preschool teacher

teacher

teaching assistant

elementary school teacher

manager in training

Challenger School Foundation

A Typical Day
A typical day was fast-paced and highly structured, balancing lesson delivery, student engagement, administrative work, and frequent communication with parents. I often took on additional responsibilities to support school operations, including tasks normally handled by management.

What I Learned
I developed strong skills in classroom management, curriculum delivery, conflict resolution, and parent communication. I also gained valuable experience in project coordination, problem-solving under pressure, and adapting quickly to new priorities.

Management
In my experience, management often prioritized their own advancement over developing internal talent. Despite taking on many managerial responsibilities and delivering results, there was no clear path for promotion. Leadership roles were frequently filled by external hires, which was discouraging for those working hard within the organization. Contributions and ideas were not always credited appropriately, making it difficult to feel fully valued.

Workplace Culture
The culture was structured and traditional, with a strong emphasis on adherence to company policies and procedures. While collaboration among peers was often positive, opportunities for professional growth within the organization were limited.

The Hardest Part of the Job
Balancing heavy workloads with additional unassigned responsibilities, while navigating limited growth opportunities, was the most challenging aspect of the role.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job
The students were the highlight of my time at Challenger. Watching their progress, building relationships with families, and creating a positive learning environment made the work meaningful despite the challenges.

Best part of the job:
Being able to teach young minds and essentially getting to be a goofball all day. The other teachers were wonderful and were great for giving workplace advice and helping you to learn your job.

The hardest part of the job:
There's not much training. Challenger prides itself on a great curriculum, however you're learning it as you go for the first couple years. They allow you to watch a classroom for a few days and then expect you to Starr teaching yourself and after a year you're managing a classroom on your own (hopefully with a teacher who knows what they're doing.) They also expect you to do a lot of work off the clock (ie lesson plans and coming in before your shift for classroom set up) for the minimal pay you get, it hardly seems fair. There is also no upward mobility, if you are a preschool teacher with no degree, you will stay a preschool teacher perpetually. Though they promise upward mobility, in my experience, they back pedaled that promise. 

Management:
At least at the schools I worked at, there was a fantastic director for my first year. They then moved her to a different school and moved in a director who would constantly pull teachers into her office (who would emerge crying), micromanage classrooms, and created an extremely toxic work environment. There were several teachers who quit that year including myself and to my knowledge she is still the director of that school. Be prepared to play A LOT of office politics. 

I was lucky enough to be hired right before training started, and was able to get some guidance prior to being placed in a classroom. The compensation provided for the job does not measure up for the amount of work that is asked of each individual teacher. You can also be transferred to any campus at any given time for any particular reason. Job advancement is not really present, and they will hire outside first for any position to avoid paying staff members a decent wage. While management searches for their candidate, remaining staff may be asked to work multiple positions within the school without appropriate compensation to match the workload. PTO is practically nonexistent (the accruement rate is a joke-which management is purposefully not forthcoming about if you ask during interviews). The curriculum is old and outdated (you will have to do a lot of outside research to supplement lessons). More often than not, there is a scarcity of resources/teaching tools since multiple classrooms are assigned the same topics at the same time. Turn over rate is extremely high due to ineffective leadership. Overall you will be asked to make all the sacrifices (disproportionate pay, poor PTO accruement, outdated curriculum/resources, lack of staff) while Challenger School rakes in all the money.

● Work-life balance
Great enrollment benefits for your children, so your children are in the school where you work. 
You get an 8 hour shift that is yours for the year. Great if you like stability and routine,  not great if you need flexibility.

● Pay & benefits
Pay is higher than other preschools, health benefits are available, PTO is accrued. Bonuses if you embrace their teaching style and create a fun and engaging classroom experience.

● Job security and advancement
Follow rules, regulations, protocol, and perform in the classroom and your job is secure. Advancement as a teacher is possible with a degree. I'm unsure of the qualifications for administrative positions.

● Management
Management has high expectations. If you want to be the best you can be, they'll give you the opportunity to achieve your goals.

● Culture
You follow the curriculum but get to be autonomous and make decisions about your lessons. Collaboration does happen with the right people.

● Overall
I grew personally and professionally while employed at Challenger School. Just as the students are challenged to be their best, so is the staff. Rewarding career if you like helping children accomplish the academic goals set by the school. I'd still be working there if I had not moved out of the area.

It was an enjoyable job, I wouldn't mind coming back! Sometimes hard to work with management on behavioral issues but eventually it all works out. Typically the days are already structured for your class but there is a lot of freedom in how to teach the lessons which I enjoyed because I got to be creative with my thinking. It was easy to make friends with the other teachers after a few weeks/months (turnover rate for any early elementary position tends to have a higher turnover rate). I feel like the hardest part of the job is trying to follow managements expectations of a classroom when multiple children are disruptive and they are unable to come into the classroom to assist (I believe there was at least a hundred preschoolers- so to expect immediate response at times is simply unattainable if there's a lot of young children having a hard time). I love seeing their independence, emotional regulation, manners, kindness, and education grow by the day. It is a career that pays off to see children bloom in their element. Overall, it is not always easy but at the end of the year its always rewarding. 

The company has changed over the last several years.  A lack of integrity, a lack of dedication to academics, a lack of humility, questionable leadership qualities, and poor judgement in all levels of management have made this job less appealing for good teachers.  High turnover and the loss of some great employees over the last few years are indicative of this.  

Previously, management under Barbara Baker was dedicated to the high standards and principles that built this company.  Managers are no longer held accountable for honestly ensuring a quality education for students, but rather for putting as many students as possible into classrooms.  While managers are financially incentivized to do this, teachers who lack support bear the burden of more crowded classrooms, behavior problems, and a heavier workload.  Teachers are often belittled, disrespected, and viewed as disposable (hence the high turnover) and are continuously replaced by those who are less capable, which ultimately has a negative effect on the quality of the education the students receive.



It’s honestly a good job, but not one I would consider sustainable long term. The management is kind, but the company policies make working here difficult over time. You essentially get only four days of PTO per year, breaks are unpaid, and sick time is not really accommodated. Because you are in a teaching role, there is often pressure to come in even when you are sick. If you take additional time off beyond what you’ve earned, you can be written up.

The raises start out fairly good, but they become smaller over time. There is also an extremely high turnover rate and very high expectations for employees. You never seem to have enough planning time, and the company does not provide much support in hostile work situations because employees are rarely terminated.

The children are generally well-behaved depending on the teachers they had previously, but the environment itself is very intense and rigid. Don’t expect much recognition, appreciation, or positive feedback for the work you do. Expectations are set so high that exceeding them feels nearly impossible.

I was one of the most senior employees after only about two years, which says a lot.

Typically the work itself is great. The curriculum (mostly) is fun, interactive and slightly flexible with how you can teach the objectives. Work/life balance is not the best. If you have little support outside of work as far as family goes, it makes it hard to plan around emergencies especially if you have child(ren) yourself. Management leaves much to be desired in the sense that communication is definitely not the best and issues are handled tactlessly. The largest issue is the holiday breaks for preschool teachers since you'd either have to budget, have another job or source of income to make it economically work.  Childcare is a generous benefit, but my child didn't fit the program so I do not receive that benefit which is an individual challenge and con for my personal experience. Again, the classroom teaching is great but the work culture and foundation can be incredibly challenging if there is a problem because it usually does not get handled the most effective and efficient way. 

I've stuck around much longer than I wanted to because I enjoy having the coworkers I have and some of the students are great. My issue would be management; the way they micromanage you, even when you do as they tell you, you somehow are still doing things wrong. We are to act like robots when they are around, we're not allowed to speak to each other, and every little interaction we have seems like it's forbidden. They act like the school will burn down without them around. I, in fact, believe the school runs much smoother without them because no one is on edge and we somehow manage/figure things out and the outcome is that the school did NOT burn down afterall. Another thing is the communication among the managers is never on the same track, one manager will tell you one thing and another manager will tell you total opposite of that .. but in the end of it, you're the one that's incompetent because you "didn't follow instructions". 

Your experience will vary widely depending on which campus you work for.  I have worked for both critical and encouraging directors as well as experienced and inexperienced directors.  I have seen very inexperienced people given huge promotions based on political affiliation alone, despite poor performance reviews in the workplace from parents and co-teachers.  If you ask for more than three days off during the school year, you will be asked to resign or be fired.  Ask anyone.  The health insurance is very, very expensive.  A co-worker mentioned that she wasn't able to opt-in to Challenger's health insurance plan because it would have cost more than her monthly paycheck.  Another coworker who has worked there for almost two decades makes the same hourly salary as the new intern.  If you'd like to be promoted, be very vocal about your Libertarian political views.  Expect to be dispensable.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Preschool teacher 118 salaries reported	$24.33 per hour
Teacher 36 salaries reported	$23.55 per hour
Teaching assistant 57 salaries reported	$19.11 per hour
Elementary school teacher 64 salaries reported	$32.89 per hour
Manager in training 49 salaries reported	$104,949 per year

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