Tilden Preparatory reviews

Where do I even begin? At the time of hire, teachers are told that their schedules will be built up to full time--this rarely happens. If a teacher does approach 40 teaching hours per week (which only happens to a select few) it doesn't usually last for more than a couple of months, as some students complete their courses or withdraw/cancel a class, so your hours drop back down. It is impossible to plan for the future, as you can never really rely on a consistent income. Speaking of consistent income, there is almost no paid time off whatsoever--even for those teachers who do consistently work more than 30 hours per week. By the way, when I say "work" I really just mean paid teaching hours. You see, according to the administration, teachers shouldn't need to prep for our courses, because we are provided the necessary curriculum documents like course summary, study guides, etc. and that combined with our mastery of the subject we're teaching, that should be plenty of "preparation". Ahh, but when you are working with 5-6 different students, who each have a combination of various learning differences and emotional disorders, and the whole selling point of the school is INDIVIDUALIZED instruction, you quickly realize that prep is, indeed, necessary. Yet, despite numerous complaints and requests, the most we've been able to get is 1 extra hour of paid prep after 15 hours of teaching, and we don't get to use that if we had a student cancellation during those 15 hours. Oh, and those curriculum guides and study guides and the tests that we are required to use with our students? Many of them are inaccurate, poorly written and poorly designed, riddled with errors, and are usually a piss-poor excuse of a way to assess whether or not a student actually understands anything they've been taught beyond rote memorization. Ahhh and then, there is the "politics". The administration team seems to function based purely on emotions and feelings--and the most toxic, psychologically unstable of them appear to be rewarded the most. One administrator in particular seems to continually get rewarded with promotions and raises--now 2nd in command at her campus--despite YEARS of multiple faculty coming forward and complaining to directors about bullying, retaliation, inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, and realistically, questionable competency as well. This person was, for years, charged to generate nearly ALL of the curriculum for both campuses, across ALL subjects, without allowing ANY input from the teachers who actually teach those subjects. This person has continually blamed others for her own mistakes, and attempts to deflect any negative attention by turning it around on others. I could keep going, but honestly, just trust me and run like hell. The only people who probably would be happy teaching in this place are very young, inexperienced professionals who just want a bit of teaching/tutoring experience before they move on to the next stage of their career, and maybe who don't need to rely on this job to pay their rent or bills.

Truth: this place is a sweatshop for its workers. Tilden is in direct violation of the multiple labors laws, and wage theft is rampant. The company will require you to show up for an hour, with 4-5 hour unpaid gaps, and then another hour at the end of the day. You will not get paid for any work you do in the intervening time, but, you will definitely do work in that time. Even if you try not to, a supervisor will stop by and talk to you, direct you to write an email, or some other task, which is unpaid. Tilden will expect you to live off of 10 hours or less a week. There is forced, unpaid vacation (school breaks) where you will not get a paycheck. Most of the teachers struggle financially and are very unhappy. Few of the teachers have consistently more than 30 hours a week guaranteed. Most hover around 20, and many work less than 20. The "high pay" comes out to less than you'd get working at a fast food restaurant, when you factor in the time wasted sitting there not working. Worst, your workload can drop precipitously from one week to the next, and you can never be sure what your next paycheck will be. There is no vacation, no paid time off, no possibility for an excused absence other than illness, so everyone who has anything they need to accomplish simply calls in sick and misses the entire day. If you don't do this, they will punish you. The management is a mix of genuine, but underskilled people and personality disorders that are so toxic nearly everyone avoids interacting with them. Raised issues go unanswered, and you'll discover that they've been raised for years without being addressed. Be careful, they will walk all over you and ask you to do ridiculous things (especially when you are suffering and need hours), but when you need something in return, they will give you the silent treatment and act put-out. It's management by personality disorder. By my estimation, the owners of Tilden Prep clear well over a million a year (and you can do the math yourself), but they refuse to give their workers paid healthcare, paid time off, or other standard benefits. Pay for your own parking, and nearly everything else. They bring on new hires, when they don't have the hours to sustain them in the Bay Area. They have robbed many people of finding a better opportunity by lying to them about how many hours they will receive. People have moved from out of state to discover they will be living off ~300 a week in the Bay Area. It's unconscionable, but they *refuse* to turn students away and chase every dollar rather than provide a living wage for their workers. This job is a dead-end, last resort and most people move on quickly. The few people who have been there a long time are either passionate about their work (and don't mind minimal hours) or else extremely dissatisfied and vocal about it. Toxic place; stay away. (From what I know, the Albany campus is more toxic than the Walnut Creek campus, but both have the same fundamental problems as they are exploitative and abusive workplaces.)