Teach For America - Oklahoma City is seeking a Director, School Leadership & Policy (D-SLP) who will drive the vision and strategy for our region’s Teacher, Instructional Coach, & School Leadership Initiative towards a cohesive, coherent, and impactful school turnaround and communities initiative in the region. S/he will be responsible for the region’s prioritized school leadership pathways for alumni through university partnerships, district partnerships, and Teach For America’s fellowship in alignment with Teach For America’s Theory of Leadership and Central Oklahoma’s theory of action.
In addition, D-SLP will invest and support our alumni to participate and develop in policy/advocacy and Leadership For Educational Equity (LEE) related engagements in our region. S/he will recruit alumni for key school level and policy/advocacy positions in our ecosystem and engage our alumni network on behalf of Teach For America. This will include collaborating with our Chief of Staff and Communications team to ensure we have a growing alumni base engaged in policy/advocacy in pursuit of working together to translate insights from
proof points of possibility into policy and practice that drive us closer to systemic change in our landscape.
The D-SLP 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. The D-SL will report to the OKC SMD, Program Continuum.
Areas of Responsibility:
Teacher, Instructional Coach, & School Leadership Pathways & Development (60%)
- 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 and leaders through professional learning experiences and professional learning communities (including, but not limited to, DEI, instructional leadership, school visits, conferences, in-house professional development).
- 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 and alumni fellowship fees 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.
- Support alumni teachers 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 alumni and partnering with external organizations that support teachers in becoming instructional leaders.
- Lead the design and execution of a regional school leadership 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 school leadership pathway that aligns with state and district partner requirements.
- Develop partnerships with individuals and organizations that provide administration certification to align our efforts. Understand what these partners specialize in and refer emerging and acting coaches to them appropriately.
- Work with prospective mid-level and prospective school leaders to provide job placement support.
- Mid-Level Leaders: Ensure these leaders develop the executive leadership and management skills (e.g. people management and budgeting) to be successful in a principal role.
- Celebrate the impact of our school leaders (example: Develop and execute regional “TFA school leader of the year” award to celebrate our school leader’s impact and share their promising practices).
- Build a community of learning across our alumni school leaders by orienting them to one another for alumni-led learning (for example, alumni-led professional learning communities, a regional school leadership conference, etc.).
- Support the impact and leadership of our aspiring and current system-level and high-influence school leaders.
- Support Leadership Summit design and execution to ensure that these engagements incorporate the regional aspirations to further involve alumni in the leadership development and collective leadership goals with focus on prioritized leadership strands, community engagement, and DEI work.
- Maintain database and track progress for all corps members and alumni in our school leadership pipeline through TFACT and internal tracking mechanisms.
Policy & Advocacy (25%)
- Support to design and execute the experience of our alumni who engage in Policy & Advocacy Leadership Cohort and those who have interest for preparation for elected leadership in partnership with Chief of Staff and Communications
- Build relationships with organizations and policy/advocacy leaders for partnerships and opportunities for our corps members and alumni
- Coordinate all LEE related engagements and membership with our corps members and alumni
- Maintain database and track progress for all external relationships and alumni in policy/advocacy pipeline through TFACT and internal tracking mechanisms
Recruitment & Retention - 10%
- Recruit and matriculate alumni into principal preparation programs that will best prepare them to be school leaders, with an intentional focus on ensuring that many members of this group share the background of students in our region, particularly low-income, Native, African American, and Latino background
- Identify and recruit leaders who show the potential and desire to take on system-level roles within the short (3-4 years) and long (5+ years) term, with a special focus on many members of this group sharing the background of students in our region, particularly low-income, Native, African American, and Latino backgrounds.
- Support the region’s 2CM retention initiatives by exposing and connecting 2CMs to school leadership pathways and policy/advocacy pathways
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
Educational Background:
Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree preferred
Skills/Experience:
- Teach For America alum is strongly preferred
- Knowledge of the educational, political, civic and social landscape of Central Oklahoma is strongly preferred
- At least 6-7 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
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
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
Job Function:
Organization Info
Listing Stats
Post Date:
Jun 3 2018
Active Until:
Jul 3 2018
Hiring Organization:
Teach For America
industry:
Nonprofit