Not great, Bob! - Anonymous employee Achievement First Employee Review

Dearest reviewer – I’m glad to see that your sense of humor is intact, though I’ll admit I had to google both the Harry Potter and Mad Men reference (full disclosure: I spent ten years in AF middle school and never read a Harry Potter). We do absolutely embrace a school-wide / all-team approach to school culture. It sounds like there were many students removed from your class, which I agree is troubling (and I’m sure not unique across AF), but I do want people to know that we watch removal rates carefully across the network because there’s little that’s more important than keeping kids in class and the average across AF is nowhere near that high. In most of our schools, less than 3% of students are removed from class per day – and even that is a number we consider high and that we’re actively working on. It’s extremely sad to read that your perspective is that special education services are seen as a “minor inconvenience” at AF. I cannot speak for your school and don’t know which one you work at – though I can verify that we’ve had at least 2 schools this year where serious concerns about current special education support have been raised and they are taken seriously. The commitment to special education runs deep here. We have directors of special education that support every region, and in NY next year we are starting an entire new academy for the kids that we’re having the hardest time reaching - AF Bushwick Empower Program. Empower will be a very small, specialized program within one of our existing schools where students will receive tailored academic support in small groups. With very small class sizes and qualified special education teachers, we’re confident that Empower will give our students with disabilities the instruction they need to reach their fullest potential. I would greatly appreciate it if you could reach out to me to share more about your experience, in part to know whether your school is one that we’re already focused on. -Tom Kaiser, Chief Talent Officer tomkaiser@achievementfirst.org