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Teaching Lab

Engaged Employer

Teaching Lab reviews

2.9

39% would recommend to a friend

(25 total reviews)

33% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.4

Compensation and benefits

3.2

Work/Life balance

2.5

Culture & values

2.5

Diversity & inclusion

2.4

Senior management

2.4

Career opportunities

Teaching Lab has an employee rating of 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 25 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Teaching Lab employee rating is 22% below average for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Reviews by job title

25 reviews
1.0
Apr 4, 2022

Do your research before applying.

Executive assistant
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The organization is made up of some really great and truly brilliant people who believe in the working Teaching Lab is doing. The staff are truly mission oriented and embody that in everything they do.

Cons

There’s a big culture of micromanagement stemming from the c-suite, which means that everyone at every level (directors and above included) are often undermined in some really public, overt ways. This also means that innovation and decision making authority lives solely with the three chiefs and no one else, which you can see really discourages people at all levels of the org (myself included). There’s the illusion of distributive leadership (they’ve fleshed out middle management in the last year) but the issues still persist. Team members talk directly to the c-suite about issues instead of their directors, nearly every external meeting has to include a chief or will be rescheduled, and proposals, emails, etc. are screened by one if not more chiefs as well, and there’s only three total members of our c-suite. It’s too much authority over ever single thing that happens at the organization, and it makes a very hectic portfolio of projects even more chaotic and unorganized. An example of how the deep the micromanagement issue is: after no one responded to my resignation letter for four days, they finally provided an exit checklist. They had the audacity to include “talking points” that I could use to discuss my parting with my colleagues. One line included the verbiage “I enjoyed my time at Teaching Lab,” even though no one ever even asked me why I was leaving…it was so odd. Additionally, the organization is still rooted in startup-style operations. They have to contract a lot of their work out (HR and accounting especially) so there aren’t people to go to about some really major things that are affecting the staff. It’s a growing organization but they don’t operate like a true business just yet.

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Teaching Lab Response
3y
Thank you for sharing your perspective and acknowledging the commitment and brilliance of our amazing team members. At Teaching Lab, we value and strive to incorporate the perspectives and insights of our community members into the work we do in service of our organizational development. We are excited about the ways our team is growing to meet the demand from educators across the country for transformational professional learning. At Teaching Lab, we are committed to meeting the needs of our team members and our partners as we grow. We have recently reimagined the way we work as part of a flexible, project-team structure. It's exciting to see our team members - at every level of the organization - leading the work of being responsive to the unique needs and aspirations of individual communities as we serve as we design and deliver our professional learning supports. This incredible team work is enabled not by external providers as you mention in your post but by the in-house HR supports provided by our growing People & Culture team. This team is envisioning and implementing a values-aligned approach, rooted in the pursuit of racial justice, to foster and support our cultural and organizational development at Teaching Lab.
1.0
Oct 27, 2023

A Train Wreck

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Staff: A tremendously talented group of educators, scholars, and activists. They are committed to impact, education, and equity.

Cons

Leadership: Self-promoting, self-serving, self-centered and woefully ill equipped as people leaders. Complete lack of empathy. DEI: Lacks true industry expertise internally and results in performative action. Pay more attention to the people and feedback (and not the ones that are always sitting in the front row. (That is teaching 101.) Culture: Siloed and separated to ensure control. No collaboration that does not have authoritative oversight. The work: Absolute zero autonomy. There is only one way. Accountability: Public, overt undermining, shaming, and ridicule occur when leaders are entangled with issues of power and control. Do not get caught in between. Support: Needs are determined by leadership and misaligned with actual feedback. If a process is so complicated that no one understands it, that is not transparency or helpful. Stop telling people what they need (talking at) and listen to the people. Voice: Everything is scripted and prescribed by intentional design. Safety: Words and actions are a veneer for supporting and protecting leadership. Unless you are C-suite, you are absolutely and completely on your own. Concerns will be watered down and dismissed. Operations: An absolute nightmare lacking basic change management principles.

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Teaching Lab Response
2y
Thank you for acknowledging the talent and commitment of our incredible team here at Teaching Lab. We understand all of the team members you appropriately laud in your review to be leaders, and we work hard to support their distributed leadership with professional development and operational support. We are proud of the experience - within education and beyond it - our diverse and expert team brings to their work. Our mission to fundamentally shift the paradigm of teacher professional learning for equity relies on their expertise and agency. Each team member at Teaching Lab has a Home Manager who collaborates with them to set and pursue customized professional and personal development goals, providing coaching that is aligned with our Values and Competencies. Contrary to your perception, there is a widespread belief in the efficacy of this leadership structure and in personal agency at Teaching Lab: a recent Employee Engagement and Commitment survey found that 85% of our team members believe their Home Manager appropriately involves them in decisions that impact their work and work environment. In addition to values-based coaching from their Home Manager, team members partake in full-organization learning experiences and receive monthly individual coaching through Boon Health as well as discretionary resources to help them chart and pursue career advancement pathways within Teaching Lab.
1.0
Apr 1, 2024

Black women, run the other way!

Instructional coach
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The pay is good. You are refunded for lunch, mileage, parking and any other fees you accrue while on the job. Those are the only pros.

Cons

They will gaslight you and allow you to be disrespected. There is no clear direction. The company does not practice what they preach. People lie to get placed in locations closer to their homes, which leaves other in a bad predicament. "Training" is laughable and does not prepare you for the actual work. Due to the fact that this is a contract, you do not get benefits. Many of the coaches come from a charter school background and are disrespected once they step foot in the public schools. You are told to play down your experience because the public schools do not "like" charter schools. If you are black, I'd suggest you run the other way and save yourself.

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Teaching Lab Response
2y
We strive to create a supportive and inclusive environment for all of our team members, and we’re sorry to hear that this was not your experience. Our contractors are valued members of our team, and we’re proud of the training and support we provide to them so that they can lead in the critical work of teacher professional development and coaching in the communities we serve. You can learn more about this critical work - and our team and impact - through our company overview and website.
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Glassdoor has 30 Teaching Lab reviews submitted anonymously by Teaching Lab employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Teaching Lab is right for you.