Achievement First reviews

1. Having a work/life balance is essentially non-existent. I was having a difficult time getting to work right at 7 am (arriving at 7:01 am is considered late and I usually arrived at 7:03 am) and my supervisor "advised" me to stop wearing makeup, shower at night, and limit my physical and social activity so that I could get to the school before 7 am. 2. There are no opportunities for growth if you're not a teacher. 3. I spent 10-12 hours at work almost every day but if I tried to leave on a Friday after working 8 hours, I would be scolded and told that it would be counted as a half-day. 4. While working on the operations team, I was made to feel like a slave and for the most part ignored throughout the day by non-operational staff. 5. Don't expect to get paid according to the quality of work you put in if you are not an instructional staff member. Teachers frequently get raises however I was told that there was no room in the budget to give me a raise of even $1/hr if I stayed for another work despite the great job I did for the school over the year that I was there. 6. This list could go on on.

This place is probably the worst place I have ever worked at as a teacher. I have never wittnessed an organization that burns out more talented, hardworking and genuinely nice individuals than this place. The culture of "no excuses" tranlsated itself into a "blame-culture" where teachers are nitpicked at and criticized for every single piece of information throughout their day. Instead of a student-centered environment where students are the focus, teachers are seen as "robot controllers" and asked to "control" students so they would never "misbehave." Whenever a child acted out in my classroom, I was told that "I let them misbehave," instead of having a dialogue where we could discuss ways to support the student and the teacher. Kindergarten students are given corrections when their hands are not folded in a "SLANT" position and students frequently get reprimanded for talking for good reasons. My students were chastised for telling their friends "Are you okay?" "I'll help you." During meetings students are never discussed and the principal presented on reading level goals as a way to make more money for the AF Report Card. This is probably the worst place and I only thank AF for this year becuase now I know how a school should NOT be run. Leadership has made many derragatory comments to the community by referring to them as "under-priveleged kids who only respond to 'yelling' because that is what they know." I was also told that some of my kids are "retartded and have issues." Needless to say my eyes rolled backwards and I am so glad to say that I am leaving this organization for good. What AF says they are on paper is not who they really are. They are obssessed with projecting their self-made image, do not care about individual kids and run their organization like a coporation.