Pros
Opportunity to make a change in the lives of kids. Relatively higher pay than other schools in Memphis.
Cons
Lack of real leadership, high tolerance for disrespectful behavior from students, Lack of student support, most teachers are young TFA members who will quickly get burned out and discouraged, which leads to school culture erosion. The hours are ridiculous, and then you are expected to do a hefty amount of lesson planning and grading outside of work hours. One of the biggest problems in the school is that certain students are repeat offenders but aren't disciplined for breaking the rules, so the students have no accountability. You have to basically beg them to obey the rules, and when they don't, nothing happens. We have a merit / demerit system that is wildly ineffective. The staff is extremely cliquey. I suppose being around high-school students all day every day rubs off on the culture of the staff. Most staff are in their 20's and it shows. However, the toxicity is understandable because it is a very high-stress, high-expectations environment. The problem is that the expectations for the teachers are very high and the expectations for the students very low. Bottom line: the system is broken.
