As a Managing Director on the School & Systems Leadership team, you will be an integral part of training and supporting aspiring and current school and systems leaders, and uniquely, will serve as the organizational voice and knowledge holder on rural school leadership issues in internal and external spaces. You will design and facilitate live and virtual professional development, work with partner organizations and curate resources for our large alumni base in school and systems leadership. You will be responsible for oversight, design work and evaluation related to all school and systems leadership programs, as well as running the year-round Rural School Leadership Academy which is funded by an education innovation and research grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Additionally, you will directly manage the Associate, School & Systems Leadership.
You are an exceptional project planner and executor. You are excited about adult learning and have experience leading professional development for adults. You are passionate about supporting adults who work in rural schools and systems, and likely have been in a leadership role in one of these schools or systems yourself. You’re a constant learner and operate with flexibility and a sense of possibility through challenges.
Designing, Managing and Executing one of our flagship leadership development programs, the Rural School Leadership Academy (RSLA)
- Setting the vision, direction and managing the execution and outcomes of both the Associate and Director who work on RSLA, ensuring high levels of program quality and logistics
- Manage the RSLA program from recruitment through execution, which includes recruitment, selection, budget monitoring, curriculum design and monitoring, etc.
- Conducting a strong and robust external evaluation, in conjunction with the external evaluator assigned to the project, in order to report its impact and efficacy to internal and external stakeholders
- Continually refining program design, curriculum design or implementation, choice of content providers and quality of program delivery by assessing and monitoring program quality in order to meet the needs of all adult learners and achieve programmatic success.
- Facilitate one of the two RSLA programs (either the teacher or mid-level leader focused program)
Serving as Lead Designer for all School & Systems Leadership Development Content at Teach For America
- Continuously refining the School Leadership Competency Framework, related foundational design tools for systems leaders and the Dimensions of an Excellent School Framework by working with others in the field (internal and external) to reflect most cutting edge thinking.
- Leverage data, existing and new research and learning opportunities that will deepen your knowledge on rising and sitting school & systems leader traits, competencies, adult learning and development theory, etc., in order to identify trends that we can then integrate into our program design.
- Partnering with internal and external content providers to deliver content aligned with our foundational tools. This includes: monitoring the efficacy of content providers and refining the list of our preferred content providers, cultivating relationships with new organizations to our space and determining how and if to integrate them into our work.
Prior Experience
- 5+ years of relevant work experience
- Must have experience in a leadership (mid-level or senior) role in a K-12 school setting or working in a system of schools
- Rural school or systems leadership preferred, passion for rural education necessary
- Teach For America experience preferred
Work Demands
- Must be able to travel up to 12 times per year in the U.S., including some weekends
- Must have valid driver’s license in order to drive in rural communities where access to public transportation is not available
- Ability to lift and transport up to 50 pounds
Skills
- Exceptional ability to build and execute complex project plans within high-stakes deadlines
- Ability to identify learning needs for adults, to translate that into objectives and learning experiences and design strong content
- Expertise, comfort and fluency in facilitating and navigating adult learning experiences focused on diversity, equity and inclusiveness to a broad and diverse audience
- Ability to build strong relationships with adults to enable learning and collaboration
- Proficient in federal grant management
- Proficient in data analysis and program evaluation
- Strong written communication