Dudley Promise Corps - Dudley Promise Corps Member BPE Employee Review

1.0
Jul 3, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It's a challenging experience where a lot of your learning and growth will happen on your own. You'll build strong relationships with students and will have many laughs with them. Your team of corps members are an awesome bunch, and you'll work closely together throughout the year.

Cons

Complete lack of structure to the point of dysfunctionality. We were expected to lead and teach classes every day, yet we never received training on how to be an effective teacher as well as how to set routines and practices for successful classroom management. Neither BPE nor the school offered us support to fulfill our supposed responsibilities of engaging students in academic enrichment, although our team had been requesting it since the beginning of the year. In this regard, PD was virtually nonexistent, as we spent all of our time together planning out a curriculum that would hopefully get us through the next day. With that, there was a sheer lack of respect toward us - we were treated as simply bodies to be used when a situation required a physical presence. I understand that this is a service year, and I am very open to doing a lot of the grunt work, but you just feel exploited and used when there is no show of appreciation toward you. The retention numbers say much: we started with 10 corps members and ended with four, and even this was inconsistent. I never knew exactly who was going to show up and when on a given day. Given all the challenges that went unaddressed the entire year which made it practically impossible to fulfill our responsibilities, the service year itself can barely be called that. Community involvement, which is a big part of what a year of service entails, was virtually nonexistent - we did two events in the beginning of the year and that was that. If you are looking to do something worthwhile and actually meaningful, I would highly suggest looking at other programs, perhaps others by Americorps. Note: This experience is for the middle school program of DPC. I cannot comment on the elementary school program. Also, this is the pilot year for DPC implementing the program as it currently stands. BPE has talked with us and assured us that they are taking our concerns seriously in order to improve for next year.

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BPE Response
8y
Thank you for the thorough and honest feedback-- without feedback form our corps members we cannot improve, and each year we go through an extensive process of soliciting member feedback to inform our continuous improvement efforts. Last year was our second year running a program at the secondary school, a school that was also only in its second year. We know the challenges DPC faced at the school were very hard and very real. We are actively working hard to address them for the current year and beyond. We have solicited and received lot of feedback from corps members and school staff. Some of the things that will be different this year: - we began our recruitment and selection process much earlier to ensure that all corps members would start together and benefit from a full 8 weeks of training. I am pleased to report that all 8 members started together on the first day and participated in an intensive summer of training. (Last year we were recruiting throughout the summer because we received confirmation of our funding in May, making meaningful summer training all but impossible.) - we worked with the school leadership and other stakeholders to develop a clear focus for DPC in the school. Corps members received extensive summer training to prepare, and we are piloting a partnership with a local community organization which will provide corp members with training and coaching. - we hired a new Site Director who is a former middle school teacher with experience supporting AmeriCorps members in her own classroom. She will work closely with corps members to clarify, observe, and coach their role in the classroom. - Corps members will no longer be leading enrichment classes by themselves. They will be piloting an enrichment class that incorporates academic support and social justice themes, and will receive training and support from the Site Director, who will lead the class with them. Corps members will not be responsible for developing curriculum. Jesse Solomon, Executive Director Erika Alvarez Werner, Dudley Promise Corps Director

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