Kaplan, Inc.
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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education |
| Founded | 1938 |
| Founder(s) | Stanley Kaplan |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Key people | Andrew Rosen, CEO & Chairman |
| Revenue | US$ 2.6 billion (2008) |
| Parent | The Washington Post Company |
| Divisions | Kids and Schools, Test Preparation and Admissions, Higher Education, Professional |
| Website | Kaplan.com |
Kaplan, Inc. is a for-profit corporation headquartered in New York City, and was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan.[1] Kaplan provides higher education programs, professional training courses, test preparation materials and other services for various levels of education.[2] It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Company.
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[edit] Company
Kaplan is a for-profit subsidiary of The Washington Post Company. Its Chairman and CEO is Andrew Rosen. Its 2009 revenue was $2.6 billion.[2]
Stanley H. Kaplan, the founder of the company, died of a heart ailment on August 23, 2009. He was 90 years of age. [3]
[edit] Subdivisions
Kaplan Higher Education is a group of institutions that offer fixed-facility and online certificate and degree programs in fields such as criminal justice, health care, business, information technology and legal studies. Iowa College Acquisition Corporation, operating under the Kaplan University brand[4], also offers online programs, and had approximately 37,000 students in 2007.[2] Kaplan also owns the online Concord Law School. Outside the United States, Kaplan operates Dublin Business School in Ireland, which offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in business and the liberal arts, and Asia Pacific Management Institute (APMI Kaplan) in Hong Kong / Singapore.
Kaplan Professional offers education for licensing, certification, and training purposes, in areas including accounting, insurance, securities, real estate, financial planning, information technology, and architecture. Kaplan Financial Ltd., a national UK company that offers accounting and financial services training in the United Kingdom and in Asia, was acquired in 2003 (as The Financial Training Company). In September 2007, Kaplan Law School was opened in London, in partnership with Nottingham Law School, to offer post-graduate legal training. In Australia, Kaplan provides professional training, higher education programs, and English language education. In May 2007 the UK arm of Kaplan extended its training offering from professional qualification into higher education with the introduction of Kaplan Open Learning. Kaplan Open Learning (Essex) Limited (“KOL”) has been established as an affiliate college of the University of Essex. The College provides university level education, offering programmes of study for students who wish to obtain a university Foundation Degree or top up that degree to an Honours Degree. Kaplan Open Learning is financially supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions and kaptest.co.uk sells preparation materials for standardized tests and tutoring services. Kaplan currently offers classes to prepare students for various exams: college admissions tests including the SAT and ACT; graduate school admission tests such as the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), Graduate Record Examination (GRE), Dental Admission Test (DAT), and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT); and other tests including the NCLEX, USMLE, COMLEX, CPA, TOEFL and PCAT exams. Outside of the United States and Canada, Kaplan operates in the UK and France, and also operates Kidum, a test preparation company in Israel, and Aspect, a provider of English language training based in the U.K.
Kaplan offers a range of programs and assessment tools for K12 students and teachers. Kaplan’s K12 programs range from after-school tutoring and virtual high school instruction for children to online curriculum development, reading and math intervention, supplemental skill and test readiness solutions, and college preparation programs for school districts.
Kaplan worked with Aspyr Media to develop and publish the educational video game futureU, which was released on August 25, 2008 for Windows and Mac OS X, and on November 5, 2008 for the Nintendo DS.[5]
[edit] History
Kaplan 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.[6] He eventually opened locations around the country. In 1984, Kaplan sold the company to The Washington Post Company, which centralized control. The company grew significantly in the 1990s by expanding its business and purchasing other test preparation and educational companies.[7] The company's leader during this expansion period was Jonathan Grayer.
[edit] Acquisitions
Major acquisitions during the last 15 years include:[8]
- 1996 – Score, a network of after-school tutoring centers based in California with locations around the country
- 1998 – Dearborn Publishing, a publisher of professional training books in Chicago
- 2000 – Quest Education Corporation, a network of for profit schools with 30 locations that brought Kaplan into the higher education industry
- 2003 – The Financial Training Company, a provider of accounting and financial service training based in London with operations in Asia
- 2003 - Dublin Business School, a university in Ireland that offers undergraduate and postgraduate business and liberal arts programs
- 2004 - Two Sawyer College campuses: Hammond, Indiana and Merrillville, Indiana.
- 2005 - Asia Pacific Management Institute (APMI Kaplan), a Higher Education company providing Diploma to Doctoral degrees offered by different universities.
- 2006 – Tribeca Learning, a financial services and real estate training provider based in Australia
- 2006 – Aspect Education, a provider of English language instruction based in the U.K.
- 2007 - Finsia Education, a provider of financial services training.
- 2007 - EduNeering Inc.
[edit] Class-action lawsuit
Kaplan Inc. recently agreed to settle a class action lawsuit that had been brought against BAR/BRI and Kaplan. Among the allegations in the suit, which charged that BAR/BRI had overcharged students, was an allegation of antitrust violation claiming that Kaplan had agreed not to compete in the bar review business while BAR/BRI agreed it would not compete in the LSAT business. Both West Publishing Company (parent of BAR/BRI), and Kaplan, Inc., denied the allegations and the matter was resolved without any findings of wrongdoing.[9]
[edit] False Claims Act Lawsuit
Three former academic officers at Kaplan University have filed a wide-ranging federal lawsuit that accuses the for-profit institution of defrauding the U.S. government out of more than $4-billion.
The lawsuit alleges that Kaplan enrolled unqualified students, inflated their grades so they could stay enrolled, and falsified documents to obtain accreditation for certain academic programs. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida. [10]
In further developments in this case, the three former employees who have accused Kaplan University in federal court of obtaining federal student-aid funds under false pretenses received a subsequent boost from the U.S. government. It came in the form of a court filing by the U.S. Department of Justice, opposing Kaplan’s attempt to have the False Claims Act lawsuit against it dismissed.
Although the federal government has declined to intervene in the case, the Justice Department said in its filing that Kaplan’s legal arguments for dismissing the case were off point.
Further, the Justice Department maintained, the “parade of horribles” that Kaplan predicted if the case were not dismissed was “entirely illusory.” The government is entitled to a portion of the proceeds if the employees prevail against the company.
The U.S. Department of Justice's involvement in the case echoes the stance it took in 2005, after a False Claims Act lawsuit against the for-profit University of Phoenix was initially dismissed. That case was later reinstated by a higher court and slated for trial.
Kaplan University has denied any wrongdoing. The institution is an arm of Kaplan Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. [11]
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b c Washington Post Shareholder website
- ^ Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-obit-kaplanaug26,0,4154043.story.
- ^ Iowa Secretary of State Filings
- ^ "futureU". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ds/futureutheprepgameforsat. Retrieved 2008-12-26.
- ^ Blumentstyk, Goldie (September 4, 2009). "Stanley H. Kaplan, the Entrepreneur Who Put Academe to the Test". The Chronicle of Higher Education LVI (2): A35.
- ^ Kaplan, Stanley H. Test Pilot. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.
- ^ About Kaplan Press Releases
- ^ BAR/BRI Class Action Lawsuit website
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
[edit] External links
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