KIPP has a great mission - but it is a terrible place to work. I’m a veteran teacher who knows that it’s not acceptable to be treated this way, but unfortunately a lot of staff at KIPP are brought on as first-year teachers or fellows, and they come to believe that this is what teaching is like. It is absolutely heartbreaking how many promising new teachers I’ve seen get chewed up and spit out by this place during my very short time here, many deciding they want to leave the field entirely. I would classify the way KIPP treats its teachers as abuse - and I don’t believe I’m being hyperbolic or exaggerating at all by saying that.
Top cons for me:
-Blatant favoritism and nepotism. People are often promoted to leadership roles with little to no experience or qualifications. It is not unusual for veteran educators to be coached/supervised by people with much less experience and knowledge of their field/content area than they have. My experience witch coaching here felt largely useless as a result. “Favorites” will get away with ridiculously unprofessional behavior, while those lower on the hierarchy will get reprimanded over minor things. Somebody is always ready to throw you under the bus, whether something is your fault or not. I also saw policies inconsistently reinforced- for example, you might get reprimanded for showing up a few minutes late by somebody who is consistently late every day.
-BEHAVIOR, BEHAVIOR, BEHAVIOR. It is absolutely ridiculous. This was the number one reason I left. I have many years of experience working at urban schools with similar demographics- and I have NEVER seen anything even close to what I saw at KIPP. Of course there are always some challenging behaviors at any teaching job - but here, it’s SO many of the kids, and the behaviors are SO severe. In previous schools, it wasn’t unusual for me to have 5 or so “heavy hitters” (for lack of a better term) per grade level. At KIPP, it’s 5 or more PER HOMEROOM. There are entire homerooms of kids with serious behavior issues. Admin will brush this off as the personal failure of individual teachers - but it is so clearly a problem with the overall culture of the school. there are no consistent expectations or behavior protocols set by admin and kids are not held accountable for anything. As a result, they are extremely entitled and disrespectful, and constantly abuse each other and staff - verbally, and (too often) physically. I am ESPECIALLY disturbed by how violence here is treated like it’s no big deal! It was absolutely infuriating to me. There are students that physically assault other students and even staff on a regular basis and never receive any real consequences for it. There was definitely NOT a zero-tolerance policy for violence at KIPP - it was all but entirely tolerated. This made both kids and adults feel unsafe. I didn’t even feel like I could get any teaching done; I felt like I was just a glorified bouncer. My daily job duties included breaking up physical fights between 7-year-olds, CONSTANTLY navigating extreme escalations with absolutely 0 support (if you text for help or push the emergency call button, everyone will be too busy de-escalating other crises), and putting up with extreme disrespect knowing admin will not have my back or do anything about it. I was constantly on edge and I have never experienced intense stress and anxiety like I did at this job. I’ve never been someone who struggles with panic attacks before, but I started having them all the time while working here. There is no deans office and you are not allowed to do office referrals,so a student engaging in extremely disruptive or unsafe behavior isn’t removed from the classroom and it holds the entire class and other students’ learning hostage. I tried to start the year by setting very strong and clear expectations and classroom culture, but it just did not matter. It’s not being reinforced anywhere else in the school and, especially with the kids who’ve been attending KIPP for years, there is no sense of accountability or community. No amount of work I did could undo all of the terrible habits and values KIPP gave these kids. The only way I ended up being able to get anything done with them at all was by seriously lowering my expectations. And that’s a school wide thing. The bar is so low, and often still not met. There ARE also a lot of kids who are very sweet and absolute delights to work with, but they just get completely eclipsed by classmates who are extremely disruptive and suck up 100% of their teachers’ attention. If I was alone in a classroom (which was basically always), it was literally physically impossible most days to complete basic components of a lesson because I had to focus all of my energy on preventing a class from descending into absolute chaos. And the kids notice it too. So many had expressed to me how sad they were that they didn’t get to do fun stuff in my class because “their class is so bad.”
-A lot of lip service about wanting to show appreciation for teachers and concern for their well-being, but absolutely 0 action to show that they care about any of that. They are raising salaries next year, which is nice I guess, but they refuse to do things that would actually meaningfully help us - like providing more support for the school wide behavior problems, which are so obviously the result of poor student culture and inconsistent expectations/accountability set by admin… instead of just blaming individual teachers. I am happily taking a lower-paying job to get out of this place, and it is 100% worth it.
-Absolutely ridiculous schedule. I cannot overstate how stupid and terrible the schedule is. I’m probably giving away my identity here because I complained often and loudly about it during my time at KIPP. If the behavior management and workload weren’t enough, then the schedule was there to guarantee that everybody burns out by mid-October. It changes constantly for no reason - at least once a quarter, providing 0 consistency for kids. It operates on a confusing 6-day cycle instead of a simple Monday-Friday rotation (probably the most infuriating thing about it- WHY??? IT MAKES NO SENSE) and does not account for the fact that teachers are human beings that need to do things like use the restroom and eat. Sorry for the TMI, but I’ve gotten multiple UTIs this year from having to hold it for hours before I can find a second of coverage to use the bathroom. I was constantly dehydrated, afraid to drink water knowing I wouldn’t have any time to pee. They justify not giving you a lunch break (hello OSHA violation) by saying “teachers eat when kids eat,” but of course the behavior issues make it so you don’t realistically have time to eat a meal - you’re too busy putting out fires.
-Cliquey and toxic staff culture where you can’t be sure who to trust. Aside from a couple of colleagues that I’m very close with and whom I know share my feelings about KIPP, I didn’t vent or talk about my concerns anyone for fear that they would tattle or gossip about it to a superior. If you’re not on one the the cliquey teams, you’re going to feel very unsupported and isolated - which is very difficult in a place that is already such a nightmare to work at.
-Coaches and admins will gaslight teachers into believing that the constant, school-wide behavior problems are because they aren’t good at their jobs. You will be reprimanded for trying to advocate for yourself ESPECIALLY if it involves suggesting student accountability, or that admin could be doing more.
-While emphasis on relationships with families is good, it sometimes leads to teachers being expected to put up with abuse from parents and families. Admin will never have your back if you’re having a conflict with a parent, even if they are undeniably in the wrong. I had a few colleagues who were threatened and harassed by parents, and KIPP did nothing to support them.
-You will be expected to have your entire life revolve around your job here; phone calls, texts and emails well after work hours end and on weekends are standard.
-You will be asked to fill out a lot of staff surveys just so your feedback can be ignored. Everything I’m complaining about here is constantly complained about by most of the staff, especially on the anonymous surveys, and obviously they aren’t doing anything with the feedback.
-Admin’s failure to schedule wisely, anticipate absences, and ensure proper staffing for coverage needs is treated like it’s the teachers’ problem. Expect to feel guilt-tripped about taking sick days and made to feel like it’s your fault KIPP can’t hire or retain enough staff to meet their coverage needs. They also don’t make an effort to fill a position if someone quits mid-year - which happens a lot! This place is just a constant revolving door of new teachers that quit after a short time. Kids are used to adults leaving, they usually don’t even question it. And teachers will be the ones picking up the slack. and no, you will not receive extra pay for covering extra classes after a colleague leaves, or for covering a role that is above your current role’s pay grade. KIPP is ESPECIALLY exploitative towards fellows in this manner - they are basically glorified subs, when their experience at KIPP is SUPPOSED to be one of learning and being mentored. They are mostly just used to fill gaps in the schedule, and many have no breaks.
-When you bring any of these concerns to to leadership, you will be told “working here isn’t for everybody.” Working here is for NOBODY. No one should deal with working conditions like this, but they will make you feel like it’s your own weakness that makes it hard to deal with the constant abuse. The few times I actually made an effort to go to leadership with a concern, I always regretted it and wished I hadn’t. They will always turn it around on you. Everything is your fault. You are gaslit into believing that the reason this is such a nightmare workplace is because you just aren’t good enough at your job, and you just don’t care enough. After only one year, I just couldn’t deal with it anymore.