Working at Saga Education

You get to feel you're part of something important, helping communities often left behind.

Horrible "salary" for fellows. Just as with education broadly, far too much work for the very low compensation. No privacy protection. Kids will snap your image on their phones and upload it without your consent to their social media pages. Their privacy is protected, but not yours. Poor customer treatment. Students verbally accost you often. You're often ignored despite trying to do your job to help students. The organization's expectations are unrealistic. Your performance reflects other people's willingness to work or not. If your customers don't want to do their part so fail, YOU fail. Also, only a few days off a year. Woefully little for the mental stress the fellowship entails. Worst of all, management doesn't care about the input of the people on the ground. But you're expected to be always smiling and to seem happy.

School holidays off.

Researching company & communities served.

Leadership is committed to growing the company. New school districts are pursued aggressively.

Saga should focus less on prepping students for standardized tests and far more on fundamental skills improvement. Fellows are the ones working with the kids day after day, so Saga should seriously consider fellows' observations. We know doing so is hard, but the company should also improve the compensation. There's too much work and a constant expectation of professionalism that don't fit Saga's compensation plan. Also, fellows are verbally abused by "customers" day after day, but that's what happens when the priority is getting that next contract and keeping customers happy. Saga should also be advocating for fellow needs, not just dumping anything on fellows' plates schools want done. For an ed tech company, Saga's tech team doesn't seem very tech-savvy. The help channel is always flooded with tech questions. Many go unanswered. The way the software is set up is amateurish. Small improvements that would make fellows' work much smoother rarely get implemented even after being asked for again and again. If you have an issue, be prepared to Google hopeful solutions. Also, there aren't many professional advancement opps. after working at Saga. Other ed tech companies don't know or especially care about Saga. And Saga doesn't have enough contacts at other organizations to give fellows applying elsewhere a leg up. I wouldn't suggest Saga as a company to work for as a math fellow. If you want to become a teacher, there are far faster, more productive paths. Right now, Saga offers fellows a chance to PAY for a 4 year teaching degree with Western Governors University. But most fellows already have degrees so that's not a bonus. Four more years for ANOTHER degree paid for out of pocket? No thanks. Low pay, high stress, low/no advancement opportunities, low customer appreciation = bad deal for fellows but cheap labor for Saga and school partners.

Compensation at Saga is well below what you'd expect at another ed tech company, especially if you're a math specialist.

The company is more diverse than other similar companies, at least among the fellows.

I get a lot of joy from interacting with polite students who show appreciation for their fellows. Fellows always work hard to build up our students. The relationship building with other fellows on my team is also a big source of joy for me.