Teach For America members hold numerous diverse leadership positions across our community, and in each of these unique positions, they share an intense desire to improve the outcomes of students, families, and communities by building a more efficient, effective, and equitable educational system.
As the Director, Continuum Strategy, you will drive the implementation of key strategies that will ensure a successful and impactful experience for our Corps Members and Launch Fellows, build pipelines and supports for school and system-level leaders, and strengthen infrastructure to position the organization for significant growth over the next two years.
In order to continue to build on the momentum of the region, you should deeply believe in contributing to a high-performing team, have a bold vision for the power of a coherent, connected network, and thrive at building purpose-driven relationships, crafting both long and short-term strategies, and executing relentlessly toward ambitious outcomes.
The number of teachers TFA Colorado will place in Colorado classrooms is projected to grow from 87 this year to nearly 300 in 2021. Our strategic priorities in service to this growth include: improving the quality of our member experience from the prospect phase to the first day of school, through the first two years in the classroom and beyond, creating cross-team efficiencies in our plans to support teachers and school leaders, and building strong and sustained relationships with our school partners in service to scaling.
- You care deeply about our students and communities. You believe that every child deserves the opportunity to attain an excellent education, and you believe that, with the right approach, we can achieve that vision.
- You are oriented to solve problems. You approach constraints and challenges with creativity and optimism.
- You have an aptitude for project management and cross-team collaboration.
- You are extremely organized. You set up strong systems for managing deadlines and leave plenty of time to do high-quality work.
- You take strong ownership of your goals, and are unwavering in your pursuit of success.
- You possess a passion and unique ability to bring groups of individuals together to accomplish something they wouldn’t otherwise do alone.
The duties of the Director, Continuum Strategy include:
Member Experience (30%)
- Play a key leadership role in the planning and execution phases of TFA-Colorado’s annual corps member Induction, a three-day orientation to our region and the schools we serve.
- Lead a cross-functional Induction project team
- Recruit and engage current corps members and alumni members in small project planning groups.
- Ensure that the Induction plan aligns with our regional vision, achieves increased cost efficiency, and sets a solid foundation for corps size expansion in future years.
- Lead a cross-functional Induction project team
- Provide technical support to help implement, monitor and adjust the Member Road map, which is a strategic cross-team priority. Ensure a set of coherent, connected supports and services to multiple member groups, from early engagement to school and systems leaders.
- Support projects that align with the Continuum Support and Experience team’s other strategic priorities.
School Partner Stewardship (30%)
- Serve as a brand ambassador who builds and strengthens relationships with school partners and school leaders in service to their talent and staffing needs. Work collaboratively with the teacher leadership team to ensure seamless services to school partners.
- Support and accelerate existing engagement and leadership development efforts across multiple school partner groups, including:
- a growing group of school and systems leaders (SSL) across the state.
- school partners that hire and support launch fellows and first and second year teachers.
- Utilize organizing principles and community engagement best practices to support school leader groups in becoming self-organizing and self-sustaining.
- Co-design, facilitate, and execute School and System Leadership (SSL) Programming.
- Lead the cohort of School and System Leaders in three areas: community building, policy and advocacy, and cohort-based learning, including Colorado Schools to Learn From.
- Assess and monitor hiring demand for corps member teachers.
- Identify and implement effective strategies to prime the talent pipeline for full-system scaling.
Systems and Structures for Scaling (25%)
- Lead, facilitate and/or support a number of systems improvement efforts with a lens on scaling.
- Provide project management support to a number of cross-functional efforts designed to improve the quality and impact of our member experience, and drive towards systems and structures improvement.
- Work cross-functionally to capture and codify innovative and effective practices and build viable plans to scale those practices.
Fulfilling our Mission through Organizational and Regional Priorities (10%)
- Be a partner in local recruitment, matriculation, and onboarding of teachers to Teach For America-Colorado.
- Attend regional retreats held throughout the year, monthly staff meetings, and occasional conferences and trainings.
Partnerships (5%)
- Work with the External Affairs team to solicit and grow partnerships in service of building the Systems Leadership continuum.
- Create systems to make it easy for partners to find us, build and deliver effective content, and assess partnership efficacy.
- Demonstrated experience and success in all or most of the relevant functional areas (i.e. partner stewardship, project management, systems and structures for scaling, etc.)
- Experience working with school leaders
- Facilitating and project planning in cross-functional team settings and with external partners
- Experience managing change in a growing organization
Skills
- Synthesizing, integrating, and developing strategies
- Ability to think at a systems level and execute strategies at the implementation level
- Building relationships and networks
- Ability to both work independently, and to collaborate with multiple stakeholder groups
- Exceptional written and verbal communication
- Exceptional organizational skills
- Ability to prioritize and manage complex project plans
- Strong team orientation – ability to work cross-functionally across diverse teams
- Ability to communicate professionally to diverse audiences
- Able to work with consistent excellence in a fast-paced, high-performing environment
Work Demands
- Ability to work evenings and weekends when necessary
- Local travel required