Wall Street English has a pretty good image, but hasn't been reviewed by current or former teachers, so I thought I'd share my experience with Wall Street in China.

There's good reason why they have a good image; it's high on their priority list, much higher than quality of teaching and ethical conduct. I routinely have students complain about Wall Street being misrepresented by sales staff. When I brought this up with managers in the past, responses varied from a blank stare to This is a corporation, what do you expect? I wouldn't blame the sales staff first regarding this issue either, the quotas that they have to fill aren't exactly fair especially considering their pay.

Wall Street makes a lot of claims about their concern for fair and ethical business, but when it comes down to it, it's a lot of lip service. When I joined Wall Street, I had significant teaching experience, and asked for a higher starting salary because of this. I was told that it couldn't be done due to company policy, but at the end of the first year adjustments could be made to the salary to compensate. A year passed, but this never happened. Further, when I attempted to report some unethical and unprofessional behavior my manager engaged in, instead of being contacted by someone to investigate the situation his manager issued a reprimand to me.

It would have been easy for me to write this all off as just part of China's business environment not reflective of the entire international organization, but another teacher I spoke with told me about her experience. Wall Street's parent company, Pearson, makes similar claims about the importance of ethics, and has a special contact office for ethics issues. When this teacher couldn't get any response regarding some problems with Wall Street's management, she tried to contact Pearson's ethics office and got no response at all.

To be fair, Wall Street in China does a lot of things better than a lot of other schools in China. They pay salaries regularly. They take care of visa issuance in a straightforward manner. They even provide some health coverage. A lot of the teaching materials are thoroughly prepared so after getting settled in there is not much need for off-the-clock preparation work. This last item is a double-edged sword though. You don't need to do much unpaid prep time, but you also have little freedom over what is being taught. Their center style also makes you meet students in a very random way, making it difficult to keep an eye on specific students to make sure they are overcoming the difficulties they meet.

Overall, if you just need to fund your time in China, Wall Street may be a good choice for you. If you have a strong sense of ethics, or are truly interested in furthering your teaching skills, you will probably be uncomfortable with them.