Achievement First reviews

This is one of the very last things we’d ever want to hear from any team member – but if this was your experience then we need to hear it. And I thank you for sharing it. I’d be even more grateful if you’d consider reaching out to me and discussing (in confidence) more about your experience, including what school you were at. We never want this to be someone’s experience and so we regret to hear that it was yours. For years we have been striving to make sure our organization is diverse and inclusive because it’s vital to our success in our mission. We are privileged to serve communities in New York, Connecticut, and Providence and our families and students identify overwhelmingly as people of color - with a rich variety of proud identities and heritage. We deeply believe that we must provide our kids a team of talented adults that reflects that rich diversity, and that we can succeed at maximizing our kids potential when our teams have many strong players that look like our students and deeply identify with their experience. For that reason, we strive to recruit people of color and first-generation college students (most of our hires identified last year) and we are proud that our retention of teachers is higher within those groups. But where we are falling short and people’s experience is not fully inclusive and equitable, we have to learn more and keep growing. In that spirit, if you are willing to reach out, I would appreciate it immensely. -Tom Kaiser, Chief Talent Officer tomkaiser@achievementfirst.org