Thales wants to provide a quality education at an affordable price but their target students and vision beyond that are unclear. Because it’s “affordable,” and accepts vouchers, Thales tends to catch kids who don’t get into a charter school and whose base public school isn’t desirable for the family, or their child was denied from a different private school program. So, many families do not come for the classical education nor understand what that is. Thales was managed centrally up until this 19-20 school year where it seems more local control has been given to campus administrators. This is hopefully a positive shift, but reaffirms what I said regarding experiences being different from each Thales campus to another.
Curricular materials for 6-12 aren’t great. Most of it is made from scratch. Some departments and grade levels do not have teaching standards or objectives. Some campus admins pick and choose which rules to adhere to, which makes teaching difficult and confusing. “How do you play the game when you don’t know the rules?” I ask myself often.
My biggest suggestion would be if you are in the hiring phase, ask to observe and meet with department or grade level members. Thales hires many new or inexperienced teachers without an education teachers to keep costs low. That makes things more difficult for veteran staff because they are then tasked with intensively mentoring new staff members (without a formal mentoring program, mentor training, or fair pay). I have heard that “veteran teachers are just too expensive and the data doesn’t say what they do is worth it” from the mouths of upper level management (above campus admins).
Further, it is my understanding that Thales has a top-level (CEO) opinion of what a school should and shouldn’t do, which is only to educate students and that topics and conversations beyond academics are discouraged and don’t align with Thales. As such, social/emotional support or teacher-training is intentionally left out because it doesn’t align with the Thales model/mission.
When a student shares sensitive info or a situation arises, I don’t have the training to navigate the best approach and there is no licensed guidance counselor on campus that I can send them to. Huge liability. Our campus admin manages budgets, discipline, event planning, admissions and enrollment, staffing, teacher observations, parent concerns, curriculum oversight, in addition to way more behind the scenes. She then is also tasked with handling sensitive emotional crises for students—how is all of that possible?
Raises and salary are secretive and unclear. I know people with little experience (1-3 years) who make the same as people with many years of service (10+ years) and dedication. Thales uses pay to attempt to buy loyalty in the form of unannounced “merit and dedication bonuses” at certain campuses.
There are too few people in administrative and management roles for the amount of work that running a school takes. Half of Thales corporate also works for Captiveaire, so their focuses are elsewhere and do not understand the nuances of running a school. Class sizes are huge. This includes all grades from K-12 at most campuses. They will advertise a specific number class average but then when scheduling occurs management often denies the expense of adding another class or section, so they opt for fewer but bigger class sizes.
The expansion and replication of Thales to Nashville, Richmond, and beyond is concerning considering they don’t have a fully successful model that is well staffed or runs smoothly. Some of the buildings have mold, leaky roofs, and general quality issues. Masters degree level pay is not guaranteed and instead given cherry-picked by whose masters degree matters and is more applicable than others. Google and find the parent handbooks to understand more. Ask to see a faculty handbook up front. Teaching supplies aren’t guaranteed.
Lack of guidance counselor, rigorous college planning (1 person for 250+ kids?) no academic/curricular oversight or quality control, teachers at 6-12 must give 6 assessments every 9 weeks. Students in K5 are often graded for completion and mastery when the opposite occurs in 6-12. This is massively confusing for students who were “all As” kids and then in middle school really struggle due to years of grade inflation. Teachers are not allowed to hang things on the walls to “maintain order and beauty” AKA cut costs on painting and staple-hole repairing.
It has been said many times that to staff members that “at least you aren’t working at public school”—so there’s an element of fear mongering for staff as well. Everyone is on 1 year contracts and receives a review that is tied to their raise amount, but no one knows what performance review score correlates with what raise percentage.
As a non-religious school, Thales sweeps many Judeo-Christian values under the “classical education” model. I guess there were no LGBTQ people in Rome.
