NYC Teaching Fellows Reviews

Cons

Summer is very difficult. Make sure you know you would be really great at it before you quit your job and take the leap.

Cons

-The uncertainty of the program's scope and sequence.
-Having a family which means the possibility of unexpected emergencies can get kicked out of the program because their 2 absence policy for coursework.
-Balancing a very demanding workload from your university and a New Profession with many unforeseen challenges.

Cons

The program is unethical since it requires candidates to quit their jobs and doesn't inform fellows that they may fail the summer training and be eliminated from the program.
The summer training is an unfair judgement of fellows' teaching abilities. It's not a training since fellows are expected to perform perfectly since the beginning. The coaches are not there to coach but to put people down.
Even there is a significant improvement shown by a fellow's teaching abilities, and the fellow meets the expectations at the end of the training, the fellow will still be considered 'does not meet expectations' and being dropped from the program.
Teaching Fellows NEVER shows the exact scores and yet send a 'Do Not Meet Expectations' email to a fellow.
There are definitely racism and discrimination going on in the summer training.

Cons

-10 hour days (not including lesson planning and preparation) with 4-5 hours of sleep per night for absurdly small compensation ($2500 for two months, which can hardly cover rent in NYC).
-Harsh and negative criticism from coaches who penalize you for not meeting expectations or following directions when directions aren't clearly given - be prepared to figure things out on your own.
-Very messy, disorganized management who doesn't keep track of Fellows and what directions they give. They have misdirected students to the wrong classroom, resulting in no teaching for that day (true story); coaches have not showed up to a training practice or simply "forgot". Coaches have emailed to ask you to change a lesson plan a few hours before teaching when you spent over three days preparing the lesson, and the coach had an entire week to give revisions (but waited until the last minute to tell you)
-Paying over $500 for certification exams, which they don't tell you when you apply
-Absurd, unrealistic attendance policy - getting kicked out of the program for being absent twice, no exceptions (even if you are in the hospital, a car accident, court appearance, experience severe illness, death in family, need to care for children)
-Unrealistic expectations in teacher performance, NYCTF teaching methods are described as "militaristic"
-During trainings, constantly getting treated as children (getting candy thrown at you, being told "pencils down"), getting insulted and talked down to constantly
-Biased, rude, perhaps jaded coaches who give unfair, highly subjective ratings which are clearly influenced by personal opinions and favoritism. Your entire rating is based on about 3 minutes of teaching, which may or may not reflect your teaching ability or entire lesson. For whatever reason, if you mess that up (sudden misbehavior by students, PowerPoint stops working), you can be given an abysmal rating. This rating determines if you stay in the program or not. The coaches clearly have favorites, and it's impossible to talk to your coach fairly - if you don't stay on their good side, they may give you a poor rating next time.
-Almost all NYCTF "support" is through emails and online training guides. There is virtually no one to personally advise you, give you direct support, or guide you through finding a job.
-The PST structure is designed as a "boot-camp" - survival of the fittest. Due to the bias, subjectivity, and unorganized nature of the program, whether you stay in the program or not is not dependent on you. Be prepared to receive an email 3 days before the end of training telling you that you've been kicked out, for an unclear reason.
-Classes at partner universities are a joke; even professors treat them as such.
-Be prepared to be looked down upon if you are not a person of color.

Cons

I would be careful of this program if you are not 100% completely financially stable and/or do not have a job (other than in the DOE) lined up for after completing the program. While its goals are laudable and receiving a subsidized masters degree is nice, ultimately it is a crap shoot where you will be placed for Pre-Service Training. They pay $2500, roughly, for the summer; they can (and will) kick you out of the program for any reason ranging from the Coach just not liking you to whatever other reasons they may come up with.

For those Fellows who it works out for, great. For others, some may not be so lucky and will be at the mercy of their Training Site, Coach, Co-Teacher, etc. There are so many factors that can combine for a total mess, depending on your luck. New York City Teaching Fellows places you in a school over the summer and if you survive and your coach likes you enough to pass you, great. For most people this will be the case. Otherwise, you will be kicked out (their statistics apparently are that 25% of Fellows are kicked out every year, which seems a high number to me). If you have the money to take the risk then great, otherwise seriously think about whether you want to get involved.

Cons

Horrible management... it has a great mission and it should be a great purpose however if it's not run effectively it doesn't help anyone

Cons

- don't fool yourself - even if you've got the diploma nothing in experience makes the masters program feels like a real masters
- next to no support (think benign neglect) and in some cases, forces outright undermining your success as a teacher.

Cons

Program is ineffective and inefficient.

Cons

They send you to low income communities school where they need you. Sometimes it's hard to do full time job SMS to do master simultaneously . Too much work

Cons

Literally everything else. The schools I worked at didn't follow the law when it came to ESL scheduling, had no ESL materials and literally no ESL curriculum in any way shape or form. I had to make everything from nothing while attending Grad school full time. Horrible experience that made me hate my life for two years.