preschool teacher

lead teacher

preschool director

teacher

early childhood teacher

Cadence-Education

A Typical Day at Work
A typical day at Cadence Education was always busy, rewarding, and full of variety. As the Assistant Director, I supported both the administrative and classroom sides of the school. My day often included helping teachers with classroom needs, communicating with families, handling scheduling and enrollment, and ensuring licensing and safety standards were met. I also spent time in the classrooms, interacting with the children and supporting staff to create a positive learning environment.

What I Believe I Learned
During my time at Cadence Education, I learned the importance of strong leadership, communication, and teamwork. I gained valuable experience in managing staff, supporting curriculum planning, and maintaining a balance between administrative duties and hands-on involvement with the children. I also learned how to handle challenges with patience and professionalism while always keeping the children’s well-being as the top priority.

Management
In my management role, I focused on building trust and collaboration within the team. I believe in leading by example — being approachable, supportive, and organized. I worked closely with teachers to provide guidance, feedback, and encouragement, and I communicated openly with families to ensure they felt confident in their child’s care and education.

Workplace Culture
The workplace culture at Cadence Education was centered around teamwork, respect, and growth. Everyone shared a passion for early childhood education and creating a nurturing environment for children. We supported one another, celebrated successes, and worked together to provide the best possible care and education.

The Hardest Part of the Job
The hardest part of the job was balancing the many responsibilities that come with leadership in early childhood education. There were times when unexpected challenges would arise — such as staffing changes or parent concerns — and I had to think quickly while staying calm and positive for the team. It taught me to stay flexible and solution-oriented.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job
The most enjoyable part was watching the children grow and seeing the impact our work had on their development. Building relationships with families and mentoring teachers were also incredibly rewarding. Knowing that I played a role in creating a warm, supportive environment for both children and staff made every day meaningful

  I did not feel respected, appreciated, or treated as a Lead Teacher with many years of experience in the childcare field.  I was frustrated with managements inconsistent citing and enforcing of rules. I was irritated by the management’s tendency to micro-manage and focus on unrealistic expectations vs. specific positive feedback and reassurance for a job well done. The constant managerial monitoring and assertion was deflating and stressful.  I felt controlled vs. trusted.  I felt stifled as a professional.  
        I also did not approve of the way children and teachers were rotated frequently throughout the course of a single day.  There was no consideration given to children who are slow to warm up or traumatically affected by abrupt transitions.  There was virtually no consistency from day-to-day for teachers or the very young children in classrooms.  Sick children were coming to school and being shifted from room to room.  Germ contagion was disregarded in favor of budget and ratio.   Children were placed in rooms that they were not developmentally ready for.  Toddlers and mobile babies were placed repeatedly in the room with young infants, with no safety barriers, making safe supervision very challenging and stressful.  
         I was told some things when I hired on that did not ever happen.  Ex.  I was told that the babies would be able to go outside using a blanket or the group stroller.  I was even given a training on the importance of outside experiences for children of all ages.  I expressed a desire to take the children outside when the weather got nicer; the response was agreeable.  Then, when it got nice, I was told that it wouldn’t happen till the babies were in a different classroom. 
       I was also told when hired on that I would “never have mobile or walking children in the Baby Room”… that was NEVER maintained for even a day.  
        Most of all, I was told never to take any worries or stresses home with me… to bring them up right away with the management, never to stew on them.  
      Unfortunately, my job concerns came up on a Friday, and were addressed in a very impersonal text telling me “that we will connect on Monday. Hope you have a wonderful weekend” without hint of positive assurance. 

Cadence management staff is amazing at making you feel that they, as a company, are open minded, warm, enthusiastic and inclusive. This is all an act that ends once you have the job and/or are no longer the favorite. 
It's all a front for the parents. 

There is no form of discipline allowed or implemented- I agree with the no physical punishments, and even agree with no time outs, to a degree. But if a child acts out or hurts other students there are no repercussions. 

I was full on slapped in the face by a five year old who laughed at me as he did it. I had to talk to the parents (as I should), but, the managers wanted nothing to do with it; they wouldn't even discuss it with the parents.

Management only ever had negative things to say to and about their staff. If you weren't the favorite your opinions didn't matter. Your ideas were stolen. Your concerns were dismissed. Most teachers were viewed with suspicion and distrust. 

Management promised us, regularly, materials and tools that we needed to teach the lesson plans we were required to write ourselves; these materials were only once provided in the 6 months I was there and I made a list of supplies about twice a month as directed by my manager.

If we DESPERATELY needed something we could buy it and submit the receipt for reimbursement- never happened. I stopped buying supplies for my class and had to seriously limit the diversity of my lessons. 

On the topic of lessons, the school had just switched curriculum when I was hired and we were promised new curriculum books at the beginning of each month to  plan lessons. In the six months I was there, I was given curriculum ONCE. I had to invent and reuse lessons, which the company was against- according to my manager.,

They were always looking for ways to write employees up and fire them. The environment was hostile and predatory. I hated going to work every day and hated when my manager would come in. She was so disingenuous.

Sigh, where do I start. All I can say is they have their favorites. No matter how hard you work if you aren’t one of them they don’t care about you. They act like they do but I don’t think it’s true. They always treat you like they are smarter than you. Always. The management that is. The employees are all really nice. Some of them can be unprofessional at times and that’s frustrating. But they are all nice people. They don’t pay enough for what they expect. Caring and teaching kids is an important job so you have to do it because it’s the right thing to do. However, the behavioral issues for some kids are ridiculous and some parents actually blame the staff. The management has even blamed staff for being assaulted by kids. I’ve seen it several times.  Most if not almost all of the parents are pretty nice and understanding people. You get blown off a lot and treated like issues are not important. If I could sit in the office and laugh all day and hang out I would because sometimes classroom management feels impossible and feels like it’s our problem and they aren’t there for us. Other days they help a lot. We’re supposed to sit down and eat with the kids but that NEVER happens, plus the kitchen doesn’t always send enough food for the Teachers. Sometimes they do, but we don’t have time to sit down. The quality of food they use is not that good. There is too much work to do. We have to use electronic and paper to log and the app they have us use is not good, sometimes it doesn’t work properly.  We spend a lot of time on that. The overall appearance of how it is there seems great and sometimes it is. It’s not always bad. I loved my job there a lot. 

Throughout my time with the company, I repeatedly witnessed a lack of meaningful support for teachers and school staff. A particularly troubling example involved a colleague who was harassed and defamed by another employee for approximately four months. Despite multiple complaints and concerns being raised during that time, there was no meaningful intervention from HR. By the time HR finally became involved, the situation had already escalated significantly, and the case was ultimately dismissed because the employee responsible no longer worked for the company. This left the affected colleague without any real resolution or support.
More broadly, concerns raised by staff are frequently minimized or ignored. Communication from upper management often feels dismissive rather than constructive, and there are very few opportunities for meaningful professional growth or development.
Schools that are clearly struggling are often left without adequate assistance until problems reach a crisis point, at which time solutions become reactive rather than supportive. This creates an environment where teachers are expected to shoulder overwhelming responsibilities with very little institutional backing.
As someone who cares deeply about early childhood education and the well-being of the children in our care, it has become increasingly difficult to remain in a system that places so little practical value on the educators responsible for that care. Teachers are the foundation of any early learning environment, yet in my experience here they are often treated as easily replaceable rather than as essential professionals whose support and stability directly impact the quality of education provided to children.

The director and assistant director are friendly &, on the surface, easy to talk to. The problem I discovered was that they think nothing of telling you what you want to hear, when you come to them for help, with no follow-through. Well, no follow-through unless you happen to be one of the teachers they're fond of. (Occasionally making time to take a few selfies with certain staff members, giggling and primping their hair al the while.) They made no sincere attempt to correct, or redirect in any manner, disrespectful and derogatory attitudes and comments made toward myself and other float staff in some of the classrooms. In effect indicating that there wasn't much we were good for except breathing and cleaning.

They played favorites with the staff in other ways. By showing more support for staff members that they seemed to like better. I discovered this was true when materials, things I had been asking for since I started working for Canterbury, were suddenly being provided for the teacher that replaced me as infant room lead. It was quite obvious that when this other person asked for the materials it was like no problem, but I never was provided stuff I had been requesting for weeks, like post-its & Sharpies & dry erase markers for the Whiteboard etc. When this teacher asked for learning materials, Linens or new books for the room they were provided within a couple of days. But when I made similar requests they were usually just ignored. I'm guessing this was in hopes that I'd just forget about wanting the stuff or something. 

Anyway, those are just two of the numerous little indignities I delt with regularly & repeatedly while working for Canterbury Academy.

The biggest standout for Cadence Academy is their adamancy to the curriculum and making sure the parents are happy before anything else. Despite having a long waitlist to be admitted into the school, they keep students who pose a danger to others in the classroom (biting, hitting, throwing chairs, etc.). Keep in mind that this is an expensive institution so most of the families are higher income. Somehow that means a lack of discipline comes with it and they don’t care. 

Another thing that stands out is particular staff are favored more than others, again, for some reason unknown to myself. They will do anything to appease certain staff members, even warn new-hires about their “bluntness” and how they should “stick up for themselves” yet this staff member is allowed to create a toxic work environment? Running off two assistant teachers and possibly one isn’t enough to reassess your workers behavior?

Anyhow, work here or don’t, they hire fast but lose people pretty quick after, the lot of which don’t even stay up to six months, which is when PTO is available by the way, so let that speak for itself. Staff can be quite unprofessional, call in minutes before needed or constantly at the front desk. Sometimes holding kids at the door of other classrooms when giving them a bathroom break. The list goes on. Best of luck to those who decide to go for it.

There was very little support for teachers and unless you were newly in your career as an educator you would have been frustrated. At our location in particular, there was some "Old School Teachers" who held uncommon beliefs about race, culture and child behaviors. They would spout off these ideas and never be reprimanded for them or taught a better way. It was frustrating to be someplace where a specific teacher, who had been there for almost a decade, was specifically not put in several classrooms because of the way they behaved, treated the children and left the room disheveled. We had some families leave from this or switch where they wanted their kids placed. I think the management felt pressure to keep up with enrollment so they never fired anyone, even though they had cause to. It made several of us feel like we did not matter and like we would be valued someplace else. Of course, the families were amazing, as usual. As they say in education circles, "It's never the kids that are the problem, it's the teachers."
They will say they are selective and supposedly they were but whoever hired people 5-10 years back did a bad job and the current admin doesn't take care of issues between staff. They need some serious interpersonal skills training. The environment becomes polarized and toxic.

What is the best part of working at the company?
It was Monday through Friday, no weekends required.. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The Leadership. The leadership has their own agendas that revolved around the number of students enrolled and making the regional director happy at any cost. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
From the outside looking in, it looks like one big happy family. It was a dysfunctional family at best. Teachers were not appreciated and there was no leadership from day-to-day. There was very little support for dealing with high needs children who had behavioral or other challenges. Because staff were not paid well and/or cared about as people, there was a lot of turn over. People who came and did their jobs got burned out by the staff that regularly called out sick with no disciplinary actions.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You go in thinking you’ll be doing one thing (like whatever you planned in your curriculum) but end up getting moved, or extra kids that are not able to do what the next age level is doing, so you have to abandon your plans. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if it wasn’t the “norm.”  Ratios are important but if quality staff were hired, who wanted to come to work, got paid well and were appreciated, they wouldn’t have people calling out, not showing up, or pretending to be sick to go home and not deal with whatever was heaped on them.

I disliked working for this company because my company was acquired by cadence education. They came in with a lot of promises and knew what to say to get us all where they wanted us. I worked with cadence for 9 months and throughout that time I experienced an extremely unfair work environment, I had worked at my company since the start (5years) and Cadence couldn’t care less about longevity. Their management including the higher up regional directors are extremely unprofessional in the way they handle things and the way they speak to people. I asked for HR's contact multiple times to bring these issues to the right people and was told no because "we need to keep issues in house". The workplace culture consist of a lot of gossip especially for the admin. The school director has no experience which results in an extremely chaotic environment. There is a Constant lack of staff and nothing being done about it except making the current staff work longer hours, cut their lunch breaks in half and load on more mandatory work with no time outside of the classroom to get any of the work done. I am extremely disappointed with my experience at cadence education and would not recommend anyone to work here. The only enjoyable part of the job was the kids and families. I'm very grateful for the connections I have made with them but everything else makes in impossible to work there.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Preschool teacher 8 salaries reported	$16.55 per hour
Lead teacher 1 salary reported	$15.75 per hour
Preschool director 1 salary reported	$49,444 per year
Teacher 3 salaries reported	$34,500 per year
Early childhood teacher 2 salaries reported	$16.00 per hour

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