Classical Charter Schools reviews

One thing that is very difficult for me to accept is that students don't get recess. Its a part of the school design, no recess. Also, if students are not meeting standards, (which a lot of them are not) they miss specials and have to attend intervention. It's difficult getting students invested or motivated when they have no break or outlet. Many students are doing math, reading or writing from 7:45am-4:00pm (even in kindergarten). It's evident that students are verbally and socially behind because of the fact that there is very little student to student interaction. The lesson plans are very scripted and the there are only a few times for scholars to participate verbally. I also think the curriculum is outdated. The curriculum is very procedural. Critical thinking is not prevalent among students. It's the, I Do, You Do, We Do method. Students rely heavily on procedures and are often stumped when a procedure doesn't work. Students must walk around very awkwardly. Their hands must always be by their sides with their arms straight, it's just weird and unnatural. I've seen other schools with similar protocols have students either have hands in pockets or hands locked together which is definitely more natural and more comfortable. Also, there is little accountability for teachers. Grade Team Leads are somewhat like principals are given a lot of power and most are not ready or equipped to lead a team. These schools do not have principals to guide teachers, they have school directors and they are more on the operation side of things. Defiantly not a part of the teaching side. Teachers are essentially accountable to their Grade Team Lead who (in my opinion) are often not invested in the kids. I have worked as a teacher for many years and I've never seen a school like this one. There is no real time for teacher/students to develop relationships. A pro/con of this school is that teachers don't have to do breakfast duty, lunch duty and there's no recess so no recess duty. However, in the past at other schools I worked at, this is when relationships developed among students and teachers and students. I could see their personalities develop during these times. However, here... Students don't have personalities. It's unfortonate. Teachers often yell at students and sham them in this setting. Kids seem to be miserable. They are not excited to be at school or even worse, excited about learning.

The school has successfully created an environment where every child has testing anxiety. We are routinely understaffed, resulting in the worst burnout I’ve experienced in my tenure at the school. We do not hire substitutes, and instead have teachers cover for other teachers- sometimes without prep periods replaced. In an environment where we already work ten hours a day, we are routinely asked to have before and after school meetings without any additional compensation for that extra time. All lessons are fully scripted- which effectively means that lessons I could write, prep, and internalize in 5-15 minutes becomes at least 45-1 hr of planning time. Teachers with 3+ years of experience end up in leadership positions, but outside of that, meaningful teacher development drops off at about the 3 year mark. The school strives for liberation, but students are only assessed via formal written assessments, there is little to no project based learning, creativity is stifled for kids and adults, and the curriculum is dotted with systemic racism. Some work has been done to fix this, however, more must be done.