Pros
Strong feedback culture, other teachers were lovely people.
Cons
Worst months of my life, worst job of my life, terrible pay, brought out horrible parts of me I didn't know existed. Teachers are exploited, abused, ignored, bullied, gaslit, harassed, all of it. I can't even talk about it yet without breaking down. This school shouldn't be in operation. They have got to be fudging data - they claim to be among the top schools in Denver, and yet our students were several grades behind academically and behaviorally. One social worker on campus for 400+ students. SPED teachers overworked. Electives teachers left totally alone in curriculum design and utterly unappreciated, and overworked to an absurd degree. English and Math teachers expected to grade entire school's tests in just hours. Coaches had way too much on their plate to be effective. Completely ineffective discipline/restorative justice structure - kids just do not care if they get interventions, so there's no reason to use the disciplinary system. Classrooms unbelievably unsafe as a result - totally chaotic and if there were a real emergency, I am confident that a student or a teacher would get hurt. Four teachers quit in the first trimester only. It was absolute hell for students and teachers alike. The CEO of these predominantly black and hispanic - serving schools is a white man who never steps foot on campuses and has no idea how to actually be mindful of the needs of our students. Admin are clueless and unhelpful. Idealism is only admirable when there aren't young people's lives and futures on the line. I hope the school I left gets shut down and the families there get to send their students to a real, safe, well-intentioned school that will actually set their children up for a healthy future. My heart is broken for those kids. Kids will leave unprepared for the real world, and god was it bleak inside. Pseudo-prison aesthetic. I am proud to have walked away from DSST - I will not contribute to the deliberate damning and depression of real human lives. Don't even get me started on the deliberate measures they take to insure teachers are unable to advance their careers outside of the organization.
