teacher

elementary school teacher

school teacher

office coordinator

special education teacher

Equitas-Academy

Run as fast as you can from any post looking to hire someone at Equitas. They will work you to the point of server exhaustion. The days are long and the breaks are short. The school year is also longer than any other district ending in the last week of June and beginning again in the beginning of August with 4 exhaustive weeks of professional development. The salaries are amongst the lowest in charter schools and even lower than districts. You have absolutely no autonomy as all of your lesson plans will be scripted. The day for teachers starts at 7:10 and ends at 4:30 Monday-Friday. You are even required to work events on Saturdays throughout the year and stay to 7:30 on back to school and family nights. The children's day starts 7:30 and ends at 4:15. They are given a 15 min lunch and a 15 min recess. At some locations students are only given a 15mins lunch with no recess. You get 6 sick days a year compared to others school districts 10. You will run through them quickly as you take them for mental health days. You will be MICROMANAGED to the point of feeling like an incompetent child and not a capable college educated professional. There is no funding for activities such as field trips or any other type of extracurricular activities. They look to attack new teachers fresh out of college so that they can pay them low salaries and work them to the brink of a mental break down leaving them to think that this just comes with the profession of teaching. Teacher turn over is 80 percent yearly with 40 percent of teachers not making it though the academic year. This is why they are ALWAYS posting jobs. Run as fast as you can from any posting involving this organization. Don't be fooled by the nice buildings. Run.

Working at Equitas has been a refreshing change compared to my past organizations. It's been overall a very joyful experience, and I truly feel happy and proud to work here. I know there's still work to be done as an organization overall, but I feel like we're on a great path towards building a stronger, more inclusive and equitable culture. I can see that our leadership is really putting forth the effort to learn from the past and make improvements moving forward. I enjoy every day I work here, and my leaders are incredibly supportive and value me on a personal level, as more than the work that I do. I've learned so much in my time here so far and I'm proud to speak about where I work when I'm asked about it. 

This is my third year working at Equitas and while it's true that the hours are long and the work is hard, there are several things that keep me coming back: the amazing students and families, the deeply collaborative staff culture, and the amount that Equitas really cares about feedback from its employees.  As a teacher, the day is long, but you get to work with an amazing group of students-- some of whom start in kinder and stay all the way through eighth grade (with their families asking for a highschool).  There are also really amazing co-workers who are all driven to give the best for their students.  And unlike at other schools where I've worked, where coaching is a theory, coaching is a real reality at Equitas-- every teacher has a coach who works with them throughout the year to grow their practice.  Finally, it's nice to work at a place that asks for feedback and actually takes it-- whether it's rewriting a schedule to give teachers more prep time, providing better professional development, or creating new support roles to make sure everyone gets the support they need.  Equitas believes in its mission-- and my co-workers and supervisors both will do anything it takes to make it happen.

Equitas is a business. Plain and simple. They want teachers to dress like corporate business people (I'm not exaggerating. This is the dress code). They overwork the kids and the teachers. They put unqualified people in supervisory positions and allow blatant disrespect to occur. 
They have assigned seats for students at lunch and they are not allowed to walk around, only socialize with the students at their table. 

I truly believe that when Equitas started, there were so many good intentions to make a better learning environment for kids, but the execution (at least at the middle school level) is horrible. There are some teachers more concerned that students sit up straight (keep in mind, the teachers transition to different classrooms, not the kids- that means kids are sitting in their desks the ENTIRE school day) rather than focusing on student engagement and learning so that they are academically successful and not just practicing good posture. 

I have yet to meet a person who loves working for Equitas (unless maybe they are on the higher pay grade). Please, heed my advice- spare yourself the headache, the stress, and the anxiety-driven environment.

Extremely structured
Very little play for students and very minimal access to playground 
No playground/very tiny playground 
Prep time is not really prep time since students are in your classroom
Micromanaged teachers under the guise of coaching
Very large class sizes with a weak school behavior plan (no real consequences for behaviors like fighting and repetitive disruptions)
Very long work days for both teachers and students
No recess for students to just be kids and get outside for exercise/play
Scripted curriculum - very little creativity in curriculum for teachers
No textbooks for students, only printed off black and white worksheets
Curriculum is not engaging and does not make learning fun for students or teachers 
Testing multiple times a week
Students were expected to be quiet most of the day and it is a very long day - even lunch conversations were scripted with a list of topics that were to be discussed
Company is focused on growing the amount of schools rather than improving current schools - feels more like a business

Equitas Academy presents itself as a mission-driven organization that values its staff, and in many ways the work itself is meaningful. However, the workload and expectations placed on support staff are significant and can feel unsustainable over time.
 If concerns arise, staff may find themselves facing serious accusations without any prior conversation, opportunity to respond, or chance to correct course, a stark contrast to the progressive, restorative values the school boasts about. 
Staff are so unhappy that no one acknowledges each other in the hallways. When they voice their concerns, they are often met with hostility by leadership. 

Truly the most exhausting job I have ever had. I felt so sad for the middle school scholars- no 11 year old should feel that much pressure and stress, which lead to genuine burnout by the end of the year. As an employee, you have almost no freedom, and my coworkers never felt secure in their jobs- there was a lot of gossip and “tattling” on one another. There is SO much staff turnover because the days are long, the breaks are few, and the pay is no better than public schools. Overall believe be the leadership genuinely care about kids, but the expectations are unrealistic and the amount of pressure is counterproductive to the goal of helping students reach college- how will that happen when they all hate school because they aren’t allowed to have breaks or do almost anything fun?!

Everything about Equitas is centered on growth mindset. For the most part, if you are in a place of wanting to grow and become better, Equitas is a good place to do that. There are a lot of people who work there that want to support teachers and help them become better. Co-workers and leadership care for each other and want the best for their employees. The company asks for feedback constantly and are always making changes which is nice. The workload is a lot and there is a lot to keep up with but teachers usually get the support they need. Everyone has a coach. Honestly, it all boils down to the people who are there, everyone really cares about what they do and wants students to be successful.

Working at Equitas has overall be a good experience. People network wide have the same mission to provide quality education and are kind. Teams meet daily and a weekly meeting with Director are held to build community. There is a curriculum however, you will have to supplement and add to lessons which can be time consuming. Schools value parent and school communication therefore, you will frequently need to be in contact with parents and hard to reach parents to build rapport. Rules and expectations of parents are flexible which have pros and cons based on your personal belief of what parent expectations are with helping their child. If your view is more flexibility then, you will not have an issue. 

If you like working at a school that only focuses on test scores, overworks and underpays their teachers and doesn't truly care about the wellbeing of anyone, this is the place for you. They find teachers right out of college and take advantage. Your work day will start at 7:10 (most teachers actually get to school around 6:30) and won't end until at least 4 (usually later to prep). Your preps and breaks usually turn into covering a class or having grade level meetings. By the time you march your students (at a level zero in a straight line) down and back from snack and lunch (which have zero recess and usually zero talking amongst students) you get maybe 10 minutes to eat and relax. Staff higher up couldn't care less. Anyone that stays at this school for more than a year has no respect for themselves.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 3 salaries reported	$81,067 per year
Elementary school teacher 1 salary reported	$90,500 per year
School teacher 2 salaries reported	$82,000 per year
Office coordinator 1 salary reported	$21.00 per hour
Special education teacher 3 salaries reported	$70,833 per year

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