mathematics teacher

english teacher

social studies teacher

elementary school teacher

special education instructor

Brightmont Academy

● Pay & benefits
Pay is very low compared to other 1-to-1 schools in the area. The only benefit is PTO accrues for each hour you work.

● Job security and advancement
There is no real room for advancement at Brightmont. Performance reviews and raises are no longer offered to part-time employees, and hours can be wildly inconsistent.

● Management
Frequent turnover means it's difficult to establish and maintain relationships with a Campus Director. Unless you're a full-time employee, you won't receive feedback on your teaching through performance reviews, evaluations, or class visits. Having a good Campus Director can make or break your experience teaching at Brightmont.

● Culture
Brightmont is a fantastic job for retired teachers or those just starting out, but it becomes frustrating quickly for teachers who are invested in students and trying to build a career. Brightmont recently decided to no longer offer paid planning hours, for example, with the stated expectation that teachers would use the time while students are testing for planning activities. When I started working for Brightmont in 2016, the Campus Director who hired me offered--for a part-time position--paid professional development, monthly staff meetings with catered lunches, paid planning time and PTO, and biannual classroom observations and performance reviews, and the potential for seniority pay increases once you've been with the company 2 years. None of these things are offered to part-time employees anymore, which says a lot about how much part-time teachers are valued at this company.

● Overall
I was hired on at Brightmont in 2016 as a part-time teacher. At the time I was hired, I was excited to be a part of Brightmont's mission, particularly because the company had a culture that seemed to truly value its employees. I was told that even part- time employees were eligible for seniority pay increases and PTO; teachers do receive PTO, but by my second year at Brightmont, company policy was changed to only offer reviews and seniority pay increases to full-time teachers. My first Campus Director held regular staff meetings with catered lunches and offered to pay for teachers to attend professional development seminars. This went by the wayside by my third Campus Director in as many years. Between the bare-minimum starting pay and lack of investment in teachers built into the company policies, the high turnover rate shouldn't be surprising. There are a number of teachers who simply accept the things they can't change and pass students regardless of the quality of work because it's not worth the extra (unpaid) effort to develop other ways of teaching the material. The longer you work at Brightmont, the more easily frustrated and burned out you can become.

I worked for 2 years as a teacher at Brightmont Academy in Plymouth.  As a teaching environment, it was typical of corporate for-profit education.  Teachers were considered cogs in the machine.  We weren't paid adequately or compensated for any curriculum development or prep time that we completed, but both were required for us to do our jobs well.  I received a modest increase ($2/hour) after my second year.  We received no benefits of any kind, including vacation or paid sick days and our hours were purposely kept under 40/week so the company didn't have to pay benefits.  The worse thing was the scheduling.  Teachers could be called in and then sent home if students didn't come.  Their hours could change, or they could be scheduled to with an unpaid 1 or 2 hour gap between students.  Because the job conditions were so bad, teachers usually treated the school as a stepping stone toward a "real job" and didn't last more than a few months, so there was no continuity and little relationship-building between the students and teachers.  Students also dropped out with alarming frequency.  The curriculum was all online Apex curriculum.  The director has changed since I left, but the one I had was a serious micro-manager who drove all the staff crazy with her demands.  As a parent, I would not recommend sending your students to Brightmont because they won't be properly educated with the curriculum offered.  There is pressure from management to pass students, to give them As and to skip curriculum in order to get students through a course more quickly when parents start worrying about the high cost of each hour of instruction.  When parents can influence teacher decisions with their pocketbooks, there's a serious conflict of interest.  Look elsewhere!

A typical day at work involves teaching one student per hour, and your schedule can range wildly from first grade Art classes to sophomore Chemistry. If there is not a student in your office, you are not being paid. The school is under-supplied with basic necessities for a school, despite high tuition rates. Necessary resources for student activities are often not available, including basic supplies such as scissors. 

Teachers are expected to consult students' pacing guides, track down the lesson, decide how best to teach the content, teach the content itself, grade any assignments, address behavioral issues, and update the student's pacing guide in the 55 minutes with the student. Teachers are often seeing the lesson for the first time in the session in which they are teaching it. Realistically, teachers either end up working unpaid hours to meet these expectations, failing to teach the content to mastery, or not completing sufficient documentation.

There are many informal meetings during lunch and after your shift, which result in even more unpaid work and a work culture in which many staff do not eat during the day. There is a high rate of turnover among teachers, too, so teachers often pick up a class in the middle of a unit with no knowledge of the content or the students' real progress. On top of all of that, many of the students have behavioral or developmental challenges for which the teachers receive very little training or information in advance. A disaster for everyone involved.

The students and teachers tend to be lovely people, but that is where the good things about this workplace end. Teachers are underpaid to begin with and are not paid for any meetings, prep time, or curriculum development. There is zero support for the staff—no meetings, no workshops, barely any training. Most of the students seek one-to-one learning because they require extra support. Many of our students have learning disabilities, are on the spectrum, have behavioral issues, and / or mental health issues. Because the nature of the job is one-to-one, some students share intimate details of their lives, which can be extremely heavy. We teachers had no resources to help navigate these situations. Students did not have access to a school counselor, and I often felt I was expected to play the role of therapist despite having no training. My manager was terrible. Her primary concern was the appearance of the school, not the actual quality of it. So many educational shortcuts are taken to save money. It was a really upsetting job, because I cared about the students so much but was unheard in my attempts to advocate for their needs to the administration. Turnover is extremely high because the job is extremely draining. I will miss my students and fellow teachers, but that is all. 

On the plus side, scheduling is flexible (as long as you want week-days between 8:30AM and 6 PM), and if you know anything about the subject the canned and very stripped-down on-line APEX curriculum eas stupidly easy to deliver with minimal training. So, for wanna-be teachers with minimal skills and no aspirations it is great.

On the flip-side: Low pay, no benefits, high churn, no culture to speak of, no chance for advancement, directors plays favorites, all about getting students through the minimal material at high speed giving excessive chances for a B or better grade mostly on multiple-choice tests, only lip-service given to a desire for honesty and integrity. They want someone to read the approved script with minimal extra to make it relevant or interesting to the student, and God forbid you answer a non-PC question with an honest and factually accurate answer. It is an expensive place to attend, but very little of that will trickle down to the teachers doing the work.

Brightmont is a great place to work for many reasons. When you show up, the first thing that you do is review your material for the day and make sure you have any printouts or equipment you need. The great part about this, though, is that the curriculum, lessons, equipment, and all tests and quizzes are provide for you. This not only saves you money, but also time since there is no need to work on lessons or grading outside of your work day.
Brightmont is a unique place to work because it lets you teach one on one with students on guided curriculum which is nationally accredited.
One of the downsides, however, is also linked directly to the pre made curriculum. Since the material and tests and all pre made, it is easy to decide which material needs to be covered, but it also means that there is no real changes that you can make. There are a number of questions I would have personally removed from some of the tests and quizzes, but you are unable to do so.
The only other real downside is that there is no benefits package, but the salary is generous, so it sort of evens out.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Flexible hours and the location. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Lack of organization and communication. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
While working at a one-to-one school provided many rewarding experiences, particularly in supporting individual student growth, there were significant challenges related to leadership and communication. There was a noticeable lack of consistency and transparency from administration, which impacted overall staff morale and effectiveness. The director often appeared disorganized and inconsistent, and there were instances of dishonesty that eroded trust. Student behavior was frequently overlooked or not addressed with appropriate consequences, leading to a lack of accountability. It was common to see students wandering the halls throughout the day without direction or follow-through. Additionally, administrative mistakes were often disregarded rather than acknowledged and corrected, contributing to a chaotic and, at times, frustrating work environment.

What is the best part of working at the company?
They trust you and give you autonomy to do what you think is best. They are responsive and always available. They respect personal time and are very flexible. You can really connect with the families and students you are serving.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Like in any education setting, dealing with last minute teacher's absences, and maybe managing the parents' expectations, but nothing too bad.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They are efficient, they don't waste time on unnecessary meetings and never micromanage employees, that's my favorite thing about the company.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Focusing on enrollment, recruiting, training and supporting teachers, managing day to day operations of the campus as well as parent's communication, and keeping track of the financial performance of the school.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The flexibility was really nice 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
You never know how many hours you’ll receive and if you don’t have a student for that hour, you don’t get paid. They also pay very poorly and no benefits. The students have no consequences for behavior. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It’s relaxed. Not a strict dress code and the staff is friendly. It’s corporate that makes it hard to work there 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You sit in a room with a bunch of windows with a student and watch them work. It’s literally an online school with a teacher (most not certified$ there to make sure they do their work. They make everyone sit with their backs to the door so admin can make sure you are doing exactly your work. Teachers can’t have their cell phones out, so you have to go to a designated spot to use your phone.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The staff and director are very supportive and caring. The students are great. It's nice to not have a ton to plan and prep for since the lessons are already created. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The corporate office is an abomination and they don't care about the employees at all. There is no medical benefits, no overtime, everyone is part time even if they aren't- so there's no paid holidays and you only accrue 2 hours of sick time a paycheck, even if you regularly work over 35 hours a week. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It can be chaotic when a lot of students are on campus, often there isn't enough support staff to make things go smoothly so it can be frustrating to get questions answered.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mathematics teacher 181 salaries reported	$22.41 per hour
English teacher 34 salaries reported	$22.37 per hour
Social studies teacher 122 salaries reported	$22.42 per hour
Elementary school teacher 136 salaries reported	$22.39 per hour
Special education instructor 55 salaries reported	$31.00 per hour

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