New York City Department of Education Reviews

Pros

- Great benefits - Tenure after 5 years - Summers off and plenty of breaks throughout the year

Cons

- Great schools are rarer than they ought to be. - If you're hoping to get hired and make a difference somewhere, use insideschools.org. It's got a ton of great info on every public school in NYC, and you can avoid going somewhere toxic.

Pros

You barely feel like you'd lose your job over minor mistakes, You have co workers that can relate to you as most are just as fed up as you are with certain problems (funny that this works that way), and you can always question a task you're assigned with your union so there's never any confusion of what you're allowed to do and what you shouldn't do (so you don't lose your job for doing it)

Cons

Schools are very quick to pin the blame onto staff even if they essentially forced them to do the offending task. This happens far too often and is extremely hard to fight as most of the times, the only way you can fight is to ask for written requests, which would never happen from administration. Due to you asking for the request to be written, the admins will find ways to get you transferred out of the school, no matter how many years you have on the job, under the guise of "Budget Constraints". A co-worker of mine who worked for 17 years in a school was transferred out in favor of keeping all the newer staff (about 3 or 4). He was tenured and would've fought it had the school not scheduled the transfer to take place the next day of him being told about it.

Pros

Being a teacher is (or should be) more of a calling than a job, so on good days it feels like a bonus to get paid to do this. We have a strong union supporting us, and in terms of compensation we get reasonable health benefits and an unbeatable retirement package. The kids ultimately should be the reason one goes into this line of work, and not because of the job perks, but the job perks definitely do exist, and vary from school to school and from position to position.

Cons

This can be a highly stressful job, but the stress is manageable, depending on your situation. Teachers should be getting paid MUCH more to do what we do, and unfortunately New York City has not done its best of late (during Covid) to demonstrate that it prioritizes the safety and well-being of its students and staff over the almighty rat race economy that incentivizes parents to push students prematurely back into classrooms.

Pros

Close relationship with student and staff through the years

Cons

Students may are not the cleanliness of people to clean after.

Pros

Great pay, hours, and collaborative work environment where you can make a difference in students lives.

Cons

Can be hard to work at a school near your home.

Pros

Summers off, spring and winter break

Cons

Behavior Problems, class size, exam based ratings