Achievement First reviews

3.0

35% would recommend to a friend

(999 total reviews)
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Fatimah Barker

39% approve of CEO

21% positive business outlook

Achievement First has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 999 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Achievement First employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

999 reviews
4.0
Dec 19, 2016

Great people with the same mission in mind

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people I work with are smart, accountable, and we are all here to do what's best for our students. Achievement First works hard to train and develop its teachers and leaders, and staff members are giving the opportunity to grow along with the organization.

Cons

Although Achievement First is certainly working on this, I struggle to maintain work-life balance. The norm is to be available weekday nights and weekends, along with regular work hours.

5.0
Dec 18, 2016

Great place to grow

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Working at AF, you'll grow a ton as a teacher, for several reasons: first, you'll get lots of feedback on everything from lesson plans to management to the questions you ask in class to facilitate discussions. Second, there are lots of great teachers at your school already whom you can go observe, borrow/steal from, and get advice from. I feel like I'm held to a very high bar here, and it feels good. They're also really serious about developing your career, no matter what you're interested in doing. This isn't the average teach-for-20-minutes-and-open-a-school type of place. Lots of people here want to stay in the classroom as their forever career, so the turnover is less bad than other charter schools'. If you are interested in an administrative role, they give you lots of guidance and there are many pathways and platforms to work on. It's also a charter school you can feel good about working at. All AF materials are available for any other schools to use, the schools intentionally don't spend more per pupil than their host districts, and at least in my individual school's case, we have a higher percentage of students with IEPs than our host district does. Lastly, I think AF is a little more aware of the power dynamics (racial, class, gender, sexuality) that are at play in any school, particularly one that educates black and brown children. We could grow more, here, but having worked at Uncommon as well, I feel that we're ahead of them in terms of honest reflection and growth in addressing issues like culturally responsive teaching, equity in discipline, and recruiting and attracting diverse talent.

Cons

The hours are long. It's not an easy place to work, and there is an expectation that you'll do whatever it takes to get things done. The health insurance is pretty good, but there is no retirement pension; you'll have to save some of your higher-than-traditional-public-schools salary into a 403(b) instead.

4.0
Dec 16, 2016

Humility, warmth, and kids-first mentality

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I came from a small team and was concerned that joining a large network like Achievement First would be bureaucratic with lots of politics at play. I was so pleasantly surprised by the level of unity, transparency, and genuine care for one another that AF displays. Hardworking, smart, passionate, empathetic.. Best coworkers! Humble, reflective, ambitious... Strong leadership! Data-driven, always-striving, flexible... Wonderful network-wide practices!

Cons

AF is working hard to increase diversity at the leadership level. I think we need to accelerate this process to be sure more decision-makers that come from backgrounds similar to our scholars'. That way, we can be more attuned to families' lived experiences as we make decisions that affect them and their children.

Viewing 829 - 831 of 999 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,021 Achievement First reviews submitted anonymously by Achievement First employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Achievement First is right for you.