Democracy Prep Public Schools Reviews

Pros

If you wish to teach without a proper state certification, this place is a good place to start as a professional teacher. They help you a lot to grow to be a stronger teacher. I had four times a week of formal observation, twice a week of feedback time with a coach, and the system is very tight to measure your work. (I only get twice a YEAR of formal observation in a different school. Think about it, four times a week vs. twice a year!) You will have very special relationships with your students since many of them need someone to rely on and someone to guide them. Right now, I am working in an affluent neighborhood, where students do not really rely on teacher emotionally. If you want to be a teacher who makes a huge difference in students' lives, then, you will enjoy Democracy Prep.

Cons

Wow, I have so many to mention for cons. Where do I start... First of all, there is no security of continuation of your job here. Normally, if you carry 100% of your responsibility (or close to 100%) and work honestly and genuinely, people won't fire you. Here, that is not a case. They can fire you no matter how much you try. The rating of teachers are objective but decisions to continue working with whom or not is completely subjective. Since it is subjective, "favoritism" is a culture. Personally, I think this favoritism within staff influence favoritism between teachers and students, even if you don't try to do it to your own students. It is just culture. I am totally not the type of a person who is good at sucking up to someone. I just work hard and that is how I get acknowledged by the current school. When I was in Democracy Prep, I was really the weakest and lowest performing teacher. For example, out of 1 to 4, my rating from Democracy Prep was 1.8. Next year, when I received rating from current workplace (public school), I received 3.9. How can I received 1.8 and next year with 3.6 in another school??? I think it was really due to the culture that they see other things than pure teaching. There was a team called "Dream Coach" who took care of those problematic kids, especially when they were sent to "send outs". What I did not agree about the culture is that, since I was known as a weak teacher, they often partially blamed me for the bad behavior from the kids. I understand that they just tried to reconcile the relationship between teachers and students but it created a wrong message to kids that they can act bad and blame teachers. Just to give readers an idea, the school I am currently working at, have 5 deans who take care of problematic kids. They NEVER blamed me. Their act of not blaming teachers create an environment that students are not allowed to act bad because there is really no excuse. Because Democracy Prep failed to make this tone, it was harder for soft teachers like me to handle way-too-strong kids.

Pros

- Supportive Community - Cross-Team Collaboration - Autonomy of your own work - Really flexible about working from home - Always follow COVID-19 Guidelines - Reflective organization and committed to growing

Cons

- Sometimes the hours are long (not always), but this is due to working from home. It's easy to do more work when your work station is at home, rather than coming home from an office.

Pros

Principals have some independence on their systems and culture.

Cons

The hours are very long

Pros

This is a great company to work for, it feels like a family.

Cons

The salaries are not the great, there are more competitive salaries elsewhere.

Pros

Staff and leadership support one another, competitive salary, and lessons plans can be shared.

Cons

Some of the students are really great but the handful of students in each class lead to massive distractions and chronic stress.

Pros

Great staff culture, collaboration between grade and content teams, present and supportive coaches, school is actively responding to call to become more antiracist in their leadership and pedagogy

Cons

Long hours (kids are there for about 7.5 hours, staff for close to 10), lots of deadlines for creating lesson plans and entering grades