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Success Academy Charter Schools

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Run away while you can - High School History Teacher Success Academy Charter Schools Employee Review

2.0
May 21, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They’ll hire anyone with a bachelors degree so if you are thinking about becoming a teacher but aren’t ready to commit to a masters/teaching credential, this is a good way to get your foot in the door

Cons

Truly unreasonable workload- long contract hours and you’re expected to do more work at home. My class sizes are 35-44 kids and i have 4 sections so about 170 kids total. I have 2 hours of grading/prep time per day. It feels more like a prison guard position than a teaching position since the rules are incredibly strict (the color of the students socks, where they place their pencils on their desks, the volume that the students ask questions is all supposed to be monitored, controlled, and standardized by the teacher). The idea is to get the students to act as much like robots as possible so they can put as many kids in the room as possible without hiring any additional teachers. There’s no aids or teaching assistants and all the grading and material creation falls on the teacher. We are expected to call the parents of the kids who are absent every day during first period while also teaching first period so they don’t have to hire as many admin assistants. We’re supposed to tell the kids who are sick to take medicine and come to school anyway. We are told that if the teacher says something the students MUST parrot it back blindly without questioning, even if the teacher is wrong. Red flags left, right, and center. The schools are run like a business with the students grades as the product and only care about how the school looks to their extremely wealthy donors when they tour the schools. The mental/emotional wellbeing of the students and teachers is the last priority. The business model is clearly to hire young, inexperienced, naive young people right out of college, (so they don’t know how normal employers act) and then squeeze them for as much work and profit as possible (burning then out in the process) and then hiring a new batch every year because so many people quit and the turnover rate is incredibly high. At the end of the day it’s the students who are in the worst position.

Explore other reviews about Success Academy Charter Schools

5.0
Feb 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Experience to work with the smartest next-gen kids in NYC! Fast Paced!

Cons

None that come to my mind

3.0
Jun 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Design your own curriculum (at least I was able to). If you are good at the job, they will trust you to get whatever you need (substantial budget for special projects). Good mentorship (my principal was a great mentor for how to navigate the company and move up); the KIDS (I loved my HS students and art club). This is a great job to learn if you want to teach for the rest of your career, or want to pivot to grad school later. It will teach you perseverance, empathy, and resourcefulness. 10-weeks of VACATION is AMAZING, plus the bonus $$$ if you stay a few years. Overall, I loved teaching, and seriously considered staying for a longer time. This was great practice for teaching, creating a curriculum, and mentorship for when I eventually left to teach at the collegiate level.

Cons

Long hours for little pay, extreme rules for the children (but also my kids were very well behaved), parents who do not care (some parents are hard to ever reach and simply will not put in the effort to parent their child). Some of the senior people can be cult-like in their training (you have to pretend to be all in on their Success mumbo-jumbo; NEVER show doubts about their brainwashing. If you successfully learn their BS and act as if you subscribe to it, you can avoid their eagle eyes and be left relatively alone.)

3
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