Pros
Good relationships with other teachers. You will bond with and support/be supported by your co-workers in a highly toxic and often hostile work environment. Some really nice kids who very much want to learn. Unfortunately, that's about it.
Cons
Where to begin? People really need to know what ACTUALLY goes on at APA, contrary to what they would have their public image suggest. This place is an incompetently run, fascist regime “led” by a vindictive narcissistic sociopath. (Sound familiar, anyone? Current U.S. administration?) Every single person in leadership is complicit in this travesty of a school, from the aforementioned, self-proclaimed CEO to leadership in the network staff to the school-based leaders who lack the knowledge and advanced degrees necessary to be in their positions. They are given scripts to stick to by the CEO and they regurgitate their memorized lines on a daily basis. Trust all these reviews that say the CEO is evil and completely self-serving. The toxicity in this place trickles down from the top, is internalized by the rest of leadership, and in turn permeates every aspect and controls every second of your day as a teacher. It's miserable. There's a saying that when you work for a charter school, they own you. Well, there's nowhere else where this rings truer. A little run down of what to expect, if you make the mistake of accepting a position here: You’ll go through three weeks of “summer institute”, during which time you will be introduced to the cultural expectations (get ready to scream “co-sign”, snap your fingers, and do chants on cue). You’ll be asked for your feedback on a daily basis at the end of the day; however, make no mistake. They don’t care about your actual feedback; they are trying to figure out who the dissenters, complainers, and critics will be. You’ll go on an overnight outdoor, ropes course-type retreat, and then finally the school year will begin on what will probably seem like a positive note. (Note: You will begin your day by standing in a circle every day, day in and day out, no exceptions, at 7:30 a.m., so that the administration can shove you into awkward, forced interactions and make you listen to drivel that could easily be sent in an email.) Before long, though, the true colors of APA start to show through: structures and systems break down and teachers start to find themselves in an extremely negative, hostile work environment where you feel paranoid, that you have to constantly look over your shoulder, and worry about the security of your job. I have never seen a place where morale is so low, almost every adult is miserable, and micro-managing leaders surveil teachers far more than they do the students. The culture of fear is real, and that is exactly the way the CEO wants it. (You’ll be reminded several times throughout the year that she signs your paycheck and that you’re lucky to be getting one. Yep. However, she is NEVER there.) She will also demean, insult, and be downright rude to teachers in front of other staff and then turn around and say she wished teachers respected themselves more and thought of themselves as professionals. It’s gaslighting as its worst. The teachers for the most part are great and work well/survive together under grueling circumstances. Oddly enough, APA likes to pride itself on hiring great people, but unfortunately views them as disposable and does absolutely nothing to attempt to keep staff. People either start quitting or are fired for arbitrary reasons by the trigger-happy administration, and then they don’t hire people to replace them. This is the root cause of the majority of the day-to-day problems and breakdown of systems: a lack of staff. There simply aren’t enough people left to keep things running. Teachers are then forced to make up for the staffing shortages by constantly covering classes. Workloads from unstaffed classes are put on to other teachers or turned into chaotic “study halls” – that other teachers have to cover – which translates into babysitting duty. For example, say a history or science teacher leaves. No one is hired to replace them, the class is turned into a study hall with no set agenda, and the students are robbed of that subject matter for the rest of the year. Students basically end up watching movies during those periods every day. However, the CEO (when she’s there) loves to narcissistically pontificate about eradicating three-generational poverty and “leaving her corporate law job” for the noble pursuit of serving students in Ward 8. She's full of it. It’s extremely sad because she knows she can get away with the farce she has created in this environment. The students at APA, for the most part, are nice kids who really want to learn and deserve much, much more. However, because of the lack of staff, competent and trained leadership, and eroding systems and structures, classes are loud, wild, and often out of control. Consequences don’t really exist and are arbitrarily handed out. (I have seen students get suspended for cussing at leadership and network staff, but when they do it on a daily basis to teachers, nothing happens.) Teachers, though, shoulder 100 percent of the blame for “not doing their jobs and holding students accountable”. Again, you will constantly be looking over your shoulder. Professional development is non-existent. The occasional attempts at real PD sessions are superficial and trivial. Classroom observations rarely happen and evaluations of any sort never happen, not mid-year and not year-end. Performance criteria is unspecified and completely arbitrary. In summary, if you need a job badly enough to endure suffering mentally and physically every day, then go for it. If not, keep looking. This is the worst of the worst of charter schools. Somewhere else might pay less, but you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth your health, work-life balance, and sanity.