teacher

special education teacher

english teacher

mathematics teacher

high school teacher

DSST Public Schools

TO THE POINT:
1. AST was a new DSST school in Aurora.
2. AST lost 14 teachers and 2 admin during the 2019-2020 school year
3. AST principal is amazing, but all leadership above failed at every level.

Turnover:
An admin left shortly after the school year began (very hard on kids). Two teachers left just a few months after school started and it was very emotional for the children. Then we lost two more teachers (kids somewhat emotionally numb). We rehired for those positions, then lost one teacher that we had to rehire for, and another teacher by the end of the year. 8 more teaching/admin staff are not returning. Before school began, they gave us detailed social/emotional training so that we would all feel connected, which hurt everyone in the end, due to everyone leaving.

My Experience:
I was hired as the school social worker at Aurora Science and Tech Middle School (new school). I was out of state when I applied. When I was hired, I was told that I only required licensure as a Social Worker and no other licenses. When I began training, I discovered that I was also required to have either a Temporary Educator's Endorsement (TEE), or a full endorsement from the CDE as a special service provider. I didn't have access to the systems for documentation and other important systems because I needed the other TEE. It took until December for them to give me a definitive answer on my full requirements, and by then I was told take the coursework over the summer and get my endorsement then. Frustrating, but fine. Be prepared to complete (or begin the process) the endorsement requirement, if you intend on providing services to children with IEP's.

Most Frustrating Experience:
The most frustrating experience about the job was when the global pandemic happened (COVID-19) and school's closed. I was not included in planning of supporting families and students during the pandemic. They provided a list of community resources to families and left me out of the planning. The DSST social worker network was also left out of planning during the quarantine. If I was included, I (and other social workers) would have recommended against complete synchronous learning (face-to-face online, in real time online classrooms), and recommended a hybrid of sync and async, or individualized based on the students). The kids who struggled the most were our Hispanic, kids with learning disabilities, and kids with behavioral problems. Some students had to baby sit their siblings while their parents worked, therefore, they couldn't attend class. Some kids had to go to work with the families and were not able to participate in synchronous learning. Many other families had their own personal struggles with synchronous learning. The unnecessary anxiety that AST put the children and families through was frustrating to be a part of. The world was in crisis (still is at the time of this review) and instead of treating it like a crisis, they had to push their synchronous learning, grading, to drive their data. Families struggled and that was wrong.

Other things I observed: Teachers were treated rudely by the home office leadership (not my experience). One teacher provided feedback on their experience, which was supposed to be confidential. They were confronted by the person (admin) that they gave feedback on and was berated. Another teacher was being observed by home office leadership during class and they gave them sharp criticism, in front of students. When the home office admin left, the students were very sad and told the teacher they were sorry that they teacher got in trouble. There was a lot of miscommunication with the teaching staff, incredibly and unreasonably high expectations.

1. You are only important if you teach math or science. ( I taught one of those and considered myself lucky)
2. No matter what you teach, if you are not one of the school directors "favorites" your opinions will be subjugated to those who are among the favorites. (this came up with a friend of mine who was the head of her department and constantly undermined because someone else in the department was a favorite)
3. No matter how much they tell you that you are not your student's test scores, every action and word speaks otherwise.  The pressure to make your students perform causes ulcers among staff and students (literally had a parent who was a doctor joking tell how they refer to DSST as the ulcer factory). 
4. The expectations within the middle school are rigid and I feel like most of my time there, I was exhausted from playing behavior police, whether it was a policy I believed in or not (tuck in your shirt was a big one).  
5. Like any teaching job, the hours are long and you have lunch duty and after school duty.  Its just that there is a constant feeling of never being good enough.
6. Last but not least, it doesn't matter how long you work there or how amazing your test results have been, the second you tell them you are leaving, once you step out the door you are persona non grata.  They treat you like a traitor and you may or may not get a decent reference out of them, no matter how good of terms you left on.

Teaching in and of itself is a tough and most rewarding job. I have been able to grow professionally as an educator and personally as a parent of multiple children throughout my 8 year career at DSST. I learned how to be a teacher-leader, manage multiple different grade-levels and types of classrooms and was able to teach several different courses/grades. I have enjoyed growing with the DSST community and my colleagues and made life long friends here. I have become close with several families in our community and have watched many of our graduates go on and thrive with great opportunities ahead of them and secure, stable careers. The hardest part of the job are the inevitable parts of teaching and variables that come with that like student support and the systems out of your control. I take everyday as a fresh start with students, especially after harder days. I have always felt supported and heard by my managers and believe it's important to be open to feedback, ask for help if/when needed and to communicate openly at DSST.

These people have no idea how to run a school.  They only listen to the complaints of parents and students, and seem to be completely unaware of basic adolescent psychology,  including the fact that teenagers often lie to get out of doing their assignments.  As others have said, administration is not helpful or supportive, and it truly seems  as if they actually hate teachers who take educating young people seriously.  If you're a first year teacher, you might be fine, since they only want people who do whatever they tell them to do because they don't know any better. If not, you'll soon grow weary of the constant unnecessary paperwork, data analysis, long meetings where nothing is accomplished, and no accountability for students' poor behavior and manipulative actions.  Definitely run the other way if you expect students to earn their grades in your class.  This school gives credit to students even if they turn nothing in to be graded, whatsoever.  It's sad that these young people won't be prepared for the real world when they graduate.  The "school to prison pipeline" is alive and well in this network.

Overall, AST is a wonderful place to be a teacher. The best part of working here is that the staff has a wonderful culture of feedback and is always seeking ways to support/get support from one another. Everyone has a strong growth mindset and accepts failure as an inevitability and a chance to improve your practice.

The most challenging part of my experience here has been the fact that our admin team (and all teachers, for that matter) is stretched very thin. Most days, they are addressing concerning situations that arise throughout the day. This has prevented me from receiving any meaningful coaching/development in the classroom. 

Working in education is tough. Schools everywhere are understaffed and under resourced. Many of the challenges I've faced here have been due to society-level issues, and would likely have been much worse at a school with less competent leadership/weaker staff culture. If you have the grit to be a public educator, you should definitely work at AST. 

DSST is one of the most hypocritical organizations I’ve ever worked for.  They claim to want to close the achievement gap but treat all students very differently. Some schools track their students of color, others make excuses for misbehavior and disrespect. It is an organization run by “white saviors” who have little to no actual teaching experience in the classroom. If you’re a descent teacher they’ll never let you advance. Those that climb vertically are those who cannot teach, and those who lead do not understand what it takes to work in this atmosphere. Teachers are paid based on performance evaluations from coaches that you subjective rubrics and arbitrarily assign you scores. The scores highly influence your pay raise for the following year, and stipends for placement advancement. Because it is pay for performance it pits teachers against one another, making them highly competitive and not wanting to collaborate or share resources.

Students are not held accountable for anything, while teachers are blamed for everything going wrong in the school.
If students are skipping class, it’s because the teacher hasn’t connected with the students and made them want to come to class.
If students refuse to complete class work, it’s because the teacher hasn’t made the lesson relevant to that student.
If students are unhappy with their grade, it’s the teacher’s fault.

Admin LITERALLY helped students organize a protest against a teacher last year. Against their own teaching staff. They love being on the students’ side against teachers. The admin at DSST think teachers are the real problem in education and that students have all the answers. 

You should only work here if you consider teaching a customer service position where the customer is always right.

It’s no way to run a school. This is why more than half the staff leaves every year. 

While DSST has many positive qualities for students and families, the overall experience has left me with a lack of growth opportunity and a gaslighting culture. This network values DSST experience and ways and there is an issue with how they hire their highest leadership and Home Office roles. There is a huge lack of diversity amongst leaders at the Home Office and campus levels and there is no real plan on how to support incoming staff members. This network may work for some, however, the very glaring white savior mentality is a huge systemic issue that has yet to be addressed. 

My experience was a difficult position to be in because I had been hired mid-year and had to fill spots of two different individuals. It was difficult for me to ask for help because zero to little help was provided. I felt lost all the time and felt like my coworkers were not helpful to me at all. I consistently got told that I had to figure it out myself and when I did, I was corrected on my interpretation. It was always a hostile place to work and felt like people were constantly talking about you being your back. It was terribly unsettling. It is also a trend with this company to have staff members quit mid-year or anytime during the school year from what I gathered.

After working in multiple education settings including large traditional public districts and public charter networks, I believe that DSST strikes a great balance between innovation and thoughtful change management. I also appreciate how many opportunities there are to both give and seek feedback at all levels (an example being our Teacher Working Group, where staff are given a stipend to help shape network-wide initiatives and direction as well as systems for seeking student and family input. It feels like a place where your voice genuinely impacts the direction of the organization and is a continued priority of senior leadership. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 23 salaries reported	$64,091 per year
Special education teacher 38 salaries reported	$68,891 per year
English teacher 24 salaries reported	$69,208 per year
Mathematics teacher 17 salaries reported	$68,188 per year
High school teacher 9 salaries reported	$70,472 per year

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