A tremendous disappointment which has resulted in a miserable life-changing experience
Pros
The ability to work from home, which may be appealing to those with young children, or those who do not enjoy the 5am alarm associated with classroom instruction, or those who wish for some flexibility to make a doctors appointment or go for a run in the middle of the day, which you certainly can. Removal from the bell schedule associated with typical classroom structure is also appealing to many, although now you'll have different and more frustrating parameters to work within.
Cons
For the teacher, a salary of about $45,000 (all instructors earn the same salary, regardless of experience or skill) to work 12 months a year, "8am to 8pm" daily, including weekends. There are no raises, there is no union, and a non-compete clause says that after leaving you are un-hire-able in the field of K-12 education nationwide for a full year. So once in, most teachers who are not financially independent struggle to keep the job at any cost. Upper management knows this, and takes advantage of it. The contentious point of the job is not the actual working hours, but what FLVS refers to as the hours of "availability." Students are told of the "teacher availability" from "8am to 8pm" including the weekends. Now, my bank says that service is "available" from 8am to 6pm, Monday through Friday. "Available," to any reasonable person, means... well, available. If I call this line, I expect for the call to be answered, and if I end up getting voice mail, chances are, the phrasing of the message will say "we are not available at this time..." Available means, by definition, "available to answer." Someone at FLVS will eventually tell you that what this means is it's the teachers job and responsibility to create that facade of "availability" in any way possible, although a 84 hour workweek is not really expected of you. So you find yourself living a life where you carefully assess every 5pm happy hour and every Saturday afternoon matinee to determine whether or not it's worth it to risk being "unavailable." All it takes is for one irritated student or parent to call and complain about your "unavailability," and a FedEx will rumble up the street to collect your FLVS issued laptop, as your supervisor is calling to tell you you're fired. So most teachers working at FLVS live in fear of moving too far away from that phone, at any time. Nights, weekends, holidays... there is no reassurance that you are indeed permitted to shut down because if students say that they feel you are "unavailable," then you will lose your job. This "8 to 8" policy also means that FLVS teachers are not permitted any part-time work to supplement that paltry salary which now has you "on call" for 84 hours per week. That's a common reasons for FLVS firings - "unauthorized outside employment." You'll accumulate a nice chunk of vacation hours, but you will not be permitted to take them unless you find "8 to 8 seamless coverage" for your kids (FLVS has no substitutes.) So now in addition to begging, pleading, and coaxing work out of your students, you now have the pleasure of begging, pleading, and coaxing one of your unfortunate colleagues who is also sick of being "on call" for 84 hours a week now to do it for you, also! This unappealing prospect means that most FLVS teachers don't bother to even try. No vacations. More disturbing is the fact that FLVS, at one point, in its first ten years, was an institution of standards and expectations. The elders sitting around the teepee at our outrageously expensive annual conference tell me that many moons ago, students who did not meet their learning commitments and did not "attend" to their coursework and assignments were counseled out of the program, and that coddling students into completion by practically doing the work for them was the most heinous of infractions. That we were an institution meant to serve many, but not expected to serve all. Online learning was not for everyone, but we served those for whom it worked well. The days I know are filled with credit "goals" and quotas which drive every single decision and determine the retention or release of teachers. The days I know are filled with mandates to "do whatever it takes" to "bring the student to successful completion," even through unorthodox or unethical means. I've seen a student required to complete fewer than 32 hours of course attention for full credit, as opposed to a "brick and mortar" course which would require his attendance for nearly 140 hours in the classroom. And I was not permitted to say "no" to this arrangement. If you say "no," you'll hear the rumble of that FedEx truck in the distance. In short, FLVS is a cult-minded organization which embraces a "you're with us or against us" mentality, using fear and vague "expectations" as guidelines to guilt very conscious teachers into constant stress. It's an organization which creates a facade of 24/7/365 customer service for students but which has created zero infrastructure to support it without demanding 84 hours of attention from its already underpaid teachers. It's an organization which touts that the "student is the driving force of every decision," but in actuality all decisions are driven by the almighty dollar. It's an organization which claims to provide high-quality education but in actuality provides a quick fix for students who want a quick high school credit. Enough.
