teacher

speech language pathologist

tutor

marketing intern

customer success specialist

Proximity Learning Inc.

I left in-person teaching last year due to mental health issues that made it impossible for me to ever go back. It was scary because I had no idea what I was going to do, and the loss of income was potentially devastating for me and my family.  I put out dozens of applications for online teaching jobs and heard nothing, but Proximity responded within 24 hours and in less than a month's time, I was onboarding with them and preparing to teach a full load of classes. No other company was as responsive nor provided for me what Proximity did. I don't know what we would have done without them.

I've been with Proximity for over a year now. When you're hired, you become eligible to choose classes in your content area as they are available. The organization will pay for reciprocity if these classes are in other states. At a certain number of hours, you are eligible for PTO. The company offers benefits, if you choose. You are paid over breaks and holidays for the districts you serve. These are benefits that aren't available at other similar third party education vendors. There is great potential for moving up in the company. There are multiple tiers of full-time employees and just about all of them started as teachers. They tend to hire from within and are always looking for people who go above and beyond for promotions and bonuses. The people in leadership are genuine, authentic, and sincerely invested in supporting staff and helping encourage growth. There are numerous opportunities for involvement in committees who gather ideas from all employees to learn and improve. 

It is important to manage your expectations going in, however. You will start as a teacher who contracts part-time, ultimately. Planning and grading isn't provided with additional pay. Professional developments are provided but on a voluntary basis. This may seem problematic, however, there are other companies who do compensate for planning and grading, yet these same companies provide no earned PTO, no benefits, and no pay over holiday breaks, and you have to deduct your own taxes. Additionally, Proximity isn't limited to contracted teaching positions alone. There are opportunities to earn additional income through substituting if you prefer, and oftentimes, there are companies who come to Proximity to find licensed teachers to serve as tutors and they compensate you very well if you want to seize these opportunitites. And moreover, as I said... the potential for upward mobility is huge. If you want to get in, give 110%, and set your mind to a long-term career with the organization, you will be noticed and you will be promoted. Proximity is an off-shoot of the established company ESS, meaning that this organization is rooted in a business that has been around for a very long time, which suggests that the longevity is something to be counted on. 

As with any situation, you have to first consider what it is that you are looking for. If you are like me, someone who had to leave in-person teaching but wanted to continue to practice this profession from the comfort of home, on your own schedule...if you are content to crawl a little before you walk and eventually, run...if you are willing to understand and accept that imperfections will sometimes come along but consider how the benefits outweigh the detriments...then this is the place for you. 

Ultimately, Proximity has been not only a safe harbor after I had to leave in-person teaching, but it has been a place where I discovered a new passion: curriculum writing. I am exploring this now and I aspire to prove myself and eventually rise into the curriculum department, maybe get my PhD in C&I: Virtual Learning and become a part of the leadership someday. Proximity was and continues to be an answered prayer for me and my family. 

Upper management only cares about lining their own pockets while the teachers are breaking their backs for barely minimum wage (after you account for all the overtime you have to put in just to survive). The teachers are expected to do all the same things a traditional teacher would have to do but for $20/hour … but are only paid that $20 for the time they are in the classroom. Teachers are expected to meet with parents, create detailed grades, set up canvas, go to team meetings, go to faculty meetings, do professional development, create curriculum, differentiate lessons, be dynamic in the classroom, and more. Yet, if you substitute teach for Proximity, you don’t have to do any of this and get paid the same. Plus, no benefits at all. Also, if you question their pay practices they give you lame excuses that they can only pay $20/hour because the school districts won’t pay more and it’s so expensive to pay for all the support they provide.  Yet, they’re giving upper management $10,000 bonuses for what? And also they promote NVTA which is a $600 course you have to take every two years to be certified but checking into NVTA circles back to management of Proximity. So, they’re making their teachers pay to get this certification and again it benefits Proximity financially but not the teachers.  The teachers get a 5% raise… $22 instead of $20, but they’re also out a minimum of $600.  You could do a payment plan with Proximity for the course, but they’ll take this out of your paycheck and add steep fees. Also, management refuses to communicate effectively with their teachers. They say X is your starting date but then change it last minute and then you don’t get paid even though you’re ready and were even logged into class.  Then there are schools that expect miracles on state exams (even though their local teachers couldn’t get the students to pass) and if you don’t deliver results online in 30-minute tutoring sessions where most kids don’t log on until the last 15 minutes of class - you’re fired. There is no room to advance. They hire their friends. This is a temp agency that doesn’t care that you’re an outstanding teacher with 25 years of experience. You’re disposable. They’ll just lie to another great teacher and convince them to sign on.  They want to reach 1 million students but can barely manage the number of students they currently have. 

This is a fairly new company so it's still going through some growing pains. It's objective is to put qualified teachers in schools that struggle to get teachers due to their poor socioeconomic status. Teachers through Proximity (Prox) are virtual only. We have full control of how many classes we want to take and at what time. The principals work hard to support everyone and to be approachable. Teachers don't work for the school district so but the school is ultimately the customer so every effort is made to make them happy. It's a fine line between being supported and being told to "make it work". Teachers have been part-time mostly but the company is beginning to provide full-time teacher salaries and they hire from within to several internal positions because the company is growing. The best part of the job is the flexibility and you can choose to teach virtually through Zoom or asynchronously. The hardest part is the benefits are (health, vision, dental) are terrible plans but full-time salaries are competitive. As teacher you know you will make a difference because without you that class wouldn't exist. Prox is trying to fix that problem.  Professional development opportunities are many and how they provide them is becoming more streamlined. Teachers are encouraged to become nationally certified as virtually trained teachers and they will offer to pay for your education if you are a promising teacher. 

Countless unpaid hours doing staff meetings, professional development, and creating entire lessons and curriculum for school districts.  There are so many administrators that you never know who to ask for a question and depending on who you ask will determine the answer.  I've gotten multiple different answers for the same question at times.  Not to mention the countless times questions went unanswered and I eventually gave up.  When help was needed to create an entire year full of lessons for English, Math, Science, and Social Studies without a single textbook, workbook, or reference from the school it was suggested that I pay for subscriptions to various learning platforms, or attend unpaid office hours after school to get answers. The training was insufficient at best and then you are thrown into a classroom and have to learn multiple platforms including Canvas which is complete chaos in and of itself.  Told countless classes were coming in for this year and just wait.  This was in July.  We are now in October and not a single class has been offered.  I've never worked for such a disorganized company where teachers are treated so poorly  for little compensation.  While I am technically still employed I have not had a single class since May and am looking for a new job. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Having a decent side gig with income 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Class offerings conflict with teachers’ availability during a typical school day
 Lack of student accountability 
 No observation feedback during a course or remediation.

You are expected to attend PD’s even though you have a main job that will conflict with you being able to go.
You are expected to follow this outdated curriculum. When you sign up for one course, you may see that several other courses have been piled on without warning. You could sign up to teach a course but suddenly finding yourself having to teach a course that’s outside of your certification area. For instance, I signed up to teach English but was told I had and was expected to teach Speech. I was micromanaged over that. No constructive feedback or consideration given whatsoever. 
Can get fired without warning

I advise Proximity to be transparent during interviews! Proximity is NOT for licensed teachers that currently work in a brick and mortar classroom setting. Things change everyday, including teacher availability. This should be made clear.
If you’re on a LOA, disability, a stay at home mom, or retired, or maybe a sub then this job is for you. Otherwise, if you’re a full-time teacher, please don’t count on doing this during your planning periods. It simply won’t work out for you.

This is a really good place to work remotely whether you are looking for something part time,  or desiring to work from home but get full time pay. Whatever your preference,  there's definitely the option here at Proximity as you can pick up as little or as many classes as you'd like based on your teacher cert and available schedule. They have all types of class from core subjects like math/ela to foreign languages, computer science, basic and advanced sciences and even technical courses. For extra pay, you can even sub available classes each day and you don't even have to be certified in the class you're subbing. This job does require a weekly lesson plan but nothing drawn out and extensive- a simple overview of what you plan to teach and do each day. Curriculum resources and assignments are provided for you. Best of all, you are paid biweekly and on a consistent basis so theres no fluctuations in pay. This means even through holiday breaks your pay remains the same and you still get to be off as you would in a brick and mortar building. However, this is a W2 job not 1099 contractor. Great if you want to avoid the very high 30% self employment tax. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The teachers are the only supportive ones.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
No support from higher-ups like there use to be. Too many people are coming and going.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It has gone down hill recently. The higher-ups give false hope about adding classes, but drag their feet and tell teachers it'll be fine. Schools have already started and 80% of their teachers are not getting paid. But they keep saying they have classes, but don't show it. The company has a new way of getting classes to the teachers, but the software is good, but the higher-ups refused to check how it properly runs so the software in practice is worse than the system they had before. It is a nightmare, it has been over two months and we have bills to pay.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
This semester awful. I am not getting paid. I have to check for classes despite school has been in session and only hearing false promises of classes being added. Yet I'm still required to attend mandatory meetings, but I'm not getting paid and there's no classes for me to teach so I can get paid.

Proximity Learning has a clear mission to help schools in need with virtual teaching tools that are becoming more normalized, expected, and in some cases necessary in public education. Having experienced first-hand the devastation that a long-term unfilled teaching position can have on students and schools, I appreciate their mission. There is a great team of people to support you as a teacher and give you the tools you need to be effective. As a former public school educator I've spent long nights planning lessons or grading at home and I'm not too bothered by the uncompensated training/planning time that the job sometimes requires.
I do wish that teachers were compensated more and that employment was more steady. Employment is compensated on a per-class basis, and depending on your area of expertise there may be only a couple classes available for you to teach. It would be great for someone who is comfortable with the flexibility or not dependent on it as their sole source of income.

This is my second year, and I’ve been extremely disappointed lately. I have over 10 years of teaching experience, have been department chair, etc. I picked up an extra course that was IN SHAMBLES. The entire course was a mess. In the past 4 weeks, I’ve had THREE walkthroughs. I haven’t had three walkthroughs in the 2 years I’ve been there. Every single time they complain about things that I have zero control over. Old grades that weren’t my responsibility, not having the grades sent over (I have no access to the school’s system and everyone knows this), lesson plans not being posted even though they’re working on a project and the entire outline is posted. I haven’t missed a single day this year, I agreed to take over and try to fix a class in shambles, and this is what I get in return. This extra course has been a NIGHTMARE and I will make sure to never work for the same “teaching and learning specialist”. There are so many other great ones. The person who runs the subbing also needs a new job. She’s obviously a miserable human being. Other than that, it’s been fantastic. I’ve worked for 7 different school districts, and all the facilitators have been fantastic. Everyone else I’ve spoken to at proximity have been great as well.  

There used to be a lot of reviews for this company. Since they all magically disappeared I will post a new one. 

I started in January. What I was told in the interview via a slide deck is not true. 

The pay is awful. I’m making $12.45 an hour for a class with zero support staff, you are told when you interview about the levels of support, a co teacher, a school contact, and a proximity learning contact. No one really helps. The ore made curriculum for this course is subpar so I not only have to teach at 12.45 an hour but I have to grade, teach out to students etc, and do a ton of planning. 

It took me weeks to get a permanent placement which was fine because there is a lot of substitute work. 

People quit all the time. Just since my arrival scores of administrative positions have become open as the CSS’s quit because it’s so disorganized and the work environment is awful. 

They are all smiles until you push backs out what is supposed to be happening. 



Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 3 salaries reported	$29.33 per hour
Speech language pathologist 11 salaries reported	$79.82 per hour
Tutor 8 salaries reported	$37.50 per hour
Marketing intern 2 salaries reported	$12.00 per hour
Customer success specialist 1 salary reported	$60,000 per year

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