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College Achieve Public Schools

Teachers are on-site from 7:15 am - 3:30 pm M-Th and from 7:15 - 3:55 on Fridays for professional development. Before the school year begins, there are two weeks of paid professional development. Many of these PD days will not be held in your home school and travel will not be reimbursed. Additionally there are at least 6 PD days during the school year where most teachers will have to travel to another campus, and travel will not be reimbursed. Classes begin at 7:50 am. Class periods are 48 minutes long with 3 minutes of transition time on M-Th, and 39 minutes long on Fridays. Most teachers will be teaching 6 class periods per day with 2 prep periods, though anywhere from 2-4 prep periods per week will be booked off for meetings. Teachers can teach anywhere from 1-3 courses at a time, with no differences in the number of prep periods or salary. Additionally during periods of low staffing, teachers will be asked to cover classes with no reimbursement. On a positive note, teachers were not assigned duties this school year, as those are typically done by support staff and security. 

There are many opportunities for teachers to earn bonuses. Teachers can earn a small stipend for running a club or be paid hourly to tutor. Tutoring time is 3:30 - 5:30 M-Th. English and Math tutors are expected to develop lesson plans for their tutoring sessions. Other teachers are not allowed to tutor their own subject, and are instead expected to tutor Math or English. Teachers can sign up to teach Saturday Academy which is focused on credit recovery and graduation portfolios. Additionally, there is high demand for summer school teachers. Teachers may also create an end-of-year bonus presentation to earn a small bonus if they are able to provide evidence of their teaching excellence for that school year.

The students are challenging yet fun to teach, but here are a number of factors that keep the students from improving in certain ways. A controversial topic is the minimum grade of 50%. Students who submit no work will receive a 50% in a marking period. This is good because one bad marking period is still possible to recover from. Unfortunately, this also teaches students they can do nothing for half of the year, and then pass by making an effort in the second half.

Another factor is the lack of consistent staff. Many teaching roles were left completely vacant for the entire school year, and it is common for teachers to arrive or give notice halfway through the school year. Some teachers leave due to issues mentioned in this review, while others simply are not prepared for the inherent challenges of teaching in a place like Paterson. This "revolving door" of staff is felt by students and has an impact on how consistent they can perform and behave in a classroom. Due to the many vacancies, nearly every student in the school had multiple asynchronous online courses to complete in order to keep up with credits.

This issue is especially relevant in regards to AP classes. CAPS charter requires all students to take 3 AP classes in order to graduate. Additionally, CAPS claims to offer a wide selection of AP classes. However, most of these classes do not have a teacher who is able to teach them, so students are forced to take multiple asynchronous online AP classes in order to graduate. To compound with this, the current seniors did not have any AP classes before senior year, and the vast majority of juniors have not had a single AP class yet. This results in a senior class constantly under pressure to complete up to 3 AP classes on their own in order to be allowed to graduate. The ultimate result of all of these factors is that the majority of students are simply using generative AI tools to cheat their way through multiple online classes, learning absolutely nothing in the process and making the entire thing a waste of time.

Another factor is the lack of consistency in discipline for students. Every school year begins with all staff being in agreement of how discipline is handled and rules are enforced. However, it is rare for these standards to be upheld for more than a week. For example, at the beginning of the year, staff and disciplinary agreed that uniforms would be high priority. Students who regularly come to school out of uniform would be held in ISS until a uniform was brought by a parent. Further infractions would result in extended suspensions and Saturday detentions. Very quickly though, uniform violations were forgotten. Students were allowed to enter classrooms out of uniform and the onus was placed on teachers to write them up. Every once in a while, there is another big push to stop uniform infractions before being forgotten again a week or two later. A student may break the same rule on two different days and receive two completely different consequences.

One of the largest contributing factors to the lack of accountability is how difficult it is to actually be permanently expelled from this school. School policy is that missing 10% of a school year, or 18 days, should result in a student being held back. However each year, many students are moved to the next grade with more than 20 absences and 30-50 tardies. There are multiple students with over 30 absences, and even one student which will be advancing with close to 60 absences. Naturally, other students see this happen and realize that there is little to no consequence for missing dozens of school days each year. There are students who fail every single class for multiple years, refuse to attend summer school, and still get moved to the next grade level, only to be left in a panic when they have to do three years worth of classes during their senior year. Additionally, students can be suspended countless times for fighting, cutting class, or vaping/smoking in school and there will be no permanent consequence.

Despite the issues, there is a true sense of community among teachers. The teachers that remain here deeply care about their students and the future of the school. Professional development is highly productive for any teacher willing to grow and learn. The school supports any teachers through Alternate Route, and this is a great place to learn to teach. The students who are motivated to go to college and leave Paterson are amazing to work with. I hope things change for the better so these amazing kids can have more dedicated and talented teachers.

Working at CAPS is an incredibly fulfilling experience. Our days are built around sharing practical knowledge with young people and working to close the academic achievement gap by getting our students into the nation's top colleges and universities. This is not just a trite remark or the recycling of our Mission Statement. Rather, it encapsulates the work we do daily at CAPS.  We believe that every scholar can succeed with the right level of support and rigor and we live this creed daily from our management on down. Workplace culture at CAPS is positive and collaborative. Staff members feel they can be themselves and learn from one another. The hardest part of the job is the most rewarding: growing our scholars academically and emotionally. 

A typical day is going in, teaching from a preset curriculum which was often established last minute, working with students who were often disruptive. Admin back up teachers  well with behaviour students. but asked for more and more work as time passes.  Top heavy business with high paid admin and high turn over teachers.  Little if no classroom support. Regular unannounced observations with critical reviews of material you may or may not have been given time. I got good reviews but found a new job within 5 months. (I gave proper notice - but was treated poorly after that - moved around alot and turned into a sub.)

A typical day at work:
-Managing two plus cohorts of 30+ students by yourself
-Using test prep curriculum, no projects, no reading actual books
-Meetings during your preps

What you believe you learned:
-Nothing, this organization preps for state testing, nothing more

Management:
-Supervisors constantly in your room 
-Zero autonomy

Workplace culture:
-Pitted against each other 
-Competitive,  not collaborative

The hardest part of the job:
-It’s unsustainable, burn out happens instantly 

The most enjoyable part of the job:
-The kids and families that appreciate you

It has been a pleasure teaching at College Achieve Central Charter School for the past eight years. In those eight years I've had the pleasure of working with so many experienced teachers. I have truly enjoyed my time here and am honored to have had the chance to touch the lives of so many children. It has been such a pleasure to learn from them as it has to teach them. I have learned so much in my time working here and developed so many positive relationships with my colleagues and the families. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Recruiting teachers for the upcoming school year.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The inconsistencies regarding how some are treated and compensated vs. others.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Pompous. There are employees in place that have an over inflated view of themselves without true justification.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Inconsistent.  Some days were better than others.

A typical day consists of following the pre-established lesson plans and ensuring that students leave school with a sense of accomplishment.  While the days are longer (than a public school), the amount of time devoted to such important subjects as English, Reading and Math are impactful. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Kind staff, awesome kids

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
School is newer and organization of schedules, transportation, duties is always in flux so it is hard to establish a routine.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Sometimes chaotic but kindness and understanding from staff and management 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Back to back classes and duties with two 45 minute breaks throughout the day

What is the best part of working at the company?
The former Principal and Admits

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Micro management, pay, respect, attitude.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
No team work, totally pitted against one another.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Wake up fill your cup and be prepared for stress, and extra work to bring home, no pay for the hours.

was there 3 years so far:
* caring leaders -- and new leaders are even better than previous ones honestly
* lots of opportunities
* schedules got better - everyone has at least 2 preps
* excellent academic program -- lots of evolution in the past 3 years and program really settling in

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Elementary school teacher 13 salaries reported	$69,423 per year
High school teacher 15 salaries reported	$70,333 per year
Social studies teacher 5 salaries reported	$69,000 per year
Teacher 3 salaries reported	$69,167 per year
Mathematics teacher 4 salaries reported	$70,000 per year

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