Description

Role Overview
At KIPP Public Schools Northern California, we believe that Content Specialist are our future Assistant Principals. The Content Specialist should gradually build capacity to lead a KIPP school as an Assistant Principal.

The Content Specialist’s job is to support the school in driving academic and social emotional learning outcomes for students as a key member of the school’s leadership team. Content Specialists are expected to lead both instruction and school culture, while developing the skills of the school's emerging leaders.


Key Responsibilities:

Model and support implementation of the school’s vision and goals

• Supports the Schools Leader's vision and takes an active role in mobilizing teachers to achieve the collective goals of the school; 
• With guidance from the School Leader, leads the planning and goal setting for the grades/departments that he/she coaches and ensures alignment with school-wide goals

Contribute to school-wide planning and prioritizes time to accomplish goals 

• Provides input into the strategic planning of the school, and identifies areas of ownership for self and direct reports

Model strong staff and student culture and manage school-wide character development and behavior management systems

• Supports teachers in student support and behavior intervention systems to ensure that limited time is spent on reactive student discipline.
• Manages parts of the daily school operations (e.g. arrival/dismissal, lunch/recess, school trips)
• Acts as a contact for student intervention and parent engagement; determines next steps for issues that are above the teacher/grade level/department chair

Collaborate with School Leader on hiring diverse, highly-effective teachers and school staff

Build own direct reports' instructional knowledge of standards, content, and methods

• Content (Standards, Curriculum, and Assessment):
  • Studies curriculum and assessment in order to develop understanding of content mastery, and what is required of students and teachers to accomplish mastery
  • Coaches teachers on how to assess for both student mastery and growth towards college readiness, and practices data driven instruction based on assessment
  • Research-based Instructional Practices (Methods and Time):
  • Develops own and teachers’ knowledge of best practices in instructional methods and coaches teachers on how to match particular strategies to gaps in student mastery

Develop teachers to provide rigorous and high-quality instruction and support School Leader in planning, implementing, and enabling systems of the Academic Strategies Pyramid.

• Data Analysis (Data-driven Instruction and Progress Monitoring):
  • Lead data-driven instruction. Coach teachers to determine how data aligns to end-of-year goals; break-out data to analyze how different student groups are performing; determine what data indicates about areas of student mastery and growth; and identify specific instructional actions and adjustments to fill students’ knowledge and skill gaps within an appropriate timeline
• Teacher Instructional Development (Instructional Coaching, Content Teams, and Workshops):
  • Provides high-quality instructional coaching with frequent and scheduled teacher observations, actionable and bite-sized feedback, and accountability for adjustment in practice
  • Coaches emerging leaders on their instructional coaching practice  
  • May lead or coach others who lead department/content/grade-level meetings that focus on planning for, and norming on, instruction and culture, practicing instructional strategies, and progress monitoring the department/content/grade level

Qualifications:

• Student Focus: Belief that all students, regardless of background, have the ability to go to and through college; demonstrated commitment to the school’s unique community
• Achievement Orientation and Performance Management: Demonstrated student achievement results in own classroom and from teachers that he/she manages
• Achievement Orientation: Demonstrated resilience and focus on student outcomes
• Cultural Competence: Demonstrated ability to create inclusive environments that honors and supports a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives
• Instructional Leadership: Adept at data analysis; ability to extract meaningful insights across school-wide data
• Instructional Leadership: Deep understanding of appropriate application and differentiation of high-leverage instructional strategies (e.g. make kids sweat, pacing, stretch it, etc.) based on comprehension of child development and pedagogy
• Relationship Building: Expertise in cultivating relationships and managing a diverse group of stakeholders

Compensation