A reader directed me to a website where people rate their work experience and their employer. Former and present teachers at Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy posted devastating critiques of their experiences. SA must have gotten wind of what was happening on this website, because as you will note, the reviews suddenly turned from bleakly negative to enthusiastically positive, echoing the reformers’ talking points.
A recent article in City Limits said that Eva’s Harlem Success Academy charter schools had consistently high rates of teacher turnover, higherthan the public schools or most other charter schools. HSA denied it, although the writer was using state data. There was much speculation in the article about why teachers quit her schools at such a high rate. Read the reviews.
Judge for yourself. What do you think?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here is the “secret” to success for these “high-performing” schools and ALL high performing schools: Push out or do not accept low-achieving children.
We’ve known this for years of course, but now schools are lying about it.
I’d love to see the other side of that. IF they’re pushing out students THEN public schools are getting a higher percentage of those students, so what then happens to public schools?
It’s a perfectly ordinary question. If we’re going to designate one “sector” as the safety net then that should be recognized, planned for, and funded. Just building more charters and hoping it all works out, maybe, isn’t a plan that has anything to do with reality. The assumption that fragmenting a system benefits every part of that system is ludicrous. Where did they get the “win/win!”. What is that based on? They have no earthly idea what the cost-benefit is, and they should stop pretending they do, particula;y when they won’t even admit it’s happening.
I’d be more comfortable if they said “we know this puts a higher burden on the public system, and here’s what we’re doing about that”. That’s at least an admission those children and schools exist.
Yes, but then they can’t claim that the public school they just dumped hard cases on is failing so they can close it and open another charter.
It’s like Wall St types ignoring long term damages for short term profits — they’ll get theirs and get out of the game and we’ll be left holding the bag
Chiara: which ironically backfires on the charter/privatization sector with all its teeth-gnashing and wailing about “not getting their fair share of the money”!
For example, given the increasing frequency with which their “factories of failure” and “pushout academies” engage in the infamous midyear dump, then the only fair and honest and decent thing to say is that public schools not only need but deserve more resources. After all, they’re constantly cleaning up the messes made by the charterites/privatizers…
😏
For the midyear dump, see a posting on this blog and its thread—
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/15/reader-offers-a-dose-of-common-sense-about-high-test-scores/
And this is not the only time the topic has come up on this blog. Google.
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P.S. And thanks for bringing up the issue of sustainability and the incessant drive of the charterite/privatizer movement to create/mandate win[for them]/lose[for us] situations. W. Edwards Deming is enlightening on this worst business practice.
I’m not in New York, but the midyear dump happens everywhere, of course. A colleague of mine recently overheard a conversation at her doctor’s office. A teacher from the local charter school was bragging that they kick all of the kids who don’t follow dress code out of the school after October 1. They get all the money, and we get all of the kids. Sickening that this teacher would even brag about it in public.
Threatened out West: the following may seem a trivial matter to the grandiosely self-styled “education reformers” and their “thought leaders.” However, I am appalled that things have reached such a state that unabashedly immoral, unethical and abusive behavior has worked its way down to the lowest rungs of the charterite/privatizer sector—and so warms the cockles of their hearts that it leads to such inappropriate noisy self-aggrandizement.
The leading charterites/privatizers and their acolytes not only degrade so many others—
They degrade themselves.
And this from the same smug crowd that points at public schools and their staffs and uses terms like “factories of failure” and“grossly ineffective teachers.” While at the same time they trumpet their own virtues far and wide.
Education “reformers”? Rheeally, in a Johnsonally sort of way, but not really…
“How vain, without the merit, is the name.” [Homer]
Nailed, to the wall, by an very dead and very old and very Greek guy over 2000 years ago.
And he didn’t even have $1 billion worth of iPads.
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Diane, I provided the link and I used the sorting feature to ascend from low to high scores, which is why you see that change, because there are the same number of reviews now as when I sent in the link.
However, I do think there is a pattern in the positive reviews. Besides all the reform lingo, they spout (I understand there’s a lot of TFAers serving as assistant teachers in their first year at TFA), they also talk a lot about opportunities for advancement. If you look at the page that indicates their pay, it looks good, so I think many are aiming to advance and don’t want to burn bridges.
Just click on the ratings trend button and you can see the graph which shows when the positive reviews started pouring in.
Great point! The spike seems to have occurred last fall, around the time that Eva closed ranks and required everyone’s political involvement in the bridge march. It looks like they drank the Kool-Aid. However, in today’s economy, the possibility of lucrative advancement in education for those who are not genuine educators is apparently very appealing.
BTW, one intern indicated that SA said they don’t provide reference letters because it’s not in their policy. Personally, if I worked at such a place, I would be very skeptical of what they might say in confidence to prospective employers over the phone and I’d be rather cautious in my reviews of them. While it’s not legal for employers to disclose anything more than confirmation of employment without employee written consent, I’ve known employers who violated that, and verbal reviews can destroy a career, including for those on the “reform” bandwagon.
“… a pattern in the positive reviews”?
Ya think?
My God, they are as phony as a
Chinese redhead.
It’s funny how, to be credible they
have to put something in the CON
criteria box, so several have, “difficult
commute”… as that CON doesn’t
criticize Eva and her network.
One of them gushes about how
Eva has taken on the evil UFT
(local NYC teachers union)… yeah,
I’m sure that’s a typical thing for a
teacher to write about when
reviewing his/her school.
I allude to Eva’s expectations for her teachers in chapter 2 of A Chronicle of Echoes. I cite evidence of six-day work weeks; eleven hour days; requirements to be available to students via cell phone after school hours, and requirement to eat lunch with students.
When joining Eva, they forfeit a personal life.
Eva owns those teachers, and she burns them out.
I love the ratings trend graph. Looks like Eva’s people became aware of the site late in 2013 and started stuffing the ballot box.
Ha! I just jumped on here to point out the same thing exactly. So funny!
What I expected, utterly horrific.
Who can trust reviews online that are anonymous? Sites like “Great Schools” are so phony! For example, there is an elementary school (BES) in Austin ISD that had terrible parent reviews, then suddenly last year all the negative reviews disappeared and the teachers at the school were instructed by the principal to write excellent reviews, which they did. The AISD (former superintendent) Meria Carstarphen, was on the board of “Great Schools” at the time. “Great Schools” is just one among many fake rating sites pushing propaganda and feeding on school administrators obsession with self promotion.
I think you have good reason to not trust the Great Schools website. They are funded by John Arnold, the Waltons and Gates. The fact that they base their overall school scores on standardized tests and post them on Zillow, the real estate website, is indicative of shock doctrine, racism and block busting to me.
And Zillow even brags about those school ratings in their commercials.
Glassdoor states, “Your trust is our top concern, so companies can’t alter or remove reviews.” But as zamanskym astutely pointed out, employers can still engage in “stuffing the ballot box.”
Superintendents like that in AISD are prime examples of control freaks with an obsession for self promotion and greedy self interest – Narcissistic Personality that dictates their management style. In AISD it is called the Skinner Nazi Management Style, since the administrators function like Gestapo.
still blocked….
I have read those reviews and I took screen shots in case they disappeared. Many of those comments touched on things I have seen for myself since I am co-located with one for 8 years. I have seen more than I’d like to have. I even submitted a letter requesting a thorough investigation with several links including some of those reviews. Why is it that we all know the truth but nothing comes of it? This needs to change.
Good Work! Are you able to post some of those screen shots on this blog. It would be good to expose that propaganda site.
I am puzzled by the following comment:
“SA must have gotten wind of what was happening on this website, because as you will note, the reviews suddenly turned from bleakly negative to enthusiastically positive, echoing the reformers’ talking points.”
I just logged onto Glass Door and read the ten most recent reviews, from December 4, 2013 to July 10, 2014. The reviews were all very negative, saying that there was pervasive fear and intimidation of teachers and students. The reviews are very mixed. The most popular reviews (the ones that people consider the most helpful) are all very negative toward Success Academies.
Please disregard first sentences of second paragraph. I wrote that before I sorted the reviews by date. What I wanted to write in second paragraph was:
“The reviews are very mixed. The most popular reviews (the ones that people consider the most helpful) are all very negative toward Success Academies.”
I am that reader who prompted this article thread.
Here’s that post from another article/thread: (which
includes the first 24 reviews from current and former
Success Academy teachers… and it ain’t a pretty
sight, to say the least.)
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Hey, why don’t we hear from the current and former instructors at Eva Moskowitz’ SUCCESS ACADEMY Network? Thankfully, we can actually do that, and hear the unvarnished truth that they have anonymously shared, thanks to the “Glass Door” website that provides employees an opportunity to share the good, the bad, and the ugly about the people for whom they work, and the workplace culture that they’ve experienced.
(Get it? The “glass door” gives transparency.)
Finally… FINALLY (!!!) in post-Michael-Winerip era, there is a free and independent entity that is beyond the control and clutches of Eva and her ruthless multi-million dollar PR leviathan. Indeed, Glass Door’s posted motto or promise is:
“Your trust is our top concern, so companies can’t alter or remove reviews.”
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Success-Academy-Charter-Schools-Reviews-E381408_P2.htm?sort.sortType=OR&sort.ascending=true
I just cut’-n-pasted the first 24 teacher reviews from the site above (settle in, it’s a long read if you care to read it all.)
Often I found myself asking the question, “Did I just read what I THOUGHT I read?”
For example, “FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 11” said that Eva banned any administrators or even teachers from writing letters of reference for SUCCESS teachers—current or former—who wished to teach elsewhere. As this teacher put it put it:
“They will not give you reference letter; its against company policy.”
What is this? The Hotel California? “You can check out any time you like but you’ll never be able to work again as a teacher…. that is, if I, Eva Moskowitz, have anything to say about it.” It’s like… “If I can’t control you—i..e. you leave or I push you out—I won’t help you with continuing your teaching career elsewhere.”
In my two decades of teaching in the traditional public schools, I’ve never heard of a administrator acting like this.
Some of theM are even “LEAD TEACHERS”—NO. 17 is both a “CURRENT TEACHER” and a “LEAD TEACHER.”
A common refrain is that the 60-80 hour weeks make it utterly impossible to have any kind of personal life or “work-life balance”, and how they “work you until you are sick” and don’t care about your well-being.
Oh, and the workload and lifestyle make it impossible to have a family or children. But hey, wait a sec. Eva was allowed enough time that have and raise her three kids. As Orwell put it in ANIMAL FARM… “All of us are equal, but some are more equal than others.” And she makes over $ 480,000 / year.
Perhaps my favorite comment came from a teacher comparing Eva’s personality and behavior to that of a Meryl Streep movie villain (from a few years back). “FORMER TEACHER NO. 14 compared working at SUCCESS ACADEMY to…
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” ‘THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA’ — except not funny and you actually can damage hundreds of kids lives in the process.
“Any advice will fall on deaf ears because hers is a method that works well. Google ‘sick system’ and you will find SUCCESS, in its shiny, primary colored glory.”
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And the sad thing is… Eva would be flattered by this comparison, taking it as a compliment… “You’re damn right I’m like that boss in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, and if any o’ you teachers, parents, or kids got a problem with that, you can all go SUCK IT!” (not an actual quote… just a little humor)
The reviews have three criteria: PRO’s, CON’s, and ADVICE TO MANAGEMENT. I omitted the PRO’s as they were so trivial (i.e. healthy snacks and the printers work”)
I can just picture Eva in her posh Upper East Side digs reading this, and thinking, “What a bunch o’ lazy wimps and whiners! I don’t want them teaching at my schools, anyway. I wish there was a way to find out who those “CURRENT” teachers posting are, so I could fire all of ’em!”
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 1:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“The most miserable experience I’ve ever had. ”
CON’s:
“One personal day, horrible work-life balance,
— micromanagement of employees,
— no chance for professional or personal growth,
— dictator-like school.”
ADVICE to Management:
“I think it’s too far gone.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER (& LEAD TEACHER) NO. 2:
“Do your research before accepting a job here.”
1 * STAR (out of 5)
CON’s:
“Unethical treatment of students and teachers,
— competition at all costs,
— little support for students with disability,
— retains an average of less than 50% of students,
— retains an average of 30% of staff,
— leadership and staff are replaced with no communication or explanation,
— humiliation used as main motivational tool for both students and staff,
— students struggle with anxiety,
— very little emotional or social support
— students stay silent 80% of the day, silent hallways in upper grades,
— young students told to stop crying when dealing with personal trauma,
— no work-life balance,
— CEO is in constant conflict with city government which causes ongoing location uncertainty,
— network is rapidly opening new schools while neglecting to fix all of the other dysfunctional sites first.”
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 3:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Toxic Enviorment, Developmentally Inappropriate Abusive Culture of Fear ”
CON’s: “Worked for one of the highest performing schools in the network in the Bronx.
“— Entire school focused on remaining at top of network schools assessment wise while pushing students in completely developmentally inappropriate and emotionally ABUSIVE ways.
” — When I brought up that Eva and the network and research disagrees with practices at my location, I was told the network didn’t know what they were talking about, haven’t I seen our top assessment scores, and that my primary responsibility was to make sure my classroom assessment data was up.
” — Teachers openly MOCKED 6 year olds with learning disabilities telling them they would see them in the same grade again next year because they were neither smart nor hard working and hopefully would not be in their student again- in front of the entire classroom.
” — Left work every day feeling angry at the school until I left permanently.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Teacher culture needs to be totally reformed-
— experienced total lack of professionalism by newer teachers in front of children we were meant to be models for.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – No Opinion of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 4:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“The mission provides so much potential, but falls short in practice ”
CON’s:
“Employees are seen as dispensable and the environment is toxic.
— Leaders rule through fear and intimidation.
— At the network office, pay is low for the hours worked.
— Turnover is extremely high.
— The organization has grown too fast.
— There are other rewarding education organizations that treat their employees better.”
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 5:
“Will not shape you into the the teacher that you want to be. ”
1 * STAR (out of 5)
CON’s:
“Lack of support.
— Militaristic style of teaching to the test.
— Students did not learn content.
— Teachers had no work-life balance.”
Does NOT Recommend — No Opinion of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 6:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Great mission, terrible culture ”
CON’s:
“The leadership team is more interested in making political statements than about choosing the right growth strategy for the organization.”
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 7:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“I was an Associate Teacher ”
CON’s:
“Everything.
— Extremely high turnover due to many reasons, just a few of which are listed here.
— Hours are insane,
— management doesn’t care about the employees,
— the style of teaching and discipline is horrifying,
— I didn’t like who I became after working here,
— there are unrealistic expectations of teachers (like I need to log every phone call I make to a parent!?),
— and the feedback is ALWAYS negative without any sense of “you can do it” or “we can do this together”,
— it’s “Get your f*cking sh*t together!”
ADVICE to Management:
“You’ll have a much happier staff if you recognize that employees are PEOPLE who want to have lives outside of work, don’t want to be micromanaged, and will see better results if you approach criticism in a more constructive way rather than beating up your teachers.”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER (& LEAD TEACHER) NO. 8:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Overworked and unreasonable expectations on staff, micromanaging”
CON’s:
” — 1. Micromanaging by leadership
“— 2. No autonomy in your classroom, it’s like they’re making all their teachers into replicas of the one model they’re looking for
“— 3. Overworked school day – I would arrive by 6:45 am and I felt like I was running behind already.
— I would work till 5:00 pm at school, then bolt out the door to get home to my family.
— I would tirelessly grade papers while on the subway, try to respond to the absurd amount of emails and constantly changing meetings, expectations, etc.
— I would work on school work for extra hours at night and it was never enough.
— If this had been my first teaching job out of college, I would have hated teaching.
— Luckily I had 6 years experience in a great school district in a different state.
“The stories I had to tell about this job made everyone in my life tell me to quit. There was so much stress and anxiety going into each week of the job.”
Does NOT Recommend — No Opinion of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 9:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Very low morale”
CON’s:
“All teachers are extremely overworked.
— 12-hour work days are the norm.
— Very, very little prep time during the day, as meetings are held during “prep” periods. — Management encourages bizarre competition between teachers, and as a result, morale is low.
” — Students are pushed out of the school if they exhibit any negative behaviors or if their data is low.
— In either case, management will meet with the family to tell them that this school is ‘just not the right fit for them’.
— If that doesn’t work, they will suspend the child ad nauseum or even push them down into a lower grade, so that their exhausted parents give in.
— It’s absurd that this school is publicly funded when it does not serve the population it purports to serve.
— It is honestly more a school for gifted students than a school working to close the achievement gap.
— I include this in my review because it contributes to the low morale of the school – your students who you love are constantly being kicked out.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 10:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
CON’s:
”
ADVICE to Management:
“Value your teachers more by making their workday more manageable.
— This will lead to teacher retention.
— 6:30am – 6:30pm is not sustainable, as the teacher turnover rate clearly attests.
” — Also, value the children who are told they don’t belong at our school.
“If we can’t help them, what are we doing in the education business?”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 11:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Not fulfilling, will not help you with career. ”
CON’s:
“I worked exceptionally hard and efficient, and they rewarded me by not hiring me after the internship ended saying “There was not enough work to be done”. There was not enough work to be done because I completed all the tasks. 1 month later surprisingly they found enough work again to open up the position.
” — They will not give you reference letter, its against company policy.
” — You spend days working on projects that they themselves do not want to work on. Some of which include creating thousands of addition and subtraction problems.
” — You’re supposed to work with the Math team however they are never in the office, and you are left alone to do meaningless tasks.
” — You get paid terribly, and not treated as part of the company or team.
” — They exclude interns from meetings, both company and team.
” — Terrible pay despite working you to the bone.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Recognize talent and hard work.
— Be honest about work performance instead of hiding behind HR.”
Does NOT Recommend — Positive Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 12:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“High Turnover, Poor Work Life Balance, Unprofessional Managers ”
CON’s:
“Unprofessional Directors and poor work-life balance. Focus on test scores and nothing else.
” — Staff usually stay less than one year.
” — There are so many HR/Recruiting positions available because the staff turnover is so high,
” — they are constantly searching for other candidates.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Look at the Enrollment and Talent/HR Team and Teacher Dept turnover. Why do certain directors have extremely high turnover and are not being held accountable?”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 13:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“High Turnover, Poor Management ”
CON’s:
” — 1. Poor Management: Management tends to fire those who voice opposition. Look at the turnover data for the Network office…team Ops, team Enrollment…etc.
” — 2. Mostly young, inexperienced staff. The poor management is directly reflective of inexperienced staff.
” — 3. Unrealistic work expectations with no additional compensation or concern for staff well being. In a “no excuses” environment, even being ill with cancer is no excuse for taking a day off.
” — 4. I cannot stress enough how poor the management of department directors and other senior staff is. My manager was the most unprofessional, unqualified person I had worked with in my career.
ADVICE to Management:
“Examine the high turnover rate and be honest about it. There are several directors whose turnover rates for their departments should be analyzed.”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 14:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Abusive, panic-driven environment justified with high reward potential ”
CON’s:
“— Erosion of any work/life balance – actually highly, HIGHLY discouraged in culture
— Constant environment of panic maintained to encourage high effort and self-doubt
— Eva is abusive and no one is willing to admit it
— Recommended to young individuals who believe in giving 115% for “the cause,” and have not yet developed concept of “self-boundaries” or “self-care”
— Upon school visitations, their very strict classroom rules for students also border on abusive
— While building critical reading and writing skills in kids, also severely stamps down on self-expression or autonomy (punishments are plentiful, harsh, and unexplained)
— Absolute silence in hallways, even teachers are discouraged from speaking
— Teachers are kept in constant fear of surprise visits and sample collections for evaluation.”
ADVICE to Management:
“To management? Why bother? The network team waited weeks to “introduce me” to the Director, waiting for the right moment. WEEKS. I began to wonder if I should chew on a leaf in an office corner until she became accustomed to my scent. This is how afraid her staff members are, or at the least, this was the culture they tried to project.
“Her direct inferiors are constantly insulted, sent to run on impossible tasks, validated for their submission to her, or ridiculed/fired if not. I had extreme difficulty maintaining any hard boundaries — much less soft ones — during my time there. The literacy team is stressed out beyond belief; they put so much work into what they do but it is never good enough. It was incredible to watch.
‘THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA’ — except not funny and you actually can damage hundreds of kids lives in the process.
Any advice will fall on deaf ears because hers is a method that works well. Google “sick system” and you will find Success, in its shiny, primary colored glory.”
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“My advice goes out to the staff.
” — The high turnover occurs because those able to identify the system for what it is and recognize that when faced with self-respect/self-care vs. ‘the cause,’ they should choose to protect what’s left and move on.
” — In addition, once you step quietly back from the whole thing, you will learn that ‘the cause’ has gotten lost in politics, panic and upkeep. ‘The cause’ is potentially damaging to the students that attend the school.
” — If ‘the cause’ is yourself — meaning, you are a young, vibrant, 20-something year old who wants to feel that you’ve single-handedly changed the world — this is probably a better place for you than the ACTUAL NYC education system, which can be disheartening, without guidance or such ripe upward mobility. Here you’ve got micromanaging overhead, and if you ‘survive’ long enough, you can really take your experience everywhere.
“Dear prospective employee: In many aspects, teaching is like social work. Social Work institutions highly, highly encourage you to maintain self-boundaries and self-care. Otherwise you will burn out in a ruthless, demanding, draining career of unrequited love.
“The same way many social-work industries can take advantage of the big hearts and self-validating determination, so can ‘well-intended’ charter schools. Once you find yourself in a position where you have to negotiate your ‘non-negotiable’ (I highly recommend you walk in with one) on a consistent basis, consider stepping back for a long, long moment. Breathe. You will probably ride a cycle similar to breaking up from an unhealthy relationship, but I promise you your quality of life is not worth it.
“In any case, they can replace you so quickly. I think that is what scares everyone the most.”
Does NOT Recommend — Positive Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 15:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
CON’s:
“—Culture – the tone of the organization is driven top-down. Eva and her direct reports are unafraid to bully others and do not show appreciation for those working for them. That trickles down through the organization in a very significant way.
” — Highly-political / not-business minded – Though the organization is a non-profit there is ZERO business sense in making decisions which is sorely needed. Decisions are almost always motivated by political motives.
” — Physical work environment – the actual office is pretty terrible. They signed a 10 year lease on a space that they outgrew in about a year and a half. Some of us were in the former storage spaces with no actual desk phones or any natural light. Some people are in satellite offices with significantly longer commutes.
” — Extremely high turnover with no institutional memory – because people leave so often and the organization does not do a good job of standardizing procedures or capturing information there is a lot of reinventing the wheel that happens when someone comes into a job.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Listen to what your employees are telling you – both current and former – and actually try to take some steps to make a change!”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 16:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“The worst—I repeat—The WORST teaching job I have ever had in my life! ”
CON’s:
” — Long hours (minimum 60 hours a week…if your lucky). They have no regard for work-life balance.
— Awful management-Management (Principals, Vice Principals, etc) are trained to run schools like factories and they do.
— Employees are treated like they are just another number not like human beings.
— They have no intrest in teacher retention.
— If you don’t believe me, Google the turnover rate for thier schools.
— Some are at 60%! Lastly, at time the expectations are unrealistic.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Learn how to manage people in a way that makes them want to work for your company for the rest of their lives. I have seen some of the most passionate teachers quit this job.
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER (& LEAD TEACHER) NO. 17:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Too miserable to stay, no matter how much you are there “for the kids” ”
CON’s:
“— Arrogant young management
— ZERO personal AND ZERO sick days
— little prep time when accounting for extra meetings
— leadership talks to teachers like they are students
ADVICE to Management:
“I LOVE the mission of Success Charter Network. I love the kids there.
— But I simply cannot stay on board with the unprofessional tone of leadership and the unrealistic demands on us as teachers.
— Working 80 hour weeks and still not completing my ‘assignments’ at a high level tells me there is something wrong with the model. \
— I actually wish the work environment was better so I could stick around for the kids and their families. I am a well educated professional and a highly effective teacher that should not be talked down to by a 26 year old supervisor.
“Until major changes are made, I will look for another charter network… ”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 18:
1 * STAR (out of 5)
“Bad Work Environment”
CON’s:
“Working longer school years, longer school days (7 AM – 5 PM is mandated… and that includes a flexible prep time… some days you have all of your prep, other days you have none), with less pay.
“Couple this with no tenure, no unionized safety, no days off.
— There are no substitute teachers; if a teacher is absent, you lose your prep time to cover a class.
— And there is no compensation (of time or money) for this. As a result, the average worker sticks around till 8 PM. 7 AM-8 PM = a schedule that is not conducive to most people’s lifestyles.
— Clubs are practically mandated for certain teachers. No choice in this privatized industry.
“This job is not good for anybody who wants to do anything outside of Success. This includes having a family.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Consider changing your mentality towards teachers. Yes, students come first, but so do our personal lives. Make it more family friendly, and maybe there will be less of a teacher turnover in future years.”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 19:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Great Company…if you prefer ambiguity and lack of work/life balance ”
CON’s:
“Few standard operating procedures
— Unclear organizational structure
— Poor work/life balance
— Zero opportunities for mentorship and coaching due to youthful management, which leads to
— Young managerial staff with limited experience
ADVICE to Management:
“Stop reinventing the wheel.
— Develop basic policies and procedures.
— Hire competent, experienced staff.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 20:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Good schools, terrible work environment (unless you are a teacher). ”
CON’s:
“Toxic work environment
— culture of fear
— you could lost your job at anytime, work harder.
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 21:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Mission driven, but a cult of personality ”
CON’s:
“High turnover,
— low employee satisfaction,
— incredibly top-down,
— poor upper and middle management,
— over-promotion,
— young workforce that exudes professional immaturity,
— heavy test prep that no one speaks of outside of the organization,
— layers of mismanagement and heavily politicized environment,
— doesn’t care about teacher turnover.
“Teachers are not trusted to do their jobs,
— staff on all levels are micromanaged,
— scaling and expanding too quickly without an adequate strategy or plan in place.
“The CEO, while an incredibly dynamic and intelligent woman, is too heavily involved with the day-to-day instead of focusing on higher level strategy and management of the organization. The organization runs on a cult of personality that revolves around pleasing her, which makes me skeptical that they can truly scale this model of education.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Change your policies towards teachers:
— Try to retain them,
— give more flexible time-off/sick day policies,
— place more trust in their abilities and truly develop them.
— Improve internal communication skills,
— treat employees like they are human,
— stop micromanaging and empower employees to do their jobs well.
“When you are leader and you constantly complain about the incompetencies beneath you – well, the apple never falls far from the tree. The culture starts at the top.”
Does NOT Recommend — Disapproves of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 22:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Great benefits and salary, good mission, poor execution ”
CON’s:
“Not a lot of autonomy;
— conflicting feedback and management styles;
— too many managers;
— poor work/life balance;
— poor employee culture (encouraged to backbite and compete rather than collaborate)
ADVICE to Management:
“Streamline management of lower level employees:
— teachers do not need and suffer under 4 different managers, particularly when they have varying styles of management and conflicting advice;
— too frequent observations actually contributes more to stress than to accountability.”
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Approves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 1:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Very Low Morale.”
CON’s:
“Depressing environment.
— Unreasonable workload.
— Teachers have low morale and are stressed.
— No work/life balance.
— Uncertain how much school cares about kids (it’s more about the numbers).
ADVICE to Management:
“The turnover rate is high.
“There are people who want to quit, but can’t because they
— 1) care about the kids,
— 2) need the money,
— 3) signed a 2 year commitment contract,
or
— 4) can’t get a day off to go on another interview.
“Management should be worried about the long-term viability of this organization.
— No one can work at this pace for 10 years.
“Management should invest in retaining their employees instead of hiring new ones constantly.
— Intellectual capital cannot be replicated.
— The hours are terrible. 6:30 am- 7pm stresses everyone out, including the kids.
— One has to wake up four or five am depending on commute and try to get to sleep early for the next day.
“However, the work never ends so there is never enough time to get everything done. You never feel as if you’re doing your job well enough. Ever.”
Does NOT Recommend — Negative Outlook – No Opinion of CEO
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FORMER SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER (& LEAD TEACHER) NO. 23:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“Well-funded, high expectations, don’t value their employees ”
CON’s:
“I felt completely taken advantage of as a teacher.
— Way overworked (even relative to a prior career that was extremely demanding),
— felt very little respect from network.
— Didn’t care about my work-life balance, personal health, emotional well-being.
— Was assigned way more tasks than what I believe a teacher should be asked to do (which resulted in lower quality work in the classroom).
— Extremely micromanaged, which was forced upon me in my work, and forced upon students as well.
— Little creativity encouraged in learning.”
ADVICE to Management:
“It’s been noted that the network doesn’t care about employee turn over–but this school turned me off from teaching.
— Literally worked me until I was sick.
— Actually care about your employees well-being and sanity–work smarter, not harder. — Allow kids to be kids, and let the teachers teach.
Does NOT Recommend — Neutral Outlook – Disapproves of CEO
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CURRENT SUCCESS ACADEMY TEACHER NO. 24:
2 ** STARS (out of 5)
“The Reality is Nothing Like the Image ”
CON’s:
“Employee happiness is on the bottom of the priority list.
— The model seems to be based on bringing in young, idealistic men and women ready to put up with anything and asking them to work around the clock and devote their lives to the job.
— Few last longer than a year, which weakens the culture…some people don’t bother learning colleagues’ names since turnover is so high.
“Vast majority of senior staff are not good managers.
— Just so many terrible management practices that make no sense.
— Management seems to have no respect for employees.
— We are kept in the dark about major issues affecting us,
— management does not solicit employee opinions,
— huge discrepancies in salary between the top tier and the rest.
“Huge focus on testing and test scores.
— The image of multi-disciplinary ‘whole-child’ curriculum just isn’t true in Grades 3 and up, when the students spend months on end preparing for the state tests.”
ADVICE to Management:
“Employee happiness might not seem like a pressing problem, but a model based on constant turnover undermines the organization.
— Some respect toward the employees goes a long way (and I don’t mean casual Friday or free snacks).
Does NOT Recommend — Approves of CEO
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These teachers need a union.
I don’t have time to find the links, but back in fall 2011, I distinctly recall a 20-something Success Academy teacher—recently promoted to assistant principal—who was trotted out as a show pony of sorts in multiple venues. These included NBC’s teacher-bashing, pro-privatization EDUCATION NATION, Steve Brill’s book CLASS WARFARE, and the pro-charter propaganda doc THE LOTTERY.
Her name was/is Jessica Reid. Ms. Reid was Eva’s (and others’) prototype of the selfless, young go-getter charter teacher who needed no union to protect her—and she was contrasted with those lazy, half-assed, unionized veteran teachers. My recollection is that this thin blonde beauty came off a little stiff and unconvincing—methought the lady doth protested too much—but, like Campbell Brown, attractive and telegenic for the purposes of corporate reformers.
Well, Ms. Reid’s involvement in pro-charter, anti-union propaganda kind of blew up in the corporate reformers’ faces when Ms. Reid announced that she was quitting SUCCESS ACADEMY, claiming that working for Eva was ruining her marriage, and driving her to a nervous breakdown.
Woops! Maybe she needed a union more than she thought.
I have to go teach in the morning, so I don’t have time to dig up the links. I think she ended up teaching in the NYC’s traditional and unionized public schools, where she became—horror of horrors!!!—a teachers’ union member… but I’m not sure.
My memory served me well… Yes, Ms. Reid DID go to work for the traditional public schools. Here’s an excerpt from an article in THE NATION:
http://www.thenation.com/article/162695/can-teachers-alone-overcome-poverty-steven-brill-thinks-so#
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“One of (Steve Brill’s) CLASS WARFARE’s stars, a charter school assistant principal named Jessica Reid, unexpectedly quits her job at Eva Moskowitz’s Harlem Success Academy in the middle of the school year; the charter chain’s rigorous demands pushed the 28-year-old Reid, a dedicated and charismatic educator, to the brink of a nervous breakdown and divorce.
“ ‘This wasn’t a sustainable life, in terms of my health and my marriage,’ she tells Brill, who concludes that he agrees (at least in part) with education historian and charter school critic Diane Ravitch. You can’t staff a national public school system of 3.2 million teachers, Ravitch tells Brill, with Ivy Leaguers willing to run themselves ragged for two years.
“Most of these folks won’t MOVE ON TO JOBS AT THE TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS, AS THE UNCOMMONLY COMMITTED JESSICA REID DID, but will simply leave the classroom altogether and head to politics, business or law, where they’ll be paid more to do prestigious work, often with shorter, less pressure-filled hours.”
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Eva’s loss was the public schools—and their students’—gain.
A great article from “With a Brooklyn Accent,” just caused a lightbulb of sorts to pop over my head. (SEE BELOW)
Apparently, working at Eva’s Charter Network is sort of like living in East Berlin after World War II, and the Charter World in general like those countries then behind the Iron Curtain. Given the job opportunities—sort of like and open border / the absence of a “Berlin Wall”—the charter school teachers readily defect to work for the public school system, where, thanks to union protections, they thankfully can work in a harmonious environment where they are treated as professionals, with respect, dignity, and are free from bullying and abuse.
That’s why Eva’s one-time PR “show pony” Jessica Reid defected to work at a unionized public school and —horror of horrors!!!—join the local teachers’ union when Eva drove Ms. Reid to the brink of a nervous breakdown, and almost destroyed Jessica’s marriage:
http://www.thenation.com/article/162695/can-teachers-alone-overcome-poverty-steven-brill-thinks-so#
(That’s not the article I’m referring to… it’s BELOW)
This explains Eva’s dictate that no current teachers shall not now, nor ever will receive a letter of recommendation—from an administrator, or fellow teacher (writing one being a fireable offense)— in pursuit of a teaching job outside the Success Academy network (“company policy” according to what one of her former teachers posted on Glass Door)
The “no letters of rec policy is Eva’s version of the “Berlin Wall”, or a closed border.
That explains why Eva, Michelle Rhee, Steve Perry, Geoffrey Canada, and the other charterization/privatization creeps are seeking the total annihilation of unionized schools. Once they have achieved this, Eva (and the others) can then snarl at her abused workforce, “Hey, there’s no more public schools with unions anymore for you to escape to, so you’re all stuck here and have to put up with this hell-hole environment whether you like it or not… either that or leave the teaching profession altogether.”
Finally, here’s the article I’m to which I’m referring, where the author (Mark Naison?) talks about this key — though rarely discussed— reason that charter leaders are so obsessed with annihilating teacher unions, and running them down, and scapegoating them for all that’s wrong with education.
http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2014/09/why-charter-school-leaders-are-behind.html
Here’s the text:
—————————-
“Thursday, September 4, 2014
“Why Charter School Leaders Are Behind
Attacks on Teachers Unions and Public Schools
“If you ever wonder why famous charter school leaders like Eva Moskowitz or Steve Perry don’t just run their schools quietly and let the results speak for themselves and instead devote much of their time attacking teachers, teachers unions and public schools, consider this.
“When the hiring freeze in NYC public schools was lifted a few months ago, a large number of charter school teachers applied for positions in NYC public schools, especially in high performing schools with principals known for treating their staffs well. These teachers couldn’t wait to get out of jobs with long hours, no due process or job security and abusive administrators for positions in well run public schools.
“The hiring freeze is back on so the exodus of charter school teachers has temporarily ended, but you can see why a strong public school system, buttressed by strong teachers unions, is threatening to charters. The best teachers want to teach in well run public schools and be protected by unions. That could be why Eva Moskowitz is a major force behind the lawsuits attacking teacher tenure in New York City and New York State.
“If public education remains strong in New York City, she will not be able to hold on to her best teachers.”
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Anyway, back to me.
In 2009, we had teacher layoffs out here in L.A. at the hands of some corporate reform whores serving on the LAUSD Board (thanks to UTLA botching several key elections, we lost control of the board for about 4 years.)
At that time, I remember attending a friend’s wedding where I was sat at the same table with someone on the board of a prominent charter school.
We then got into a lively chat about ed policy. She kept interrupting me when I distinguished between public schools and charter schools.
“Charter schools are public schools!” she angrily snarled.
In response, I said that the only thing “public” about them was the money, as charter schools were and are…
— not accountable to the “public” via a democratically-elected board,
— not transparent to the “public”, and
— refused to educate all the “public”—those children who are most expensive and difficult to educate—special ed., second-language learners, foster care, homeless, behavior problems, etc.
In essence, her school was just a private school using public money, and the parents were saving thousands of dollars they would have otherwise (and could have) shelled out to an actual private school. That tax money that went to her school was draining money from and damaging the public schools where I taught… blah-blah-blah…
Needless to say, these comments went over well with her…. NOT!
Anyway, I asked her how things were going with her school, and she said that thanks to the recent layoffs by the new anti-union school board (UTLA botched several elections, and for 4 years, we lost control of the LAUSD Board, but that’s another story). Those UTLA folks were now being forced out of desperation into working at charter schools.
“We’re finally getting applications from credentialed teachers”, this woman gleefully reported.
(Though I didn’t ask it at the time, this comment begged the question, “Then what-the-hell kind of teachers applied before, or have been working at your school until now?”)
There was one traditional public school where four of the laid-off teachers (from 2009) all applied and took jobs at a nearby charter school. I ran into one of them while I was out Christmas shopping…about mid-December, if memory serves.
“So how’s Such-and-Such Charter School treating you guys?”
“We all quit just before Thanksgiving,” she abruptly replied.
“Really, why?”
” ‘Cause we were working in f—in’ sweatshop.”
“So they made you work hard?”
“No, the hard work wasn’t the problem. I normally work hard. I enjoy hard work. It was the toxic, fear-based, abusive environment. Nothing you did was good enough. You were constantly abused and bullied, and in front of others—parents, kids, fellow staff… I can only compare it to being in a relationship with a controlling, abusive husband or boyfriend. And not one of the abusers had any background of experience in education… apart from a 2-year stint at TFA.”
“What happened?”
“Well, one of us (the four) said she was going to resign on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving… so we all talked amongst each other and decided to do it together and join her that day. When we did, the Director couldn’t have cared less. No attempts to dissuade us or anything. No good luck elsewhere. Just pack your sh– and go. We were just like lightbulbs that burnt out, and were soon replaced with new lightbulbs.”
On that score, LAUSD needed to start hiring again last spring, and—surprise, surprise—I’m meeting teachers who are refugees who defected from the Charter World… the opportunity to work in a unionized environment erasing the metaphorical “Berlin Wall” or close border (from earlier in this post). I sat next to one of them at this year’s first UTLA Area Meeting the week before last, and she told almost the same, word-for-word story as the teacher above did.
“I’m so glad to be outta there. It was Hell!”
Oh what the hell… I’m going to out that charter network that this teacher bitched about. She was describing her time working at Judy Burton’s “Alliance for College Ready Public Schools”
http://www.laalliance.org/