Kaplan, Inc. is an American
for-profit corporation that provides educational and training services to colleges, universities, businesses and individuals around the world. Founded in 1938 by
Stanley Kaplan
Stanley Henry Kaplan (May 24, 1919 – August 23, 2009) was an American businessman and scholastic test preparation pioneer who founded Kaplan, Inc., in 1938.
Early life and education
Kaplan was born in New York City, to Jewish immigrant paren ...
, the company offers a variety of
test preparation, certifications and student support services.
The company is headquartered in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...
, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of
Graham Holdings Company.
History
Kaplan, Inc. was founded in 1938 by
Stanley H. Kaplan, who started the business by tutoring students for the
New York State Regents Exam in the basement of his parents' Brooklyn home. He eventually opened locations around the country. In 1984, Kaplan sold the company to
The Washington Post Company.
The company grew significantly in the 1990s by expanding its business and purchasing other test preparation and educational companies.
The company's leader during this expansion period was
Jonathan Grayer
Jonathan Grayer is the Chairman and CEO of Imagine Learning, a leading digital education technology company focused on developing digital curriculum and tools for pre-K–12 students. Grayer founded the company in January 2010 as a partnership wit ...
.
In 2017,
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
announced the acquisition of
Kaplan University
Kaplan University (KU) was a private online for-profit university owned by Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. It was predominantly a distance learning institution, maintaining 14 ground locations across the United States. The ...
, and the sale was completed in 2018. The new institution became known as
Purdue University Global
Purdue University Global, Inc (PG), formerly Kaplan University, is a public university, public Distance education, online university that operates as a public-benefit nonprofit corporation, public-benefit corporation and is part of the Purdue Un ...
, and provides accredited distance learning to students throughout the world. Kaplan continues to provide non-academic contractor support for services such as recruitment, marketing, admissions, human resources, and IT support.
Products and services
Kaplan offers a variety of educational and training products and services, including tutoring, on-site classes, live programs, print books, online products and others.
For students and individuals
*Educational Test Preparation. Kaplan helps students prepare for 233 standardized tests, such as the ACT, SAT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT and many others.
*Professional Training and Licensing Exams. Kaplan offers support to professionals for licensing exams such as nursing, medicine, insurance, real estate, architecture, engineering, finance, accounting, wealth management, law and others.
*Tutoring and Admissions Counseling. Kaplan provides tutoring support, and publishes a guide for transfer of credits.
*Language Training. Kaplan offers language training for English, French, German and Spanish, online and in-person at sites around the world.
*Accredited College Study and Degrees. Kaplan supports
Purdue University Global
Purdue University Global, Inc (PG), formerly Kaplan University, is a public university, public Distance education, online university that operates as a public-benefit nonprofit corporation, public-benefit corporation and is part of the Purdue Un ...
, which offers accredited coursework at the associate's, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels.
For businesses and educational institutions
Kaplan offers support for technology, admissions, help-desk, marketing, human resources, financial aid processing, recruiting, corporate training, and other business functions.
Kaplan's educational and training include several enterprises:
*Kaplan operates Metis, a licensed data science and analytics school and training organization that operates immersive, live online boot camp programs and courses, and conducts training for corporations worldwide.
*Kaplan provides healthcare simulation through i-Human Patients, providing simulated patient interactions for use in training and assessing medical health professionals.
*Kaplan runs Red Marker, which provides compliance software to identify potential legal and brand risk in any document, enabling review of marketing content to ensure compliance.
*
Kaplan Financial Education
Kaplan Financial Education is part of Kaplan University School of Professional and Continuing Education, based in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Kaplan Financial Education is a consortium of numerous financial services training and publishing companie ...
provides training in accounting, financial services, securities trading, insurance and other financial professionals.
*PPI2PASS is a Kaplan-owned company that provides more than 35 training programs for engineering, architecture, surveying, interior design, and other professional disciplines.
Corporate overview
According to the company’s website, Kaplan has more than 12,000 employees in more than 30 countries, and reaches more than 100 countries through its online courses. Its partners include more than 14,000 businesses and more than 4000 educational institutions. The company’s chairman and CEO is
Andrew Rosen, and its 2020 revenue was $1.3 billion.
Kaplan operates through two major divisions: Kaplan North America and Kaplan International. A third division, Kaplan Corporate, manages investment activities in education technology companies.
Kaplan North America (KNA)
Kaplan North America encompasses two segments: Higher Education and Supplemental Education.
KNA higher education provides operations support services for online pre-college, certificate, undergraduate and graduate programs to various educational and training institutions, including
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
,
Wake Forest University and others. In its support agreement with
Purdue University Global
Purdue University Global, Inc (PG), formerly Kaplan University, is a public university, public Distance education, online university that operates as a public-benefit nonprofit corporation, public-benefit corporation and is part of the Purdue Un ...
, which operates largely online as a public university affiliated with the
Purdue University system, KNA provides support for technology, admissions, help-desk, marketing, human resources, financial aid processing, recruiting, and other functions.
KNA supplemental education products include test preparation, data science education and training, healthcare simulation businesses, publishing, professional licensure training and preparation, corporate training and continuing education. KNA’s test preparation services are branded through Kaplan Test Prep, Manhattan Prep and Barron’s Educational Series. In total, KNA test prep prepares students for more than 233 standardized tests, the large majority of which are U.S. focused. Kaplan also sells admissions consulting, tutoring and other student advising services. Kaplan Publishing focuses on print and digital test preparation and reference resources.
Kaplan International (KI)
Kaplan International is based in London and operates educational businesses in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East.
KI Pathways was founded in 2005, and serves 20,000 students per year, according to its website.
KI Languages offers instruction in English, Spanish, French and German, and deliver content to countries around the world.
KI has offices and operations in more than 30 countries. For example, KI United Kingdom provides training, test preparation and degrees for accounting, financial services and legal professionals. In the Asia Pacific region, Kaplan operates businesses primarily in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and South Korea:
*In Singapore, Kaplan operates three business units: Kaplan Higher Education, Kaplan Financial and Kaplan Professional. Kaplan Professional provided short courses to managers, executives, and other business leaders.
*In Australia, Kaplan delivers financial services education and professional development courses through Kaplan Professional, as well as higher education programs in business, accounting, hospitality, and tourism and management.
*In Hong Kong, Kaplan offers programs ranging from language education and standardized test preparation to corporate and financial training and higher education degree courses.
*In South Korea, in addition to university preparation programs, Kaplan delivers A-Level programs and cooperates with several Chinese universities to provide ACCA training programs to students.
Lawsuits and investigations
In 2007, a
class-action lawsuit
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...
was settled for $30 million by Kaplan and
BarBri, a company offering
bar exam preparation. Among the allegations was a
federal antitrust violation claiming that Kaplan had agreed not to compete in the bar review business while BarBri agreed it would not compete in the LSAT business. Both
West Publishing Company
West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West ha ...
(parent of BarBri) and Kaplan denied the allegations and the matter was resolved without any findings of wrongdoing.
In 2012, the
North Carolina Attorney General determined Kaplan lied to students about the credentials they would earn in the Dental Assistant program. Following the investigation Kaplan College Charlotte campus surrendered its license to operate a school. Kaplan refunded students the cost of tuition, books, and fees, and agreed to pay the program’s graduates $9,000 stipends. Students claimed they were told the school would soon obtain ADA accreditation. The program had never been accredited by the
American Dental Association
The American Dental Association (ADA) is an American professional association established in 1859 which has more than 161,000 members. Based in the American Dental Association Building in the Near North Side of Chicago, the ADA is the world's ...
, and had never been scheduled for the initial site visit required for accreditation.
In 2014, Kaplan settled with the
Florida Attorney General regarding claims of using misleading marketing to enroll students. Kaplan was investigated for violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Under the terms of the settlement, Kaplan agreed to “clearly and conspicuously disclose true and accurate information relating to the school’s accreditation, program costs, financial aid, and the scope and nature of employment services they provide.” Specifically, Kaplan cannot claim a program is “fully accredited,” can’t say that an interview or recommendation is required, can’t use artificial or arbitrary enrollment deadlines, can’t say a course is in “high demand” or has limited availability if it does not, can’t say that federal grants are “free money,” and can’t enroll a student with regular internet access. Further, Kaplan agreed to retrain to students who asserted claims against the school. During the course of the investigation Kaplan waived $6 million in tuition and fees for more than 2,400 Florida students, and reimburses the Florida Attorney General’s office for attorney costs.
A year later, Kaplan paid $1.375 million to the
Massachusetts Attorney General
The Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected Constitution of Massachusetts, constitutionally defined executive officer of the Government of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement offic ...
's office to resolve complaints that Kaplan engaged in “unfair or deceptive practices designed to induce enrollment of students” including “harassing sales tactics and false and misleading representations” in the operation of the Kaplan Career Institute campus in Boston, Massachusetts. Also in 2015, Kaplan paid $1.3 million, with $1 million going toward tuition refunds to 289 students, to resolve allegations that it hired instructors who were not qualified. The
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
began investigating Kaplan following a
Qui tam
In common law, a writ of ''qui tam'' is a writ through which private individuals who assist a prosecution can receive for themselves all or part of the damages or financial penalties recovered by the government as a result of the prosecution. Its ...
suit filed by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act. The whistleblower alleged Kaplan employed unqualified instructors to teach Medical Assistant courses at its San Antonio campuses and knowingly requested, received, and retained federal funds for courses taught by individuals who did not meet the minimum requirements established by Texas law.
Kaplan Educational Foundation (KEF)
The KEF is a
501(c)(3) charity that offers undergraduate and graduate educational scholarship opportunities and other assistance to students in the New York City area who are traditionally overlooked or under-served, including African American, Latino, and Native American students. Kaplan scholars receive a comprehensive array of financial and academic support, transfer admissions advising, and leadership skills development. The foundation partners with dozens of higher educational institutions around the United States.
In addition to support from its partners and benefactors, the foundation is supported through sales of its guide to college transfer. The guide profiles top U.S. schools and their transfer policies, and is a resource for students and school administrators to navigate the complex transfer process, including credits and graduation requirements. The guide provides specialized advice to non-traditional students, including veterans, students raising families, and students with unique immigration needs. Private citizens may donate these guides to deserving students, and all proceeds from sales are used to support the foundation.
Awards, rankings and honors
Kaplan has been received numerous awards and recognition for its businesses, products and services, including:
Newsweek's 100 Most Loved Workplaces 2021Sun-Sentinel's South Florida Top Workplaces 2021*
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
's Best SAT Test Prep Book fo
2021
Fast Company's Most Innovative Education Company 2014
See also
*
For-profit higher education in the United States
References
External links
Kaplan, Inc.Kaplan Test PrepArticle on history of Kaplan's founderby
Malcolm Gladwell
{{Authority control
Test preparation companies
Education companies established in 1938
Distance education institutions based in the United States
Universities and colleges accredited by the Council on Occupational Education
Education companies of the United States
1938 establishments in Florida