Is Uncommon Schools a good company to work for?

Uncommon Schools has an overall rating of 2.7 out of 5, based on over 1,125 reviews left anonymously by employees. This rating has decreased by 12% over the last 12 months. 30% of employees would recommend working at Uncommon Schools to a friend and 29% have a positive outlook for the business. The best reviews about Uncommon Schools have been left by employees working as Director of Operations , Director and Summer Teaching Fellow .

Does Uncommon Schools pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Uncommon Schools employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.1 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Uncommon Schools. This rating has decreased by 7% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Uncommon Schools?

30% of Uncommon Schools employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Uncommon Schools 2.3 out of 5 for work life balance, 2.9 for culture and values and 3.0 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Uncommon Schools?

Teacher (294) , Lead Teacher (32) , Special Projects Coordinator (26) , Office Manager (24) , English Teacher (23) , Summer Teaching Fellow (21) , Special Education Teacher (20) , Dean of Students (19) , Middle School Teacher (16) , Director of Operations (14) , Math Teacher (14) , Science Teacher (11) , Director (10) , ELA Teacher (8) , Elementary Teacher (8)

What are the pros of working at Uncommon Schools according to real employee reviews?

"Good pay and school structure" ((in 71 reviews)); "Amazing professional development" ((in 45 reviews)); "Great people to work with" ((in 41 reviews)); "staff is great and caring" ((in 39 reviews)); "kids are extremely sweet and benefits are good" ((in 34 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Uncommon Schools according to real employee reviews?

"Long hours if you want to have success as a teacher (it's not horrible)" ((in 125 reviews)); "You are losing so many teachers because of poor leadership." ((in 40 reviews)); "Unnecessary long hour pds, insane long hours" ((in 33 reviews)); "Horrible management of employees in terms of operations." ((in 18 reviews)); "Heavy work load with minimal time to truly keep up with it" ((in 16 reviews))

What are the top reviewed Uncommon Schools locations?

Brooklyn , New York , Newark , Boston , Rochester , Camden , Dorchester , Troy , Roxbury , Livingston , Montclair , New Brunswick , Chicago , Watervliet , Huntington , Portland , Canada , Houston , Porter , Memphis , Greencastle , Brecksville , Kelseyville , Las Vegas , Miami , West Palm Beach , Hyde Park , New Castle , Mission Hill , Roxbury Crossing

Uncommon Schools reviews

2.7

30% would recommend to a friend

(1,061 total reviews)

Brett Peiser

40% approve of CEO

29% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.4

Diversity & inclusion

3.1

Compensation and benefits

3.0

Career opportunities

2.9

Culture & values

2.3

Work/Life balance

2.3

Senior management

Uncommon Schools has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 1,061 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Uncommon Schools employee rating is 28% below average for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

1K reviews

1.0

Oct 12, 2015

"We don't question things in public here"

Lead teacher

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

-Very fulfilling work -Immense staff development -Kids are well-behaved, allowing smooth teaching in the classroom -Competitive starting teacher pay

Cons

-Leadership uses psychological teaching tricks for kids on staff to motivate them -Staff is so young that political movements hold more sway than tangible gains and results -Often decisions are made quickly without transparency or justification to staff -Abrupt staff and classroom changes make stability difficult. -Staff can coast in favorable positions due to nepotism - other staff must fulfill every small guideline with no acknowledgement of hard work or improvement -Mandatory Relay GSE places undue stress on teachers and is a subpar education at best. -Principals and senior staff violate professional boundaries by instructing staff on how to balance time outside of work -No room for voicing opinions in group setting - quote from management - "We don't question things in public here" --Inconsistency of testing norms across classrooms borderline compromises validity of data

1.0

Aug 18, 2018

Teacher

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Good compensation and health insurance benefits

Cons

The environment is dystopian in its level of monitoring and psychological abuse. Even measured critique of the system or its culture is sniffed out and swiftly stamped out. There is a culture of informing on one another for minuscule and inconsequential missteps and staff are willing to sabotage each other. Staff at PD are expected to chant things like “EXCUSES ARE THE TOOLS OF THE INCOMPETENT.” It is a soul-crushing experience that will break you psychologically. Your self-presentation is constantly picked apart by power tripping instructional leaders (and it is far from the specific, “bite-sized” feedback promised by the network - more like wholesale attacks on your personality). Requests for clarification on feedback - even saying things like “could you say more about what you’d like me to do differently next time?” are considered forms of insubordination that must be stamped out. You must accept all feedback with a smile and are expected to adopt phrases like “BEAUTIFUL” and “LOVE THAT” in response to critiques about your bodily comportment or the position of your eyebrows. Kids suffer equivalent forms of psychological abuse as a result, and the classrooms are joyless spaces filled with miserable automatons. Data is fudged to a degree that is overtly deceitful. Schools send certain students to college who they know full well have no chance of finishing in order to keep stats high. 5 Star reviews that poured in in August are obviously done by upper management or their pawns. Basically, run.

1.0

Jun 8, 2015

RUN AWAY!!! FAST. ESPECIALLY if you are non-white. No room for you there.

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

- Hardworking Staff - Students will Learn at all costs

Cons

- Management is almost all White - Very little diversity - Staff of Color held to a different standard - General lack of Respect for People - Not invested in the Community they serve - Weed out Students that threaten the data/numbers (behavior, ELL, Special Needs) - Not willing to understand or sympathize with what the students deal with in life because of their race, poverty, violence, etc. - Look at Eric Garner video to get an idea of how students are handled when they misbehave - Burnout for Staff - Concern at the long-term psychological effects the schools will have on the students

Viewing 10 - 12 of 1,061 Reviews

Jobs at Uncommon Schools

5-12 Apprentice Teacher

High School History Teacher

Pre-K-12 Teacher - Pre-K, Elementary, Middle, High School Teacher