SplashLearn Review Summary

SplashLearn tutors Pre-K to 5th Grade Math and ELA. They hire Native Speakers who have delivered 200+ online classes and 1 year of Common Core teaching. No formal qualifications are required. The pay is $21 with bonuses, but you must commit to after-school hours 2+days a week, and hiring only occurs periodically.

Pay (per hour):$14-21*
Native / Non-Native Speakers accepted?Native
TEFL / TESOL / CELTA required?No
Degree / diploma required?No
Adult / child students?Children
Class size:1-5
Minimum hours (per week):0**
*$14 base pay+$7 in bonuses
**No strict minimum hours requirement but must be available to teach after school on at least 2 weekdays

SplashLearn Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Competitive pay if you meet the easy bonus requirements
  • Additional incentives for referring students
  • No penalties for cancellations
  • No formal interview
  • Positive feedback from existing teachers, though few reviews

Cons:

  • Primarily math tutoring with some ELA (English Language Arts)
  • Must be familiar with US Common Core
  • Must be able to teach after-school on at least two days a week
  • Mixed-ability groups

Neutral:

  • To avoid over-hiring, they freeze recruitment periodically (good for existing teachers, bad for prospective tutors)

Is SplashLearn Legit?

SplashLearn is a legitimate EdTech company, founded in 2010 under the name SplashMath. They rebranded in 2019 with their introduction of a Reading program and live online classes. The SplashLearn headquarters is in India and their primary market is the USA, but their services (including the SplashLearn app) are reportedly used by over 30 million children globally. As of August 2021 there were around 150 SplashLearn teachers delivering online tutoring.

SplashLearn Online Tutoring – How Does SplashLearn Work?

SplashLearn online teaching is delivered via Zoom, usually one-on-one, though classes can include up to 5 students. Pre and Kindergarten lessons last 25-30 minutes, while 1st-5th grade tutorials are 45-60 minutes long.

While there is some flexibility in incorporating third-party teaching materials (subject to approval), SplashLearn does prefer that you use what they provide as Slides through Google Drive. The use of props or a physical whiteboard (there is a digital one on Zoom) is acceptable. Lesson activities are aligned with SplashLearn games in the app to support the students’ independent learning.

Unfortunately, students are currently grouped together based on their availability for a particular SplashLearn course and time slot, not on their comprehension of the subject, which presents some challenges to teaching in the form of mixed-ability groups. Nor are SplashLearn tutors provided with any information ahead of time as to the students’ usage/accuracy/proficiency level relating to the course materials.

SplashLearn support is provided through Google Hangouts, while classes are scheduled through Google Calendar.

Is SplashLearn Just Math?

While SplashLearn math tuition is the company’s USP, they also tutor English Language Arts (literacy, reading, writing, etc.), following the US Common Core curriculum for both subjects from Pre-Kindergarten to 5th Grade. They do not teach ESL.

SplashLearn Salary

While the company advertises a rate of $20-25 on their website, SplashLearn pay for most teachers is actually US$14-21 per hour. This is broken down into:

  • $14 base pay
  • +$1 ‘On Time’ incentive (added after each completed class)
  • +$5 ‘Batch Completion’ incentive (added after completion of a course batch)
  • +$1 ‘Parent Feedback’ incentive (added after completion of a batch if at least 1 ‘Happy’ feedback is received during the course)

There is the opportunity to earn a $50 incentive if you refer a SplashLearn student to their program (the amount increases with additional referrals).

A SplashLearn tutor still gets paid if they have a student no show, and there are no financial penalties for teacher cancellations.

SplashLearn payments are issued by the 10th-15th of each month via direct bank deposit, with tutors having until the 5th to dispute any discrepancies.

SplashLearn Hours

SplashLearn hours are 7am-7pm (Pacific Time), with courses running Monday to Friday. Though the after-school period is busiest during term time, a fair number of children use SplashLearn for homeschooling during the day, on top of holiday periods.

While there is no longer an official minimum hours requirement (it used to be 10 hours), the company does want you to be available after school and expects tutors to commit to teaching the entire ‘batch’ for the duration of a SplashLearn course, though occasional cover can be arranged (leave is allowed 2-4 weeks in advance, with 24 hours notice for emergencies).

Batches consist of between 4-60 classes, meeting with the same student at the same times every week, either on:

  1. Monday, Wednesday, Friday
  2. Tuesday, Thursday
  3. Every weekday

Teachers provide their availability for one of these combinations of days, and will receive an email from the course coordinator once there is a matching enrollment. Batch requests can be rejected, and should be if you cannot teach the required times for at least the first 2 weeks of a course.

Pre and Kindergarten lessons last 25-30 minutes, while 1st-5th Grade classes are 45-60 minutes long. Feedback is required within 2 hours of a class finishing, or immediately after the last class if running several back-to-back, with tutors giving a brief summary of what topics were covered, what the student did well and where additional practice needs to be done. To see what is required, here are examples of SplashLearn feedback.

SplashLearn Requirements

Here are the requirements to become a SplashLearn educator:

  • Native English Speaker
  • Must have taught at least 200 online classes in any subject (teachers must be comfortable in front of a camera). You may be asked to prove this (e.g. through a reference letter or screenshots from another platform)
  • A minimum of 1 year of experience teaching math or ELA to elementary grades in the US (definition of ‘teaching’ includes tutoring, substituting, homework help, etc.). Teachers outside of the USA will have to prove their understanding of the Common Core curriculum.
  • A Gmail account in order to use Google Slides, Drive, Calendar and Hangouts

Is SplashLearn Hiring?

SplashLearn only hires periodically. To become a teacher and find out if there are currently any SplashLearn job openings, click on this link. If the calendar is not open for booking a preliminary discussion, then they are not hiring for now. If there is availability, apply to SplashLearn by filling out the form.

Do not be confused with this other SplashLearn teacher sign up page, which is for teachers looking to utilize the company’s resources in their physical classroom/school.

The preliminary 15-minute discussion is a relaxed one-on-one meeting where they will check that you meet their requirements. While there are no formal SplashLearn interview questions, you will be asked whether you are available to tutor after school. Candidates are also afforded the opportunity to ask their own questions about the company, the position or the hiring process. The discussion is pretty much a formality, with most applicants moving on to the mock class.

SplashLearn Mock Class

To teach with SplashLearn you must pass a mock class, which is booked following the preliminary discussion. Successful completion will result in a contract being offered.

You must select one of 3 topics to teach (an ELA alternative can be provided if you request it during your discussion):

  1. Add within 100
  2. Multiplication Word Problems: Equal Groups
  3. Introducing Fractions through Number Lines

Click on the links above to view the slides you will have to use.

SplashLearn says that ‘for an experienced teacher, the preparation for [the] mock class should not take more than an hour’.

You will be expected to teach 2-4 SplashLearn staff members pretending to be students, for a total of 30-45 minutes. The platform will be on Zoom, and you should demonstrate your familiarity with Common Core State Standards. You will also be assessed on:

  • Energy level/rapport building
  • Student engagement
  • Efficient pacing and timing
  • Presentation and concept clarity
  • A nice classroom set-up (e.g. appropriate lighting and background, no distractions)

For those unfamiliar or uncomfortable teaching with Zoom, here is a video showing how to use some of the platform’s functionality for the SplashLearn mock class:

SplashLearn Tutoring Reviews

The SplashLearn Glassdoor page gives the company an average rating of 4.2 out of 5, with 86% willing to recommend them to a friend (from 98 reviews, at the time of writing). Not all of these SplashLearn employee reviews are written by teachers/tutors, however (mostly software engineers).

These are the only SplashLearn teacher reviews one can find on there, which do not provide a great amount of detail. They do report that staff are treated well, the company does not over hire, hours can be chosen and no prep is required, though the platform can be glitchy and the pay is not substantial (though it is competitive):

Few SplashLearn reviews can be found in the Facebook teacher groups either, beyond this one which is also positive:

Conclusion – Is SplashLearn Worth It?

Should you manage to catch them during one of their hiring windows and you have experience of Common Core Math or ELA, then SplashLearn are worth considering on account of the positive reports from teachers there. While the base pay is not great, it becomes competitive with the bonuses which are relatively easy to achieve. You must be comfortable committing to an after-school fixed schedule for at least 2 days a week, however, delivering long courses of up to 60 classes.

You can check if the company is currently recruiting via the SplashLearn website. There is also a SplashLearn Hiring Q&A Facebook group.

A full list of alternative online teaching companies can be found here. Other math specialists to consider are Mathnasium and Thinkster Math.

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Dr Daniel Spence

Daniel Spence is the founder of Online Teaching Review. He has been an international teacher since 2008, an award-winning academic, author of two books, and holds a PhD, MA, BA (Hons), and TESOL.

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