Achievement First reviews

Because of the network-mandated techniques for use in the classroom, teachers have little autonomy over their classrooms. The workload is far too intense to maintain staff--the turnover rate is shocking and does active harm to students. AF functions on a burnout model, hiring young, idealistic teachers who can't stick it out for more than a few years just so they can hire more teachers of the same type. Most teachers leave AF never to teach again because they think that the drill-sargeant, racist "coaching" techniques at this school and maltreatment of the staff is true of teaching everywhere. I would not recommend a job at AF to anyone.

AF used to be a great place to work, even though the work was hard. But over the last few years the nearly limitless principal autonomy and relentless focus on test scores has turned the organization into one that cares more about data than it does people. Staff members are expected to be online and responsive 7am-10pm, and most interactions focus on gaps, rather than successes. I would not recommend working for AF.