Tindley Accelerated Schools Reviews

I could literally write a book. First, putting aside any sort of philosophical disagreement I have with the culture, the work-life balance is nonexistent. You will have nine hour workdays (with kids) with a 20 minute lunch break and a 30 minute prep. ( of course, last year, my lunch. Was taken away by our CEO, because she felt the kids needed more supervision at recess. But that’s another story.) You are required to teach Saturday school and two hours of tutoring per week. Most teachers who are successful there spend at least 12 hours a day at school, and several hours (not including Saturday school) working weekends. Now, some of this is just the life of a teacher. But at Tindley, there are a few major differences that I find unacceptable. People who go above and beyond are rarely acknowledged, and if they are, it’s in the form of meaningless certificates. There are no opportunities for leadership roles, and pay does not reflect experience or performance. Perhaps worse, there is a punitive culture among administration. They love to call people out for doing the wrong thing under the guise of accountability. My school sent out a weekly tracker and teachers were given red marks for not completing their work. It was shared publicly and was meant to embarrass teachers. Teachers have zero creative freedom in how they teach or when they teach it. The administration will tell you exactly what you will be teaching at exactly what time, and if an administrator walks into your room and you aren’t teaching that EXACT lesson, even if you’re off by only a few minutes, or you’ve modified it to, oh, I don’t know, fit your students learning styles, you will get written up. The upper level management is very fond of creating new curriculum or procedures and then expecting them to be implemented the next school day. They love to set standards that are completely impossible to attain, and then blame teachers when the standards are not met. They also love to make requirements but give you no materials, like when I was asked to teach a sixth grade curriculum and then discovered ( after a week of hounding the people in charge) that we had not purchased any of the sixth grade textbooks. If you choose to work at Tindley, you will have daily “face palm “moments, courtesy of the higher-ups. Although they claim their standards for academics are sky-high, we don’t teach science or social studies because those aren’t tested. Nothing is offered at the elementary level for high ability but we arbitrarily claim to be an accelerated school. We claim our standards for behavior are high too, but if enrollment numbers start to drop, you better believe that the administrators will always take the sides of the parents, and never the teachers. We cannot afford to lose numbers, or as administrators are fond of saying, we need butts in the seats. Moving on to the culture... To be fair, parents do know what they’re signing up for when they enroll their child at Tinley. It’s a very rigid culture, and some kids respond really well to that, but the majority of kids I’ve worked with do not. They need high expectations, yes. I don’t need military-like rigidity. Kids are expected to sit still with their hands crossed on their desks at all times during instruction, and must walked on the hallway silently with their hands behind their back‘s. There are no considerations made for children who are hyperactive or just have more energy, unless of course they have an IEP or 504. Culture leaves no room for teachers to be creative, which means the kids don’t get to be, either. And, as I previously mentioned, even though we claim to be super strict, as soon as parents are a little bit too unhappy, we bend over backwards to make sure their kids don’t get in trouble anymore, even if they are causing disruptions in the classroom. I had student suspended because he wouldn’t sit still, but then other students were sent right back to me after threatening to kill other kids. Finally, the administrators are unprofessional when it comes to how they help you “manage” your career. It’s very unclear how certain people are selected for leadership roles, when other people with more experience and better job performance are passed over. People with more licensure are not hired for jobs in lieu of people who don’t have teaching licenses. Administrators are also very dishonest. They’ll hire you for one job and then switch it on you the week before school starts. You’ll tell them you’re interested in teaching first grade. They’ll tell you there are no first grade positions. Then, one of your coworkers will tell you that they’ve been asked to teach first grade. Or, better yet, you’ll see it advertised on indeed.com. I understand not everyone is qualified for every job, but they’re not transparent. It just adds to the culture of distrust. There is clearly no love lost between the administration and the teachers. This community deserves so much better than Tindley, and sadly, because of their image, they have a lot of people fooled. I’m so glad that I got out.