Pros
- Strong hiring; the teachers and administrators I worked with were dedicated professionals - Administration is primarily people of color, and in particular women of color; people who lead the schools share student identities and are mindful of equity issues
Cons
- Weak programming; very few thriving clubs or sports for students, leading to an unbalanced high school experience - Under-resourced; about a third of staff members were laid off in one day in the spring of 2020 - the school has not rehired to capacity since - Low accountability for school culture; lack of resources make it difficult to address issues in school culture swiftly and fully - bullying proliferated on campus over the past year - Low expectations in student academics; focus on students having high grades over proof of learning - Non-responsive to teacher concerns; consistently gather information from teachers in feedback surveys with no response to stated concerns - Very little presence from CMO leaders; rarely present in schools, even more rarely present in classrooms - in four years with the organization, my instruction was observed twice by CMO leadership - Little to no instructional coaching on some campuses; when schools are not hired to capacity, teachers do not receive consistent coaching, with some teachers receiving no coaching - Very high teacher turnover; after four years at my campus, of all the teachers I worked with at the start, only four remain