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      Achievement First

      Engaged Employer

      Achievement First reviews

      3.1

      35% would recommend to a friend

      (217 total reviews)
      avatar

      Fatimah Barker

      39% approve of CEO

      21% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.7

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.1

      Culture & values

      3.1

      Compensation and benefits

      3.1

      Career opportunities

      2.6

      Work/Life balance

      2.6

      Senior management

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      217 reviews

      Reviews about "Compensation"

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      4.0
      Jul 21, 2017

      Great place to start your teaching career

      Teacher
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      *As a new teacher you will grow so fast in behavior management and best academic practices because of all the coaching, professional development, and observations. Leadership really steps it up and makes you want to do better to be the best teacher you can be for your students. *Everyone truly wants to do what's best for the kids. It's an inspiring place where no excuses are accepted. Every kid should and will learn. No excuses. *Results oriented. Everyone wants to see kids passing and succeeding. Best practices are shared with everyone so everyone can experience success, teachers and students alike. It's an amazing feeling seeing kids succeed, especially hard to reach and underserved students. *Great pay! After working there for 2.5 hears I made 65k and was scheduled to make 70k+ the following year. *Students really do learn a lot here. AF students work very hard and teachers do whatever they can to help them learn. * Teachers do their best create a team-like environment to help students in all subjects and across grade levels. *Overall, great place to get started as a teacher. You will learn so much so quickly and truly feel like you are making a difference in your students' lives.

      Cons

      *Because leadership team wants the best results and wants teachers to grow they micromanage your classroom. This means there are a lot of observations and constructive criticism. While this is helpful because we all want to learn and become the best teachers we can be, it can at times stifle the more creative and artistic side of teaching. It also can feel like you're teaching ability is constantly under scrutiny. *Long hours for teachers and students. School day from 7:15 to 4:15 (including breakfast, Lunch, and snack) Way too long! It tires teachers and students out on a daily basis. As a teacher, you get used to it after a while, but why? That extra hour or two does not equate into that much more learning because the students are tired by the last 45 minute period of the day. *Students need more time for play. Recess was 20 minutes long. Lunch was 20 minutes long. For elementary students, I do not think this is long enough, especially when you consider how long the school day is. Students need more time to be kids. We should be educating the whole child, and not just the strong focus on academics, even though the results are there. *Strict discipline policy for students that teachers must adhere to. Everyone must use the same behavior management policy, which is good in that it's consistent, but it can never be consistent because all teachers are different. School is very military-like when it comes to behavior and student culture. While this does show good results academically, it is very stressful for teachers and students alike.

      avatar
      Achievement First Response
      8y
      Thank you for your giving us such thoughtful feedback. Reading your review fired me up a bit when I read, “Every kid should and will learn. No excuses.” I share your appreciation for an environment where everyone truly wants to do what’s best for kids. In the same spirit, I appreciate your push as well. You hit on the fact that we “play as a team” to lead our schools and rely on our ability to hold the same expectations and use a school-wide approach in order to give kids a consistent experience. At the same time, we know that kids also need an authentic experience – in particular – they need to form authentic relationships with their teachers and see their unique personalities (just as teachers need to see the kids’ unique personalities). Doing both of those is really hard, and we’re not there yet in all of our schools. To make progress on this we are devoting more time and energy into our “real-time” coaching of teachers which rapidly improves the teacher’s instructional effectiveness AND their relationship building effectiveness. As you said it, we want teachers to be the best teacher they can be for their students. We are also launching a coordinated Student Investment priority across our schools for the 2018-2019 school year. This year we are spending time figuring out what aspects of student-teacher relationships are most effective and how we can make sure that teachers are empowered to be their unique selves while working as part of a consistent team for kids. Thanks again for taking the time to share your feedback. -Joey Roane, Director, Team School Culture
      1.0
      Jul 16, 2017

      Teacher

      Teacher
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Good pay and some of the nicest students I've ever taught were here.

      Cons

      There is little to no work life balance with Achievement First. My first year there they attempted to find ways to help teachers balance the workload and their personal lives but after that did not work the next year they simple banned teachers in our school from using the phrase "work life balance". You will be run ragged at this school and despite making some monumental academic achievements with the students you will be made to feel like you still haven't done enough. Some of the best teachers I've ever worked with were at AF, but many of the worst teachers I've ever worked with were there also. On multiple occassions other teachers made disparaging comments about other employees to not only the students but other teachers also. In several of the cases the comments were overlooked by the administration because the teacher who made the comments was a "highly performing teacher". This was a huge morale killer and ultimately made coming to work each day that much harder.

      avatar
      Achievement First Response
      9y
      Thank you for sharing your experience and - if you haven't already – I would love it if you could share that feedback directly with your former principal (especially if they are still with Achievement First). Work/Life Balance is clearly a significant challenge facing AF (and I would argue, the movement broadly). I promise you it’s not one we’re trying to solve with semantics. First, I think it’s important for all Glassdoor readers to know that there is a trade-off to doing this work at AF. It’s hard. I continue to spend more hours working than many of my friends. But unlike many of my friends, I don’t see those hours as just “work hours” that are separate from my life. They are spent with people I love doing work that is deeply meaningful to me. But that’s a personal perspective. And the reality is that so many of our people DO feel the tension between being their best selves personally and professionally. Our organization, and I, believe the movement will not succeed if we can’t keep making progress in helping people stay in it longer. And that goes so far beyond lip service for us. We’re in the middle of huge a 2-year investment to create lessons that teachers can use in every subject and grade, so that we never again have teachers spending hours every day starting from scratch in planning excellent lessons. It’s why we held a hackathon with our teachers to identify and create solutions for things getting in their way. And it’s why we’re already trying to figure out what our next changes will be in 2017-2018. We’re not going to fundamentally change what it takes to succeed in this movement, but by listening to our people and continuing to make changes I believe that we can make it a lot easier for people to stay and succeed. -Tom Kaiser, Chief Talent Officer
      2.0
      Jun 7, 2017

      fear-driven culture drove out talent

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      -Excellent benefits and pay -Supportive parents and community were a big plus -Colleagues were energized and solutions-oriented

      Cons

      -Young management tried to prove their worth through micromanaging more experienced teachers -Top-down fear of failure punctured student and staff culture -High turnover, even midyear

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