Pros
I learned more about teaching in a few months at DSST than in 2 years at a public school. In the 2 years I taught at DSST, I grew so much in all areas of teaching, both as a result of observing the talent around me and from the development provided. If you're willing to put in the time, anyone can be a great teacher at DSST because of the built in school culture norms and expectations. There is a focus on growth at the individual, school, and network level that is inspiring and exciting to be a part of. Everyone at DSST seeks to constantly improve. Students are truly the focus at DSST, which I have not found to be the case at all schools. For the most part DSST schools and teachers do not take short cuts; they focus on authentic student achievement and growth.
Cons
DSST was pitched to me as being more relaxed than other charter schools. I can't speak to the truth of that statement as I have never worked at another charter school, but 2 years at DSST was enough to convince me to leave the teaching profession. In order to do everything that was required of me as a teacher, I arrived at work by 6:30 every morning (usually leaving within an hour of school ending at 4) and worked for 3-6 hours every weekend. I had a position with a larger grading load than most other teachers, but my hours were not especially different from theirs. For me, the stress was not worth the benefits of working at such an amazing school. A significant problem for me was that the employees at the DSST central office are not held to the same standard as teachers. It is not clear what accountability structures are in place to monitor the quality of their work (in contrast to a very thorough teacher & administrator evaluation system), and for this reason I did not feel like many of these people cared about serving teachers effectively. This is certainly not true of every employee at the home office, but it was frustrating to me that I was held to such a high standard, while some of the home office employees with whom I had to work closely were not especially competent. The same holds true for CEO Bill Kurtz, who feels very comfortable holding teachers accountable but does not seek out feedback in any meaningful way. Ultimately, my main complaint about DSST is that I didn't feel heard. At the school and central office level, constructive feedback and ideas for improvement from teachers were selectively (and arbitrarily) acknowledged. This seemed to be the main source of discontent among teachers at my school, though I cannot speak for all campuses.
