The Truth about Relay Graduate School of Education

Hello! I am a resident of NYC and a former student of Relay Graduate School of Education and a former employee of one of the Uncommon Schools, a network of charter schools in NYC, New Jersey, and Boston. Before that, I completed two years of service with AmeriCorps and worked for a year at a national non-profit called Jumpstart. Due to personal reasons, and because I was not comfortable with the kind of discipline being used at the charter school I worked at, I decided to leave my job in October 2011. Now, upon my being hired and deciding to take the job in August 2011, I was required to enroll at Relay. It was one of the conditions of my employment--to begin the process of getting my masters in education at Relay, which has a partnership with Uncommon Schools. I was a little suspicious of such a new instituion, especially one that provides a masters in education but provides no theory, no psychology, no legal history of education, but I had to enroll in order to start my job so enroll I did. I soon discovered the majority of the program was delivered in online modules that were tedious and underwhelming, and that our classes met approximately once a month and, instead of being taught by a professor with a p.h.D. were taught by a young, former elementary school teacher, and the school itself was extremely disorganized. Several of my collegues at the charter school (who were also Relay students) and I had many conversations expressing our frustration with their poor communication, their extremely confusing system around assignments and deadlines, and, quite simply, the fact that every assignment we did felt like a waste of time. But what truly bothered me about Relay moreso than the disorganization was the fact that it is boiling down education to a trade, to a set of "best practices" in a book written by a man named Doug Lemov who is one of the founders of Uncommon Schools. Quite honestly, the classes and modules felt like an extension of the nearly month-long training Uncommon Schools had given all of its new teachers in August. Isn't one of the points of education, especially at the masters level, to be given a set of viewpoints--to read, to enrich one's mind with various standpoints, and then, armed with knowledge, to critically think and question and come to one's own conclusion? Not to be indoctrinated with one man's vision of what good education should look like! This is not to speak poorly of Lemov's book, only to say that other books should be studied as well! Education is a problem in this country, no doubt about that, and I admire anyone who is truly dedicated to finding a solution. To that end, I am currently applying to get a real masters in education, at a real graduate instituiton and even if I am paying off the tuition for the rest of my life, it's worth every penny because I truly believe a good, rich, varied, deep education that stimulates your brain, that causes you to read varying perspectives and theories and to question them all, to think critically, to learn the history of your field, that generates lively discussion with your peers, that gets you thinking outside of class is the key to a larger world and a fulfilling life. That is what my undergraduate institution did for me and it certainly wasn't cheap but it was worth it. It made me who I am today. I don't know the answers yet on how best to educate the children of this country, but I know that watering down one of the most important professions in the world, being an educator, to a set of techniques is nothing short of criminal. No one achieved greatness in this world from being single-minded.

The second thing I'd like to talk about is what Relay did to me after I left my job. Relay offers all of its students a very doable tuition package--you can pay in small increments that are realistic with most charter school salaries. And, to be a Relay student, you must be employed at a charter or public school. Not only that, Relay will greatly subsidize your tuition from various sources that fund it, such as money from AmeriCorps. So the total tuition you end up paying is significantly less than your average tuition at most graduate institutions. Now, when I started my job and enrolled at Relay, I signed many documents, both for Relay and Uncommon Schools, apparently one of which told me that, should I leave my job after more than two weeks, all subsidies would be withdrawn and I would be liable for the full semester's tuition. You may think that this is most schools' policies--if you leave in the middle of the semester, you still pay for the full semester. But the difference at Relay is that none of the students ever expected to pay nearly that amount for a semester with all of the subsidies offered. I don't remember signing any such document, but the policy was stated in fine print and I signed so many documents that I made the mistake of not reading each one closely. However, even if I had and been disturbed by such a policy, at the time I wanted the job and could not have gotten it without signing every document. So, after working for only two months at the charter school, and attending a total of three Relay classes, I was told that I owed Relay $2,700. They were kind enough to knock off $700 because of the personal crisis I was undergoing at the time, and I begged them for some forgiveness, but I am still in the incredibly agonizing position of owing an institution I was barely a member of and have very little respect for a large sum of money. Charter schools have a high staff turnover rate--they tend to employ very young people (who are more liable to change jobs frequently) and the hours and the culture are not for everyone--so for Relay's policy to be that former students owe full tuition if they've quit their job after more than TWO WEEKS is insane and leads me to believe that they are out for the money. Put bluntly, it is a slimy, tacky, sneaky twist to put in the contracts that students sign and I believe borders on fraud--I HAD to sign that contract, and, when I left my job, could not have remained a student at Relay, even if I so desired, because I was no longer employed by a charter or public school, yet I was still liable for an entire semester's tuition, an amount of money I was in no way prepared to pay, that my former classmates who are still there will not pay.

I come from a middle class family and every penny my parents have they have worked hard for and so for their money to go to this place that cheapens the education of teachers is literally a knife to my gut, so I have refused to accept anything from them despite their kind offer to help, and am paying the "debt" off myself in the smallest acceptable increments. I write this in the hope that others will not fall into the trap I fell into, and will please spread the word about this institution. I believe that others will come forth and can only hope that one day Relay will have to stand up and justify what it is doing. I hope that day comes soon.

I apologize if I have offended anyone with this, please understand my personal frustration in this situation is the reason for some of the stronger language, and that I feel very passionately about the education of teachers and how incredibly important it is. I welcome responses; I only ask that they be civil. Thank you.