EF (Education First) reviews

The academy doesn't have any academic admission standard .to speak of. Yet, they insist on calling themselves an IB institution. Hence, a major disconnect. 75-80% of the students are spoiled brainless rich brats, who come to the States to shop, to smoke, to drink, and to screw. Nevertheless, the school needs to make a good showing on the IB exams. The result: teaching to the test, banning students from the IB diploma (a good thing, actually). The former makes the whole enterprise a big theatre of the absurd, where the actors go through motions, bereft of any significance. In addition, being a teacher and a house parent really is a soul drenching drudgery. I have no life at all. I leave the retched hill top once a fortnight. There are piles of useless paperwork, reports, PD (which the admin., smilingly, schedules during the holidays. The management is eager to cover up even criminal conduct on the part of some students, just to ensure a continuous cash-flow. Advice to fellow educators: PLEASE, avoid at all costs!!!

Cons: They are constantly finding reasons not to pay you (and the pay is already pretty low for teaching), there are times when there is limited availability in slow seasons and while you are expected to be patient during these times, if you find a secondary work and things pick up, they are not so patient about your hours of availability. In addition - the requirements changed and increased over time while the pay increase was only slight. I was supposed to be earning $12/hr but factoring in the time with custom lesson plan preparation or just general plan prep and grading that often times went beyond the 15 mins you're supposed to theoretically spend, I was probably making more like $6 or $7/hr.