Pros
This is a solid school district that does give a pretty good education to their students. They tend to have higher than average test scores across all their campuses despite not primarily focusing on teaching to the tests. It would be a great way to get a good and free education in AZ if you can't afford a good private school and if you are able to work your way up the waitlist.
Cons
The administration acts as though our way of education is the only way for education... as if no other public education could ever be great. The truth is, there are great and poor public schools, charter schools (which Great Hearts is), and private schools. There are great administrations that support their staff at all 3 types, and there are subpar ones. I come from a school that is on a high horse and acts as though we are so far superior, but the politics and nonsense is alive and well. Great Hearts is also notorious for paying lower salaries than many other schools when experience is comparable. I get paid better than a lot of colleagues due to my experience and educational background, but I still am vastly underpaid and it is hard to make it work in a wealthy town such as Scottsdale. I realize this is an overarching theme across all education sectors, but Great Hearts tends to pay even lower than average in many cases. There is also a lot of turnover. The rate of pay is definitely a major reason why. Anther reason is our schools are expanding too much and getting too big, and teachers don't feel like they are valued.
