teacher

lead teacher

associate teacher

operations associate

elementary school teacher

Success Academy Charter Schools

The individual teachers and ops associates at this school have good intentions and genuinely care about the wellbeing of students. The students themselves are just phenomenal in every way, shape and form. The way that Success runs as a school though needs some serious change. The lack of experience in leadership at my old SA caused 15 employees to leave in roughly 3 months. Leadership perceives people asking questions because they are confused as someone being defiant and questioning their authority when that's simply not the case. It's almost like leadership is paranoid. Leadership gives off this facade of confidence but in reality, they have no idea what they are doing. There are constant mistakes with schedules, asking teachers to go way outside their job description to do little jobs, sometimes a class will be cancelled and the specials or science teacher won't know so then they are just waiting around, etc. Leadership is honestly just afraid of looking bad, even when they make a mistake, so they try to cover it up and blame others for their own mistakes. There is absolutely no ownership whatsoever, and they are extremely condescending when they speak to you. Staff is spread SO THIN. There are simply not enough employees to keep this school running at the capacity that there is. When we were the most short staffed this year, even the principal and assistant principals were teaching specials classes. Teachers are constantly assigned to do small jobs during their breaks, which then leads them to have no time to plan lessons, speak to parents, etc. You have NO CHOICE but for your work to follow you home because if you don't complete the massive amounts of pointless busy work they give you, you will get a nasty email. There is no sub plan either; so if you're calling out sick, it's up to you to scramble and find coverage for your arrival and dismissal duties and classes or you will get yelled at. 

You also receive legitimately no training. My coworker was thrown into having her own classroom having never taught before one week after she started working for SA. You have no guidance on what to teach the kids, how to plan a lesson, etc. The only thing they actually train you on is how to behaviorally manage a classroom. I was literally teaching a guided reading group and literally had no idea what I was doing. There's no such thing as a 12-1 or an "ICT" classroom for kids with special needs or learning disabilities. The lessons in every classroom in every grade are exactly the same. There is no extra time or lesson differentiation depending on the classroom. There is also no extra help for students who are confused; as sink or swim it is for the teachers it's the exact same way for the students. If your child is slow they will try to force your child out because they are skewing the data.

The best part by far about this job though is how leadership recognizes that so many people are leaving this job, and does NOTHING to fix it. I believe the employee retention rate was discussed once and then never brought up again. Has leadership really never stopped to think about WHY people are leaving and what they can do better to prevent this from happening? Probably not, because they are much more concerned with getting the next bonus once they harass the families with slow kids to withdraw so that the school ranking can go up.

SA isn't a terrible place, it actually has a beautiful mission of how a scholar's zipcode doesn't determine their destiny. SA really just has to fix these institutionalized problems that spread teachers too thin, leadership learning how to effectively communicate to people, and to stop with the pointless work that benefits no one. Do better, SA.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Everything was provided to us, we did not need to buy anything for our classrooms. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The administration was unprofessional and inexperienced. They often said very offensive things in meetings and lacked consistency. They would often misunderstand initiatives put forward by the network and than would get extremely angry with us that we were following through with the initiatives incorrectly. In reality, they had misunderstood and not explained the initiatives correctly. They rated teachers by a laminated piece of paper outside the door of the classroom, many teachers went weeks with a big red “fail” on the wall right outside their door. Administration refused to see any skills teachers brought into the building.  Although I am a qualified educator, I was consistently patronized and treated like I knew nothing about the field. I felt undervalued and overall, disliked by administration. I stayed through the entire year because I am not one to switch halfway through a position, and with all the work and mental space the school took up I had no space left to apply to many other jobs. 

The job helped me move to the city and offered some money for me to move here. I found most schools would not hire unless you have a New York address. However, this school will. For me it was always temporary. When I got to the city I quickly realized there are much better opportunities in the field. I would not encourage anyone to accept this job unless they are truly desperate. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Verbally abusive and unappreciative. It left everyone feeling undervalued and overworked. Most of the teachers left and did not return to the school. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Like most schools we started with attendance. For attendance alone we had to log information online, send a message to administration, and call every parent of a kid who did not show up. It took a long time and was often very frustrating. We taught from the curriculum for every component with 2 preps, science and specials. 

There were often donor tours or prospective family tours. These tours were faked. The students who did not behave would be removed from the room. The students who were chosen to be in the room were told a special guest was coming and they needed to be on their best behavior or they would have no recess for a week. We would take up to an hour practicing the lesson we would present in front of the donors with our students. The students got frustrated, administration would be stressed and would often come into the room and snap at us and yell at the kids during these times. I am not one to get extremely stressed in situations like this but they put so much pressure on us I would be shaking, teaching a lesson we had practiced 15 times that morning. A lot of our instructional time went to preparing these fake and staged lessons for donors to see. We were required to be very strict with the students almost all the time, however, during donor tours they asked us to be “Disney”. I can’t stress enough that these donor tours at my school were faked. Administration would text us when the donors were coming up the stairs so we could start our fake lesson and it would look like we were not just waiting for them to arrive. We spent a lot of instructional time preparing these fake lessons.

Like most people, I've read and heard my fair share of the pros and cons of working here. However, as a person that likes to come to conclusions on my own I was shocked to see what really takes place beyond the facade of the bright orange logo. After working at SA for almost two years, I can confidently say that there is an enormous mental and physical cost of being part of machine of the school system. Each person, whether they are teacher, manager, principal, psychologist and of course "scholar", functions as a piece of the machine. Like every machine, a part that does not function in the capacity or expectations of its purpose is thrown out and quickly replaced. As a school psychologist, it was to my extreme displeasure and sadness to see how teachers and specifically, special needs children are treated. Instead of working at the level of the child, they expect them to immediately overcome hurdles that they cannot attain without services and supports (which is not even properly implemented at all in SA). I have seen my fair share of lapses in judgement when working with children with behavioral needs on the part of the leaders in the school. If a student or teacher continues to rock the boat and not fit to their standards, they are pushed out one way or the other. The standardized test "results" and scores are inflated and the numbers come at the cost of the mental health and well being of its teachers and children. A stressful environment; unattainable expectations; and almost militaristic setting does more harm than good for these children.

Despite all this, I will always hold SA near and dear to me because of the amazing colleagues and children that I had the pleasure of working with. SA pushed my skills to the max and I certainly came out stronger than I did going in. I did my job as a psychologist to the best of my abilities and worked hard to support the children, teachers and families that deserve so much more.  As others have stated, the children are amazing and lovely and as cliche as it sounds, they are the absolute best reason to work here.  That being said, some advice for people looking to work here. If you are a person that loves a challenge and wishes to really put your skills to the test, then this might be the place for you. You may make friendships and build strong work ethics.  However, this is not a place for the faint of heart. Especially if your passion is to work with special needs children, I would stay away as working here in that aspect does not  reflect how the educational world actually operates. 

Overall, I won't deter anyone from wanting to work here. In the end, it is up to you to make that determination for yourself. Good Luck.

I worked at Success Academy and, in my personal experience, it was one of the most frustrating workplaces I’ve been in — both as an employee and as a parent.

Culture & Management

In my view, the environment felt very controlling and political. I often felt that leadership decisions weren’t communicated transparently, and that managers were under pressure to give performance ratings that didn’t always match day-to-day reality. When I raised concerns, my experiences with HR did not feel consistent or particularly supportive, and I didn’t feel there was much accountability.

Fairness & Flexibility

From my perspective, policies were applied unevenly. For example, I saw some people in similar roles receive remote-work flexibility while others did not, without a clear explanation. This created resentment, low morale, and what felt like constant turnover.

Data & Technology Practices

I also had concerns about how data and technology were handled. In my experience, it was easy for staff to save internal files to personal devices, and new tools or apps were frequently introduced without clear communication about how data or privacy would be protected. Because of this, I personally did not feel confident that information was being safeguarded the way I would have hoped. As a parent with children enrolled in the network at the time, these concerns eventually led me to withdraw them.

Advocacy & Extra Expectations

During my time there, I sometimes felt pressure to participate in political or advocacy-related activities that, to me, went beyond my core job responsibilities. While some employees might be comfortable with this, I felt that opting out could affect how I was perceived.

What Would Have Helped (In My Opinion)

Leadership that communicates more openly and treats employees with respect.

Clear, consistent policies that are applied fairly across teams.

Stronger, more transparent practices around how data and technology are used.

A genuine focus on employee well-being, not just performance and image.

Bottom Line

On the outside, Success Academy can look impressive and high-performing. However, based on my experience, the day-to-day environment felt disorganized and inconsistent, with communication gaps and data practices I was not comfortable with.

If you value stability, fairness, and what you see as strong ethical leadership, you may find this workplace challenging.

I taught middle school English in Brooklyn. I was hired as an associate teacher for 5th grade. Two weeks before school began, I was moved to 6th grade lead teacher. I wasn't actually told this - I noticed during training that I was suddenly being given the 6th grade material with no warning and I had to pull my principal aside to ask her about it. Work days before school began were from 8-4 or 9-4, however if you did not come in at 6:30 and leave at 6:30 at my location, you were ostracized by other staff members for being lazy or incompetent. This resulted in a solid 12 hour work day 5 days a week with no overtime, followed by lesson planning every day as soon as I got home until about midnight or so. Even my weekends required constant parent-teacher contact on top of the grading and lesson planning. I understand teachers everywhere have long and unfair hours, but this was to a ridiculous degree. That aside, as an English teacher, I did not have any breaks during these work days. Zero period, lunch, and after school, English teachers have extra tutoring responsibilities that other teachers don't have, taking away the breaks that other teachers may receive. (ex. children have to do reading logs every night. Any child that does not do their reading log is then sent to the English teacher for a "working lunch.") All of this on top of the constant parent-teacher contact was overwhelming. A teacher is not just expected, but required to have two parent meetings each week and to speak with every parent in their specific advisory every week. The fact that teachers have an advisory has baffled every person I've spoken to. Along with all of that, the co-teaching system sounds great until you realize that on top of your own lesson plans, you also have to know your co-teacher's lessons inside and out. English is paired with history and math is paired with science. As others have said, it's uncomfortable how often and how strictly we're expected to punish students. If you don't buy in 100% to Success' policies, you will be unhappy here. That's really what it comes down to.

This school operates in chaos and lacks the structure needed to ensure a healthy environment for students and staff. The leadership team appears disorganized and inconsistent in their decision-making, which trickles down and negatively impacts the entire school community. Policies are unclear, and favoritism seems to play a significant role in both hiring and promotions, leaving many employees feeling unsupported and undervalued.

There’s an alarming lack of professionalism among staff, with personal issues sometimes bleeding into workplace interactions. Teachers who exhibit questionable behavior often face little to no accountability, creating a culture where bad actions are overlooked rather than addressed. It’s concerning to see individuals rewarded with promotions despite behaviors that should disqualify them from such roles.

For staff members, the working conditions are far from ideal. Lunch breaks are often non-existent, and employees are made to feel guilty for taking necessary sick days. The social dynamics among the team can feel more like high school drama than a professional workplace, and there is little effort to build a supportive or collaborative culture.

Students, especially those with special needs, are not given the attention or resources they deserve. Instead of fostering an inclusive environment, the school often appears to prioritize optics over genuine care and support, which is deeply troubling.

The pressure to meet testing benchmarks is overwhelming, and there’s a sense that integrity takes a back seat to achieving results. This fosters a toxic environment where numbers matter more than the well-being of students and staff.

If you’re considering this school as a place to work or send your child, proceed with caution. The environment is challenging, the culture is toxic, and the priorities seem misaligned with the values of education and care. There’s significant room for improvement, particularly in leadership, transparency, and creating a safe and supportive space for everyone involved.



Trains teachers to be strong to the extent of becoming militant and they treat kids and poor families bad.

I learned a-lot , they hired great people who really care about children and wear them down. This school system really exposes how the National state of education is right now, push kids through test with extrinsic motivation disguised as praise and building intrinsic motivation. Management is support based on likability and its a big boys/big girls club. My first year they would leave "struggling" teachers who didn't pick up their style of behavior management and teachings in their timing would purposely leave teachers alone in classrooms with serviced behavior plan and under-served document needs with a class of other students over crowded and triggering each other to misbehave. Then formally giving the teachers observations knowing they'll fail but documentation for the "at-will" hiring. Management will use you up until you no longer want to achieve their agenda then you are no longer supportive, lots of sabotage in house vs teachers, classification of students, under-qualified teachers handling students with disabilities.

The curriculum doesn't support the children the with some learning disabilities because of the rigor of content weekly, workload, commitment, they push a lot of students who have delays in processing often are push through the cracks at low reading levels, students aren't learning actual skills of reading but test taking skills. Lets not get into No Nonsense Nurturer is beat into your head from the time you walk into the welcome address orientation.

Opt out of benefits you wont have time to use them and they'll just eat your pay.


I interviewed at this place several months ago for an administrative position and ten minutes after the interview I emailed to tell them I no longer wished to be considered for the position. It was that awful. When I arrived, no one seemed to have a clue why I was there and the three people who needed to interview me had other meetings and event scheduled at the same time, so my interview took place in bursts of about 2 minutes with each person rotating between obligations. No one had read my resume, which clearly indicated I was currently employed full-time and had graduated college two years ago. All of them asked me when I was going to graduate and if I'd ever worked full-time. I was asked my astrological sign during the interview process, and the woman said she was glad I wasn't a pisces because her two children were pisces and they were morons. Uh...great? At one point I sat alone in a room for 45 minutes because my interviewers were all busy. I should have just left because the disrespect they'd shown to that point had been enough to convince me I would hate working there. The work environment seemed horrendously scattered and stressful, and the people I spoke with were rude and frankly a bit loopy. When I mentioned that I mystery shop as an unpaid, purely voluntary side gig, my interviewer said, "If you work for us, you have to quit that. This job is 24/7 and we discourage any outside activities since you should be on call at all times for us. This is a career, not a silly job." This was a 180 from the job posting, which said it was a 9-5 that encouraged the separation of work and life and wanted people who held outside interests. The salary was appallingly low for a "24/7" job in the South Bronx. There were several other huge red flags. Like I said, I withdrew my application immediately after the 2.5 hour interview from hell. It didn't seem like I would have gotten the job anyway, and I'm really okay with that.

There are so many issues with Success Academy that I don't know where to begin. I came to SA with a passion for improving the lives of kids in NYC through my love of teaching and literature and resigned after only a few months because the intense, punitive culture at this school destroyed my mental health. There is pretty much zero support for teachers; I worked upwards of 55 hours a week and had barely any time for myself, even on weekends. Admins and leading teachers are unsupportive of newer teachers and you're expected to learn quickly and adapt your style to their teaching/management style ASAP (or else you'll drown like I did). Co-teacher left me alone in a huge classroom and blamed me if my class acted up as if I was supposed to be an expert on behavior management even though I had virtually no experience. Individuality is discouraged from both students and staff, and the behavior management system is harsh, carceral, and traumatizes students. Kids basically just repeat stuff you say and become a hive mind and are not actually learning. Special ed program is virtually nonexistent; incoming teachers are not trained well for this job to begin with and we only received one day of special ed training during the summer prior. Professional development meetings are anxiety-inducing and unproductive. KIDS ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM ONCE PER DAY!!!!! Testing culture is far too intense and takes away from students' creativity, critical thinking skills, and the overall joy of learning. It's sad because most of these kids and families are invested but parents have NO IDEA what goes on behind these walls; SA has become part of the problem they claim to fix. This might be a good place for you if you thoroughly believe in "the model," are a no-nonsense person, and are okay with not having a life outside of your job. Only good things were that the kids are lovely and Would not recommend if you have health issues (again, no support whatsoever!!!) and/or are looking to become a progressive, nurturing teacher.

I want to put a caveat on this and say your experience can vary quite a lot depending on which school you're at and the culture/leadership there. I'll also say I was an electives teacher, which can be a bit different than being a content teacher in a few ways. I feel I got fairly lucky at mine, but I heard stories of other schools with very high turnover rates where teachers were pulled in for additional responsibilities, like teaching classes in subjects outside their own.

Overall, I felt a lot of the challenges I faced were those you'd face teaching anywhere. Long hours, classes of middle schoolers, work outside of the classroom. It's definitely hard work, but very rewarding. The connections you make with the kids were great. My first semester in the classroom definitely felt overwhelming, but my shadowing was all done online due to covid, so it might feel less imposing if you start now.

Covid may have made my experience a bit different than if you start now. It was definitely unique teaching online, and the middle schoolers coming in to fifth grade hadn't been in a physical classroom since third grade, which led to I think a more difficult year than otherwise. 

I had some coworkers I loved and felt very supported by, and a couple I didn't like. Working with other teachers you like makes things a lot easier. 

I ended up leaving because I found the city a bit too far from nature, and the rigidity of a teaching schedule made me realize I wanted to look for work which might be a bit more flexible.

If you're fresh out of college and looking for a job as a teacher, overall I'd recommend it. It's good on a resume and I could definitely get jobs at many other schools if I wanted to go back to teaching. If you get a good school with a good culture/leadership, it's definitely a place you could stick around for a long time and do rewarding work. If you get unlucky with school/culture - well, some places have high turnover for a reason.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 28 salaries reported	$66,268 per year
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Operations associate 5 salaries reported	$66,900 per year
Elementary school teacher 3 salaries reported	$54,683 per year

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