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Challenger School

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Challenger School reviews

3.1

47% would recommend to a friend

(283 total reviews)

Hugh Gourgeon

39% approve of CEO

36% positive business outlook

Challenger School has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 283 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Challenger School employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Educación industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

283 reviews
5.0
May 4, 2023

Amazing Curriculum and Students

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The curriculum and students at Challenger are unparalleled. It is a wonderful place to teach.

Cons

I would like the pay to be higher.

2.0
Apr 21, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- These are some of the best kids I've had the joy of teaching. Most of them work incredibly hard and are very intelligent. Not as many problem parents as you'd expect. - A lot of the curriculum absolutely works. I love that we teach things like Logic and composition even at an elementary level. These students are very advanced in comparison to public school students here. - A lot of things are laid out for you and pre-prepared. Not a lot of guesswork required to do your job. - They really emphasize independence, self-reliance, and respect. It's amazing the things some of these kids are capable of and do by themselves.

Cons

Oh boy. - Management is a complete and utter nightmare. Headmasters never last more than 2 years so consistency is gone. Micromanaging tends to be common. - Communication is INSANELY broken down and at times nonexistent. When I interned, there were times they genuinely "forgot" to tell me I was subbing that day and they just had no one picking up the kids from specials. None of the admins collaborate with each other and it creates disasters. - Benefits, pay, and work-life balance are garbage. Your salary will be less than 4 (if not 3) of your students' tuitions. You accrue 2 PTO hours per pay period, you are forced to use them if you ever call out sick, and god forbid you actually try to request off a single day to use your PTO. Breaks are unpaid. - For a school that puts so much emphasis on self-reliance and independence, they give their employees absolutely none of that. We get zero say in anything that happens and how we run our classroom. - As a teacher it's not as bad, but as an intern, you will be required to switch what you are doing at a moment's notice almost every single day, regardless of what you have to do or are currently doing. Expect to spend half your time decorating and reorganizing storage and staring blankly at a 200 page binder of grammar worksheets to fill out but not actually getting any lessons on how to do it. You could be an intern for 2 weeks or two years. Nothing is guaranteed. - On that note, training was non-existent. They have you teach lessons and tell you what you did wrong, but they never actually taught you what to do or how to do it and just expect you to know all the pacers and drills and curriculum out of the blue. - Politics are king. You will feel alienated if your political views vary. I have heard teachers and admins alike say straight slurs and denounce some of the kids and families at the school due to political values, and corporate does not care in the slightest. - Change is your enemy. Many of the methods used here I believe are very helpful for the students and encourage problem solving, but absolutely nothing has changed in decades, both in curriculum and technology, and it makes it hard to actually function in the twenty-first century.

Viewing 82 - 84 of 283 Reviews

Glassdoor has 294 Challenger School reviews submitted anonymously by Challenger School employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Challenger School is right for you.