are excellent and she is excelling in school. My son now completes Math in 30 minutes where it took him 2 hours before.

   I know there are always opposing opinions, however our experience was fantastic. LearningRx was the right answer for us.
7. Former Trainer / Assessor says:

   December 22, 2012 at 6:37 pm

   I also saw my center ask kids to come back to redo portions (or all) of final testing because a result was not as good as they wanted or expected.

   There were a few problems I saw: I never saw the redo of a low initial test score, only for final tests because the results weren’t good enough. If a kid was doing poorly on a final test (for example, because she was distracted), the test was to be stopped and the the parent told she’s not ready for testing and to bring her back another day. Yet, I would have kids just as distracted on initial tests.

   Retesting within a couple weeks is a problem. The test is the exact same test. Even if a kid cannot remember the exact question, they remember how the test works and they can try a new strategy. Let’s say the test in on processing speed, but a different strategy gets you 3 years better test result. Is this really improved processing speed or is it improved logic or is it remembering the test? Finally, people without credentials are allowed to do the testing (with permission).

   Ask the director these questions about testing:
   1. How many kids have been through this center for training? [Wait for the answer.]
   2. Can I see ALL of the results for ALL of these students, including supplemental tests? [If you see no negative results, you are being shown doctored or selective results. In fact, if you don't see __big__ negative drops in some tests, you are being shown doctored results. If you don't see results that make you wince, you aren't seeing the whole story. I believe the mom on December 13th above who says her three children saw great results. I saw good results, too. You aren't hearing the whole story though.]
   3. Do you ever stop or redo a test? initial? final?
   4. Do you ever have students that don’t show results in real life? [Again, if you are told that everyone does well, you aren't getting the whole story. Also, some kids get test results and hardly any real life results that a parent or teacher can see. You might even be blamed for not seeing them.]
   5. Is there a conflict of interest? [I suspect you'll be told that there is no conflict because trainers cannot test their own students. True for my center, but I heard the director say multiple times that it was very difficult to do a 'celebration' for a student who has poor test results or who lacks real life results. Centers are under tremendous financial pressure. Lots of centers closed during my time with the company. My understanding is that many centers are just doing okay as businesses.]
   5. Do you have completely independent testing results done by an independent professional for students who have been trained at this center? [The answer will almost certainly be no.]

   I have seen parents feel guilty for not giving their kids brain training (because they couldn’t afford it or didn’t have time). I have never seen the director feel guilty. This is backwards.
8. Melinda says:

   March 5, 2013 at 7:18 pm

   I am sorry you all have such a problem with Learning RX, however I can say the learning RX that I am going to has not been anything but AWESOME to me and my son. I am amazed at the progress that my son has made and I would do it again in a heart beat. For a boy that struggled in all subject now wipes through them like they are easy for him. His grades are honor roll and that is with him going in to middle school. I can see a deteremined child that has come a long way and deserves to feel accomplished and I am thankful for Learning RX to help him with that.
9. Former LRX says:

   March 14, 2013 at 1:52 pm

   Melissa has given us a data point. Is she saying that LRX does not falsify any test results because the results were not falsified for her son? Is she saying that LRX gets good results for all student because her son got good results?

   If a student works hard and is determined, he or she will get the best results. If a student doesn’t want to be there and doesn’t work hard, results will be worse. If a student doesn’t engage, results will be less. When results are less, there will be more temptation to falsify results.

   I saw some students get excellent results, some students get good results, and some students get poor results. I saw testing mucked with for those who got poor results. Interestingly, it was not so much that mucking with test results was required to meet the guarantee. It was usually because presenting poor results to a parent is hard for the director to do.

   Any center that talks about it like everyone gets results is not telling you the truth. It just cannot be the case that all students give effort and all students get results. Yet, I saw this claim being made all the time. Yuck! I hate sales!

   There is no way that the home office can ensure that results are authentic, correct, and ethical. They would have to do secret shopper kinds of things which would be very costly for travel and expense. I doubt very much that is happening. It would be even harder to detect centers retesting students because of poor results, because they only know things after results get entered into the computer (what they call HUB).

   If you think LRX can get your good results for your hardworking, determined student, you are probably right. If a trainer can motivate your student to be hard working, you’ll probably get good results. But the student who doesn’t give effort is wasting your money. LRX is an expensive program at $5000 for a 12-week pro program and $10K+ for a 24-week pro program. Think of it as burning a 100 dollar bill every time your student doesn’t work.
10. Former LRX says:

    March 30, 2013 at 2:38 pm

    In my previous comment, I said Melissa when I should have said Melinda. Sorry, Melinda.

    By the by, I asked the website owner to be able to post an entire page on what I know about LRX (good and bad, because there is both), but they want me to just post comments here. So here is my next installment of what I know. I’m trying to be extremely fair to both parents and LRX, but if someone thinks I’m not being wording things accurately, I’d love to interact on things. It is important that we make accurate statements that convey the full picture so parents can decide.

    I have been thinking about the question of whether LRX teaches to the test. This comes up here and elsewhere on the Internet. I think the answer is both yes and no. Let’s start with background information.

    The test that LRX does is called Woodcock-Johnson. It is a commercially available test that is purchased and used by LRX in all of its centers with permission from the seller. The test is normally supposed to only be administered by professionals with specific degrees and specific training. I recently spoke with someone who was certified in the exam and it was an extensive process of ensuring that the test was administered consistently and accurately. LRX has permission to bypass all of these safeguards within their business. [This would make a good next post.]

    There are seven or eight tests used in the initial assessment that are renamed by LRX as Long-Term Memory, Short-Term Memory, Visual Processing, Auditory Processing, Word Attack, Logic and Reasoning, and Executive Processing Speed. Some centers do other tests and all centers do supplemental tests when a student signs up for the program.

    Why does testing matter within LRX?
    1. It is the basis for the ‘guaranteed’ claim. In a shorter program, LRX guarantees a 2-year gain in at least one skill. In a longer program, LRX guarantees a 3 year gain in at least one skill. Notice that the gain is promised in *any* skill, not the most important or the one most holding your child back. [This would make a good next post.]

    2. It is one way that parents know that they spent their money well. It is not the only way, but many parents want external, objective evidence that improvements were made. This is the reason directors want testing to show good results: parents will see these results at the end of the program.

    3. Centers vary quite a bit on the average increases in test results. But this difference is not based on how profitable the center is. The most profitable centers are more profitable because they are better marketers, networkers, and sellers, not better trainers. The least profitable centers are not less profitable because they get lower training results, but because they lack the ability (or market) to get people in the door (marketing) and into seats (sales). However, if a center gets very poor results, it would cause problems with the home office so testing matters this way too.

    Now that you understand why testing matters, the question arises whether LRX trains or teaches to the test. The following are the similarities between the assessment and the LRX procedures that would be similar for all centers and give me pause:

    1. Compare Attention Speed with the Executive Processing Speed test. In the test, a student circles two images when they appear together in a specific order. There is a third image to distract. The student goes through and circles as fast as possible. Compare this to the Attention Speed procedure which has the student scanning a sheet of numbers and circling a specific number or pair of numbers asked for by the trainer. It is true that the procedure is different (numbers vs images), but all the skills translate directly to the assessment. The LRX trainer teaches its students to go as fast, not worry about being neat, and practicing this over and over. So, I would say every LRX trainer worth her salt is teaching her students how to do speed tests like this. A parent should not be surprised that large processing speed improvements are very common in the program.

    2. Reasoning Cards with the Visual Processing test. In the test, a student has to pick which pieces make up a puzzle. It is really a visual discrimination test that starts easy and gets harder. The test is about seeing things accurately and being able to rotate them in your mind. LRX does these visual thinking cards that teach many skills, but certainly those required for this assessment test. For example, there is a card where the student has to decide which piece fits into a puzzle. Another card asks the student to decide which of two pieces fit. In addition, there is a procedure using tangrams which is also requiring a student to put shapes together to match an image. A parent should not be surprised that large visual processing speed improvements are very common in the program.

    3. Auditory procedures with Auditory Processing test. For example, one procedure has the student reverse the sounds in a word and give the new word (the procedure is called “switch”). This is exactly what is done on the Auditory Processing test where the student is asked to reverse ‘tap’ to get ‘pat’ or to reverse ‘pots’ to get ‘stop’ or whatever. Another example is that there is a procedure (called “drop”) where students drop a sound from a word to make a new word or nonsense word. The assessment does this exact same thing. A parent should not be surprised that large gains in auditory processing are common in the program. (There are pieces of the assessment that don’t appear in the procedures, namely rhyming which almost all students do well.)

    4. Reading lessons and drills with Work Attack test. All students do the first lessons in the reading program, even if they are in the general training program. Reading students do the entire program. There are lessons throughout the reading program that teach the sounds of the English language and how those are spelled. After this, the student is drilled to ensure he knows those sounds/codes quickly and easily. It is important to note that the program doesn’t focus only on those sounds in the test. However, if a trainer is also doing assessments, s/he *could* make sure that the specific codes that the student needs to know on the test are emphasized and mastered. Also, since a trainer gets bonuses based on test results, s/he has a motivation to do so. However, being able to do something and being motivated to do so doesn’t mean everyone does this. In fact, I think the trainers in my center were blameless in this respect. A parent should not be surprised that large word attack gains are very common after the program.

    5. Speed Math procedure with Math Fluency test. The Speed Math procedure is very similar to the Math Fluency test, but this assessment test is only a supplemental test (unlike all of the others above). There are differences, but the differences are not major. The surprise is that larger increases in Math Fluency don’t happen by training this procedure. [One thing to note is that handwriting speed is going to limit this and any other speed tests given on the assessment. If your student writes slowly or precisely, then you are going to get poor results. Is this an indication of a slow mind? I'm not sure. This applies to any processing speed test like the Executive Processing Speed test above.]

    There are other possible overlaps. I have seen trainers practice numbers reversed as a mental activity during procedures. This is the Short-term Memory/Working Memory test in WJIII. If a trainer does this, then it is pretty much identical to the assessment. It is a legitimate mental activity that is a challenge for students, but doing this would mean the trainer is training to the test, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

    Any LRX person who says that he doesn’t teach/train to the test means that they don’t take the specific questions from the test and teach only those few things to their student so that they will do well on a test. However, as the above demonstrates, overlaps between the procedures and the assessment do exist and they are significant, not minor. Also, these are built into the program by the home office, not accidental or because of bad franchisees Most importantly, these similarities make it extremely likely that the guarantee will be met for almost all students. [The whole guarantee thing is also worthy of another post.]

    This is why the guarantee is much less meaningful than it might otherwise be. Much more meaningful would be increases in a test that is not administered by the center itself and a test that has different A & B versions that are used before and after the program (not identical tests which is what LRX does). In the area of reading, there are better tests than WJIII, so those should be looked into as better indicators of progress.

    Go all the way back to the first comment by Tanya Mitchell where she says that training is not to the test. Now you understand all that she is not saying, besides skipping the fact that she is the daughter of the founder of the company and the daughter of Ken Gibson. In a post endorsing the integrity of the company, she lacked integrity. Go figure.

    Anything you disagree with or wonder about my wording, please post and let me know. I’d love to have a dialogue on this topic. I am writing in this teeny tiny window, then editing. If I catch anything in the follow-up reading, I’ll correct it in my next post.
11. Former LRX says:

    March 30, 2013 at 3:47 pm

    Woodcock-Johnson III is the test used by LRX. It is important that you know how assessors are trained in LRX, so that you can assess your assessment. There are a few aspects to the assessment:

    1. Training assessors
    2. Assessor qualifications
    3. Frequency of administration
    4. Interpreting the results.

    Let’s talk about these one at a time.

    1. Training Assessors

    Franchisees come back from their training with a boatload of information about everything related to their franchise. This is everything from marketing, networking, systems, procedures, training, and assessments. They had a module during their training on how to do assessments and they have their notes from that module.

    As I understand it, the franchisee has done a few assessments on their own without supervision, practicing what they learned, and asking questions if she or he has them.

    Then, the franchisee trains others to do assessments. This is an extremely weak link, because someone who is not an expert is now training someone who is going to do the assessment.

    As I mentioned in my previous post, I talked through with someone who became certified in WJIII testing and the process she had to go through to compare with what I had seen at LRX. It was night and day. She had to do practices, be filmed, get feedback, all to make sure the results were accurate and consistent.

    LRX gets an exception on how assessors are certified. This means the results from center to center and assessor to assessor probably vary more than they should.

    2. Qualifications of the Assessor
    I do not know the specifics of what WJ requires, but I believe they normally require a person with a bachelor’s degree to administer the assessment.

    I have seen people certified to do assessments who do not have a bachelor’s degree.

    I’m not sure, but if it is not required for LRX it shouldn’t be required for anyone. If it is required for everyone else, it should be required for LRX.

    3. Frequency of Administering the Test
    There is only one test in each LRX center. Normally, Woodcock-Johnson requires a year between tests, but LRX obtained an exception to be able to do testing every 12 weeks. This almost certainly means that the results cannot be compared to the norm group, because the same requirements aren’t being followed.

    If it is okay for LRX, then it should be changed for everyone else. If it is required for everyone else, it should be required for LRX.

    4. Interpreting the Results
    I know that Woodcock-Johnson requires a masters degree in a professional degree (like psychology) to interpret the results from their assessment.

    Why then do franchisees get permission to interpret the results for their clients?

    Professionals have standards of conduct that must be met to maintain their professional associations. Nothing like that exists for a LRX franchisee. Most franchisees don’t have to think deeply about the ethics of testing or the interpretation of results.

    Let me say this, the person interpreting your results is in business to make money. They are interpreting the results in order to sell you a program. This is a HUGE conflict of interest.

    Here’s the back story that I have seen that most parents won’t have seen. A director has an assessment coming up this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon. The assessment results show up on her desk and so she looks over them and the intake form to see how she is going to position the sale. But here’s the problem in our example, while the parents have concerns they don’t show up in the assessment, so she has to figure out how to make the pitch this time.

    The director is taught simple rules from the home office during that whirlwind tour of running a center. Here are some of the guidelines:

    If the student has reading issues, look at Word Attack and Auditory Processing first to show the correlation.

    If the student has attention issues, tie that back to Working Memory and Processing Speed issues.

    If the student struggles with test taking, tie that back to Long-Term Memory or Processing Speed.

    If the student reports math issues, tie that back to logic and reasoning and visual processing, generally. If slow at math, then tie it back to processing speed being slow.

    If the student reports memory issues, then tie that back to memory skills directly.

    If the student is above average in all assessment tests, but still has struggles, then tell mom and dad that the average skills to get into college are at the 80 percentile line and that anything below that is going to feel like a weakness. Point out that inner city students are students on the wrong side of the train tracks are included in the averages, but those don’t really apply here in our suburban community. Then tie in the relative weaknesses to the concerns listed.

    In other words, you have a salesman interpreting your results to make a sale. Sorry, I am sure there are nice people in LRX, but it is an unavoidable fact that this is sales whether you want to call it by that name or not.

    Worse, you have given the answers to the director on the intake form. You have told them your concerns, told them what they have to tie the test to. They are doing exactly that. It’s like giving the answers to the problems to students, are you surprised when every answer is correct and ties directly to your situation?

    [If you want proof that it is sales consider an insiders view: 1) high fives to the director after signups; 2) pay for performance to directors who are not franchisees where pay is tied to signups. Being in the center for as long as I was, I am 100% sure this is sales, but I also know that the word 'sales' was verboten.]

    So, it is worse than the fact that a non-qualified, non-professional is doing your interpretation, the person doing your interpretation gains from signing you up.

    Summary
    When I asked why Woodcock-Johnson would approve of LRX doing the testing this way, it was stated that they wanted to sell their materials to LRX.

    When I asked why Woodcock-Johnson would approve of LRX doing testing after only 12 weeks, I was told that the reason.

    I will state my own opinion clearly on this one. I think Woodcock-Johnson has done itself a huge disservice by letting LRX get all of these exceptions and let their test be used in a direct sales situation where moms and their children are potentially harmed. .

    As the LRX executive (Tanya Mitchell) says in a previous comment, the company has permission to do what they do with the assessment. Fine, but that doesn’t make it good for moms and their children that you obtained permission to waive the safeguards to testing.

    Another follow-up post will come on how to do an effective consultation that results in a sign-up (i.e., a sale).

    To end this one with something practical, ask the person doing the assessment for their qualifications and ask the person doing your consultation how they are compensated for their work. Are you bold enough to ask the question? [I assure you that they are going to be bold enough to ask you very personal questions about your children and family. They practice it until they are very good at it.]

    [If you think I have misstated anything, please post a follow-up comment. I'd be happy to interact to make sure accurate statements are being made.]
12. Former LRX says:

    March 30, 2013 at 10:18 pm

    Corrections and errata.

    1. To the extent that a student works hard, he or she will get good results at LRX. Effort produces results. There is no shortcut in nature. That the testing process is flawed doesn’t change this fact. One might

    2. I meant to say Tanya Mitchell is an Executive Vice President. In editing, somehow I said the same thing twice which was my error. [I noticed that on another website Kim Hanson didn’t say who she was a few years ago when she posted as kipsmommy, but more recently was forthcoming about who she is which I think shows she is higher integrity. Tanya didn’t correct this.
13. Former LRX says:

    March 30, 2013 at 10:22 pm

    I hate mistakes. I accidentally hit submit before finishing that sentence. Here is the rest of my thought.

    One might get the impression that LRX always gets results. This simply cannot be the case unless all students give effort and all trainers are capable. I have personally seen exceptions on both of these criteria.
14. Former LRX says:

    March 31, 2013 at 1:37 am

    Let’s make it clear that LRX is a business. They are in business to help children, then to turn a profit in doing so. No matter what impression you have about any individual center, that center is a business. Let’s understand the business the way a center director understands the business.

    Here is the simple overview of the LRX business process.

    1. market to help your potential customers call you on the phone
    every good center knows its conversion ratios of how much it spends on particular kinds of marketing and how that translates to assessments, consultations, and customers.

    2. turn phone calls into assessments
    every good center is able to convert a high percentage of phone calls into assessments. I tihnk this percentage is in the 70% to 80% range. the person answering the phone has been trained how to not answer your questions on cost. here’s how this works.

    You: Hi, I got your flier in the mail. I wonder how much your program costs.

    DFI: That’s a good question, but it varies a lot for each individual student. What’s your child’s name? (answer) How old is s/he? (answer) What are you seeing? (answer) The first step in finding the answers to your questions is to schedule an assessment. The assessment takes about an hour. Are you available on Monday at 10 AM or Wednesday at 9 AM?

    You: (if you are the rare bird who can still remember your original question) Okay, but I’d like an idea how much it costs?

    DFI: It varies from situation to situation because our program is customized to particular students. The director will help you discover that in the consultation, but the first step is the assessment. Are you available…

    Here is your answer in black and white, because it is not all that complicated. This will get your into the ballpark on the dollar amount:

    The shortest duration program LRX centers do is 12 weeks, though this number is increasing as centers sell longer and longer programs. The program is sold is 4 week increments, but the most common program lengths are 12, 24, and 36 weeks.

    The program is delivered either as a partner or a pro program. In the partner program, there are three hours in the center with a trainer and three hours at home with you (or with the online digital trainer called Max). In the pro program, you will be in the center 5 hours per week. You will often pay more per hour for the partner program, but there is little justification for this. It is true that the center trains you to train your student, but you also end up doing as much work as the trainer in the center (or more). Be this as it may, we can estimate program costs now.

    Let’s use $85 as a per hour estimate. 12 weeks in a 3 hour per week (in the center) program at $85 per hour puts you around $3000. The center I was in had this closer to $4000. So let’s say $3000 – $4000. This is your baseline for a 12-week partner program.

    Now, in the pro program, you’ll have 12 weeks in a 5 hour per week program at $85 per hour. Your calculator will pop out $5000. I have heard some centers are less than this and some more, so this is a good estimate.

    If you are going to expect changes in reading *or* math, then double the above, because you’ll be placed in a 24-week program. Partner in the $7000 range. Pro in the $10,000 range. Plus or minus.

    If you are going to expect changes in both reading and math, then triple the above, because you’ll be placed in a 36-week program. Partner in the $10,000 plus range. Pro in the $15,000 range. Plus or minus again.

    What you cannot know is how much change you can expect to see in your child and how much value you place on this change. As you can read above, Melinda paid this kind of money and ended up happy. Many parents end up happy. Some end up disappointed. Some should be disappointed, but aren’t. I’ll give you more information to think through this below.

    4. turn assessments into consults
    Every good center has a very high conversion of assessments into consults. The expectation is 100%. Center personnel are told not to give too much information before the consult because this will result in parents feeling like they have gotten the answers they wanted and not showing up. So, if you talk to the director or the DFI, you are going to be answering a lot of questions, not getting answers. You’ll be told that the answers you are looking for will come in the consultation when you see the test results.

    It is important to note that you turn in an intake form at this point in the process. The intake form gives the center a ton of information about you and most parents answer it all and as accurately as possible. At the assessment, you turn in an intake form where you give a lot of information about your concerns. You check boxes on what issues you see with your child and answer questions on practical questions about how your child compares to others on a scale from 0 to 4. You also say why you are at LRX and what you hope to achieve. These are very important in the next step.

    5. turn consultations into students
    One thing to mention here is that scoring an assessment takes less than an hour to score and enter and print. So, you could get your results in an hour, but the center director wants you to have time to look at your results and your intake form AND for you to anticipate seeing the results. She wants you to wonder what it will show, what answers you will get. This makes it more likely that you sign up.

    You will be told that anyone who will be involved in the decision should be in the consultation room during the consult. This most often means that moms have to get their husbands there, but sometimes it also means an aunt or grandparent will be there because they are going to be spending the money. Here’s the deal. The consultation is a controlled experience lead by the director that leads someone to sign up for the program. If someone is not in the room, then they are most likely to refuse to consent to the program. So, centers will be quite insistent that your husband be there or your wife be there or your child’s grandparent be there.

    The ratio of consultations to signups is a very important metric in any business like this. So, the director walks into the room with the goal of signing you up either that hour or within a few days. There are some exceptions to this when you have given indications that you cannot at all afford the program. In these cases, you might not even be shown a price sheet.

    If the director is a franchisee, then the profits in the center are determined by you signing up. If the director is an employee of the franchisee, then his or her pay is probably based on her ability to create revenue for the business. This means signing up children into the program. It makes sense and probably all tutoring centers work this way. You just may not be aware of it, because it is not shown to you in the process.

    The consultation process is its own post. If I put it here, you’ll lose the thread of the business process.

    You write your feedback and rating of the consult into a computer. The director uses this to help understand the follow-up sales process. If you say, it looks like what we need but it costs too much, she’s thinking she needs to offer you the loan program or to ask if there is a grandparent who can help you pay for what your child needs. There are no secrets in business.

    6. turn you into a yes (a sign up)
    The director doesn’t want a no. The director wants you to make this decision as close to possible to the emotions you expressed as possible. This may mean at the end of the hour consultation or it may mean within a few days. But the emotions have to be strong. The percentage of signups goes down as the time from the consultation increases.

    If you ask about negotiating, you’ll be told that the company doesn’t negotiate. Franchisees are told not to negotiate price. Fine, but price is negotiable. I saw parents get discounts for all kinds of reasons. Here’s how I once saw this done that worked well. The parent said, “I see that this is what my son needs. He needs 24 weeks to finish the program. I also see that it is best if we do this in the center, but we want to only come 4 days per week. However, we only have $8500 for this, so if you can figure out a way to get us into the program for that much money, I’d be willing to do that. Maybe during a lull in your business call me because we don’t need to start right now.

    Know this, the director will be looking at the monthly bookings and think, “Wouldn’t these numbers look so much better with that $8500 in there than without it in there?” Or the director will hear a few trainers say that they really want another student as soon as one can be found and the director will think, “We have this open slot and I have the perfect student, I just need to be able to figure out how to say yes to this person without appearing like I’m negotiating.”

    So, if you are going to negotiate, do the director one more favor. Don’t ever talk about ‘negotiating’. Instead, give her a reason to give you a discount. Maybe you are willing to train before school is out, so you might figure out an off-peak discount. Or, you might ask the director if they ever provide discounts. Or, maybe you are related to the friend of a trainer and you get the family discount. Or, maybe you have already shared the program with another family, so you get the shared-with-another-family discount. Or, maybe you didn’t come in as a result of marketing that was expensive so you ask for the ‘drive by’ discount. Or, maybe you ask if they ever have coupons. You get the idea, be creative and get a discount. If you directly ask the question whether discounts are ever given, you might be able to figure out an existing discount that makes sense for you.

    By the by, you will likely be told that there is a paid-in-full discount of 5% (or whatever) or a pay with a check, not a credit card 3% discount (or whatever). These are places to find discounts. Do not pay in full, ever. It emotionally makes it difficult for you to pull out of the program. But if you say, “Hey, give me the off hours discount and I’ll pay with checks so that you don’t have to incur the cost of my great-perks credit card” this might tip the scales.

    Also, know this, the slowest times in most centers happen before school opens and during the November/December holiday seasons. You could also use these as leverage points. “Hey, I’ll sign up here in December if you can get me that discount.”

    7. Get you to sign the contract
    There are a lot of issues associated with this, so we’ll leave those for another post.

    8. Schedule you for supplemental testing
    You are paying for this in the program. You should ask for the results and have them explained to you. Why do you need to pay for these? (The home office insists that certain assessments are done for each particular program.) Is the guarantee for only the original tests that caused you to sign up? (It should be, but I think most centers consider a gain in any test as meeting the guarantee.) Reinforce that the reason you are here is to get gains in these three specific areas (list them) and make sure you have the director’s eyes looking into yours as she says that you can rest assured that you will get those results.

    9. Schedule you to start training
    You are in the program now. This needs it’s own posting, because there is a lot to tell parents here.

    10. Get you through to the end.
    You do final testing. You have a program review or whatever your center calls them where you celebrate and get the testing results, the list of most significant improvements, and so forth. This is another separate post, because the whole reason this thread began is that people within LRX have seen final test results mucked with. I have seen this too, but I think I can tell you why when and how. This is in some of the posts above, but I have my own take on this.

    You enter your feedback on the program into the computer with your comments. Every word you say can be seen by the center director and personnel (and the home office). Most all parents rate the center as an 8, 9, or 10. The center I was in improved its scores by how it presented the question. The final question is something like, how likely are you to tell someone about the program. If you have already done that, then you might be told, well that’s a 10. Of course, this is part of why the numbers are so incredibly high for any business… something on the order of 9.5 out of 10 for all centers. The home office takes great pride in these numbers, so centers care about them too.

    In conclusion, every parent needs to know that this is a sales process and that they are being sold. Sure, the business is about caring about students / children / adults / seniors, but the end result of all that caring is supposed to be a profitable business. Also, I assume some of you will sign up and go through the program. That is reasonable because LRX gets good results for those students who work hard and stay focused on training, who have fun through the process. Signing up is the right answer as long as you do so with your eyes wide open. That’s why I am here, because I don’t think most parents have their eyes wide open.

    Here’s one thing I will say in a future post, if you walk into a center and you have access to the money, then you are going to be told the benefits of being in the center are worth every penny you will spend. You’ll rarely if ever hear that you don’t fit the profile for brain training or that you aren’t likely to get results. The exceptions are going to be the outliers like your child is 3 years old or your mom is 72 and isn’t aware of her surroundings any more or your child is blind (the procedures require sight) or deaf (the procedures require hearing) or that your son is excessively violent or whatever. If you don’t have an obvious physical malady or dangerous behavior, you will be told that you will see tremendous benefits from brain training.

    I hope you find the help you need for your children whether LRX or not. I’m no longer drinking the LRX Kool-Aid™. It helps some a lot, some a little, and some not at all. You decide.

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