12 May 2020
Achievement First Response
6yThis is incredibly difficult to read -- and it isn’t the experience we want anyone to have in our schools. I would love to talk about these issues with you further, please feel free to email me directly at PaulAstuto@achievementfirst.org, but I did want to respond to a few of the points you raise.
We take staff culture seriously and our goal is to build strong school communities where adults and kids all thrive. Our philosophy is to provide support for any teachers who need it, and while it’d be hard to respond about any specific situation without knowing more, I can tell you that it is NOT our policy to move struggling teachers into learning specialist roles or have teachers teach outside of their content areas. We know sometimes schools have to make difficult decisions when they are understaffed, and that’s why we’re doing everything we can to make sure we are fully hired and that we retain our great teachers.
In terms of AP courses- we do deeply believe in Advanced Placement access, and we’re always refining our approach to make sure we’re serving all students. We’re also committed to our special services programming-- all our schools have co-taught courses and interventions for our students with IEPs, and we train our teachers to support. Our special services leaders are trained on specially designed instruction and they are both resources and trainers at each school site.
I am so sorry that your experience at AF was not reflective of the experience we work hard to cultivate every day, and I hope you do reach out so we can talk further.