Sink or Swim- but here are some weights for your ankles. - Anonymous employee Uncommon Schools Employee Review

1.0
Dec 15, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Smart people - Nice office - Office closed 1 week in the summer as well as week btw/ Christmas & New Year's - Educator populations in schools reflects the populations/communities they're teaching (this is so important and great to see); if this diversity were carried through to leadership, they'd get 5 stars here.

Cons

- Sense of urgency seems conflated with expectations for instant results, leaving little room for iteration that supports long-term sustainable impact. - Culture expects & celebrates long-form memos (think 5+ word page docs) for projects across all sorts of functions; like writing papers on top of doing the actual day to day work - Pay is not competitive - Required to be in-office, shift from previous remote policy that caused dozens of people to leave the organization - Many teams regularly under-staffed - Those who do not come from education have to prove themselves constantly, are not as respected - High high burnout among school staff - Things that should be optional (attending work parties, off-hours events with no overtime, etc.) are used to negatively evaluate team members. - Management is hyper involved in select teams' work, with executive team expecting to review processes, progress, etc. that should be trusted to individual teams - Very low chance of/rate of promotions - Leadership among regions and the home office is not very diverse (race, backgrounds, work styles) and does NOT look much like the communities they serve.

Explore other reviews about Uncommon Schools

5.0
Feb 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Provides amazing training for new staff

Cons

At times, sustainability can be an issue

5.0
Sep 28, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Uncommon Schools is a really positive, warm environment. People work hard and have tons of joy in their collaboration!

Cons

We are growing quickly, so the work load is busy! This isn't really a con, just something for new folks to be aware of :)

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