Democracy Prep Public Schools

Careers

At Democracy Prep we believe teaching matters most.

And we are all teachers. We don't just say it; we prove it. In order to attract the best and keep them in the classroom, we provide an unparalleled compensation system.

HOW WE SHOW OUR TEACHERS THAT THEY MATTER MOST

Hard Work = Success

Teachers are eligible for base salary raises of up to 10% each year based on their students’ growth and performance. Top performing teachers can earn up to $150,000 after just eight years at Democracy Prep.

Outfitted as Professionals

All teachers are provided iPhones and MacBook Pros to plan lessons, collaborate with peers, and make themselves available to students and families.

A 21st-Century Smart Approach to Benefits

All teachers are provided health, dental, vision, and life insurance and can contribute to a 403-b retirement plan that is flexible, portable, and generously matched by Democracy Prep.*

Weekly Professional Development

Each Friday, students leave the building at 1pm and teachers spend the rest of the day in professional development sessions. In addition to grade level and content area meetings, teachers are coached on how to use student data effectively to drive instruction. Throughout the year, Democracy Prep sends its teachers to external professional development workshops and to other high-performing schools to learn and share best practices.

Outstanding Colleagues

Our teachers know that they were rigorously selected as the top 1% of applicants.

*New Jersey Charter School full-time employees are mandated to participate in local retirement plans.

Developing high-quality leaders is a top priority for Democracy Prep. Leader U is Democracy Prep’s dynamic school leadership training program. Offering one and two-year paths, we coach the next generation of exceptional leaders to become the best versions of themselves, and we support them in developing their unique leadership voices.

Leaders complete the program armed with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively lead current, new, and turnaround Democracy Prep schools to ensure that all of our scholars work hard, go to college, and change the world.

To learn more, visit www.Leader-U.org.

Civics

Democracy Prep Public Schools was founded with the explicit vision of preparing our responsible citizen-scholars for success in the college of their choice and a life of active citizenship. We accomplish this public purpose by focusing on what we call Authentic Civic Education.

Each Democracy Prep school has a Civic Education Coordinator that works to create and implement our civics curriculum for each campus and track our citizen-scholars’ long-term civic dispositions. Knowledge and skills alone are not sufficient, we must cultivate the habits and appetites of engaged citizens in order to prepare our alumni for a life of active citizenship.

A 2018 study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research found that our civic education curriculum is having a significant positive impact on our scholars’ voting rates, even after they graduate. Read the study here.

Curriculum

First, our citizen-scholars learn about our system of government. We then provide authentic opportunities for our scholars to use their content knowledge to become engaged citizens.

Advocacy

We provide our scholars with opportunities to lobby elected representatives on issues ranging from charter school funding to the DREAM Act. Our scholars have registered thousands of voters and have conducted Get Out The Vote campaigns for local and national elections. Our scholars have even testified before Congress!

Educating all Students, in all Subjects

We actively recruit all students, and unlike many charters, we welcome new scholars at all grade levels at the beginning of each year. Our special education students and English Language Learners are provided the same transformational education and support that all our students are provided with, including all elective offerings.

Democracy Prep Pathways partners with our middle schools to ensure that our students with the most significant academic challenges are able to achieve the mission of success in the college of their choice and a life of active citizenship. We believe that in order for every scholar to realize this mission, we must pair the methodology of high-performing charter schools with new and innovative programming for our highest-need scholars.