Teach For America - Oklahoma City is seeking a Director, Instructional Leadership & Impact (D - ILI) who will drive the vision and strategy for corps member placement, alumni teacher development, and instructional coaching leadership towards a cohesive, coherent, and impactful school turnaround initiative in the region. S/he will be responsible for the region’s corps member placement strategy to ensure critical mass of our corps is aligned to school and system leadership site priorities. The D-ILI will build effective relationships with community partners, including universities, and state education decision makers.
The D-ILI supports the effective matriculation of new corps members to the region, leads the matching of the teaching corps to effective teaching positions and the stewardship of district relationships to that effect. S/he will partner with the Manager, Corps Experience to lead the process by which CMs become eligible for employment (background checks, fingerprinting, district applications, etc.) The D - ILI prepares alumni in education to lead and match them with opportunities, which will include overseeing group coaching for alumni educators who have been in the classroom past their initial corps commitment. The D-ILI will report to the OKC MD, Leadership & Engagement.
S/he will oversee the Alumni Teacher and Instructional Coaching Leadership Initiative. This will include partnering with our External Affairs team to raise awareness of our alumni impact and invest funders and partner organizations to further support scaling this work.
The D-ILI is a central leader on the regional team and is at the forefront of improving the state of education in Oklahoma, impacting the future of thousands of children in the Oklahoma City and Lawton communities.
Leadership Pathways & Development – 55%
- Lead the design and execution of a regional alumni teacher development program that is aligned to the work of our partner districts that accomplishes the following:
- Builds a community of learning across our alumni teachers through alumni-led professional learning communities (including, but not limited to, DEI, instructional leadership, policy & landscape, and content support).
- Support alumni teachers interested in obtaining teacher leadership positions in their school or in the regional education community through offering opportunities to lead professional learning communities and/or professional development for current corps members and partnering with external organizations that support teachers in becoming instructional leaders.
- Celebrate the impact of our alumni teachers (example: Develop and execute regional “TFA alumni teacher of the year” award to celebrate our teacher’s impact and share their promising practices
- Provide career services support to our alumni teachers, including those who are new to our region. The support should help our alumni teachers seek a school community that is a great fit for their long-term career aspirations and/or meet the needs of our regional education landscape.
- Seeks revenue generating opportunities to support this work through alumni teacher placement fee options for district partners in our landscape.
- Lead the design and execution of a regional alumni instructional coach pathway program that is aligned to the work of our partner districts that accomplishes the following:
- Defines a development and support scope and sequence for the instructional coach leadership pathway that aligns with state and district partner requirements
- Develop partnerships with individuals and organizations that provide instructional coaching and development. Understand what these partners specialize in and refer emerging and acting coaches to them appropriately.
District and School Partnership Initiatives – 40%
- Responsible for partnering with SMD, PC and Executive Director to secure professional service agreements, partnership memoranda of understanding and other formal agreements with district and school partners for the placement of our instructional talent pipeline
- Implement vision and strategy for region’s corps member placement with an emphasis in accelerating the creation and replication of excellent schools serving students living in Central Oklahoma’s low income communities
- Coordinate with districts, autonomous schools and charter partners to secure optimal teaching positions for CMs
- Lead process by which CMs become eligible for employment (background checks, fingerprinting, district applications, etc.)
- In coordination with the TLD team, facilitate communication among partner school leadership and the region regarding CM performance as teachers and employees of their respective districts and schools
- Serve as a key point of contact for area principals with an orientation to growing their satisfaction with their partnership with TFA
- Ensure comprehensive records in TFACT, the content management system, on the status of school and district partnerships, school experience with CMs, status of support among school and district partners according to champion rubric and net promoter scores, etc.
- Co-manage the region’s 2CM retention initiatives by:
- Partnering with the Teacher Leadership Development team to ensure an aligned and cohesive approach and consistent and up-to-date knowledge sharing about 2CM retention in the region
- Partnering with the Teacher Leadership Development team to leverage corps member surveys and sessions at PD Saturday to drive success in all 2CM retention initiatives
Regional Responsibilities - 5%
- Integrate and drive towards Regional Priorities in work
- Support Selection and Matriculation efforts of the region as assigned
- Actively participate and seek out experiences that push your perspective along our DEI outcomes
- Attend and actively engage in professional development conferences and learning groups
- Responsibly steward regional resources through consistent compliance with all employee policies and expectations
- Teach For America alum is strongly preferred
- Knowledge of the educational, political, civic and social landscape of Central Oklahoma is strongly preferred
- At least 4-5 years of professional work experience required, with at least 2 of those in an education reform setting serving low income communities
- Must have proven experience directly investing school level leaders around innovative practices around education reform
- Prior experience coaching teachers toward measurable results is required
- Prior grassroots community organizing, community building or campaign experience is a plus
Skills
- Outcomes-orientation and a track record of extraordinary results: leads with a focus on measurable results and long-term vision
- Superb organization, detail-orientation, and project management skills
- Ability to track and analyze data strategically and purposefully
- Serves as a cultural leader on regional staff and our leadership network
- Proven success in laterally managing peers across teams toward ambitious outcomes
- Proven success in collaborating and sharing goals across teams
- Visionary leadership: articulates a clear, compelling and ambitious vision for what needs to be true for our kids, along with the strategies to realize that vision
- Values-Driven Leader: demonstrates deep commitment to Teach For America’s mission, core values, and our commitment to diversity and inclusiveness. Collaborative spirit and desire to partner closely with other OKC regional team members. Reflective and proactively works to grow and improve. Enables our community to be culturally competent teachers and leaders and lives into our diversity core value
Work Demands
- Ability to analyze and synthesize data from a range of sources to make high-impact, strategic decisions
- Ability to travel independently, by car, to multiple locations for work each day that may be significant distances from one another.
- Occasional weekend or evening work is required.
- Ability to navigate facilities that may or may not be ADA-compliant
- Ability to lift and transport up to 30 pounds for work purposes.
Salary for this position is competitive and depends on prior experience. In addition, a comprehensive benefits package is included.