2 Feb 2017
Anonymous employee
Achievement First Response
9yThank you for taking the time to share this feedback. I'm glad you felt AF provided students with opportunities to explore outside of the classroom. We really value these experiences and want to continue building them into the curriculum. If interested, you should take a look at our Greenfield Model, which provides students with hands on expeditions throughout the year (www.afgreenfieldschools.org).
I also appreciate you sharing your experience around school leadership. We pride ourselves in providing teachers with an incredibly supportive environment in which they can grow, make mistakes, and develop as professionals. We never want teachers to feel as if they must fit into a mold, and I appreciate you naming your experience so we can course correct as necessary within our schools.
Additionally, I'd love to chat more with you about your feelings around diversity at AF. Currently, more than half of our teachers share the backgrounds of our scholars and we are continuously working to hire and retain a diverse teaching staff. Conversations around diversity and inclusiveness happen both formally and informally within our schools on a regular basis because we believe D & I is connected to our ability to achieve our mission. We’ve worked to eliminate bias in our interviewing and promotion practices, we are studying student investment and D & I connections, and we’re working with principals to build D & I into team norms and school priorities. I understand that not all these efforts impacted your experience and I think there’s more we could learn from your perspective. Feel free to shoot me an email at tomkaiser@achievementfirst.org, as I'd really like to hear more about your personal experience with D&I at AF as well as your suggestions for improvement. -Tom Kaiser, Chief Talent Officer