Operations / Administration Charter Teacher Residency Program Director
Job Description
Context and Project
In order to increase the recruitment and retention of effective teachers who have the capacity to positively impact student achievement in the New Visions Charter High Schools, we are building a Charter Teacher Residency Program and are seeking a Project Director to lead that initiative. This project will build on the existing successful New Visions Urban Teacher Residency programs that have prepared over 250 teachers over the past eight years.
New Visions Charter High Schools aim to address the gap in high-quality educational options by establishing schools in under-resourced neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Over the past five years, our network has experienced success in fostering good will and participation from each school’s surrounding community and building out pathways for students with diverse needs — including high performers, students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and students reading below grade level. Our charter schools serve a student population that is representative of the Community School Districts in which they are located in terms of needs and incoming student skill levels. We have seen improved gains over time in students’ reading and vocabulary comprehension, average daily attendance rates (above 90%), and accelerated credit accumulation. The New Visions charter network had a network-wide average graduation rate of 90.9% in the 2015-2016 school year. Our end goal is to graduate students on time, and prepare them to succeed in subsequent post-secondary and career pathways. The network has seven schools which are all supported by New Visions’ Charter Management Organization (CMO).
In the residency model, aspiring teachers develop their capacity in a preparation program that integrates a full year of hands-on teaching and work in a school, supervised by a mentor, with coursework culminating in a Master’s degree from Hunter College, CUNY, and state certification. In the residency year, each novice teacher is paired one-on-one with a mentor in the same content area and spends a full year collaborating with the mentor, taking on increasing responsibility for planning, teaching, and assessing over time. After the residency year, those who successfully complete the residency by meeting benchmarks in teaching practice and coursework are hired as full-time teachers for the fall. The goals of the New Visions Charter residency program include developing a strong pool of well-prepared, certified Special Education teachers to meet the needs of students with IEPs in our schools; creating a pipeline of teachers whose skills and approaches to teaching are aligned to the New Visions Charter vision, values, culture, and student needs; expanding teacher leadership opportunities and professional development for mentor teachers and coaches; increasing rates of teacher retention (novice and experienced); and creating an innovative, integrated approach to teacher preparation and development as mapped to the New Visions Charter performance management framework and career ladder.
Position Summary
The full-time Charter Residency Program Director will oversee the clinical components of the residency program, including leading a cross-organizational planning team in spring 2017; working with Charter school administrators and CMO staff to create structures for the residency in their schools; supervising the mentor and resident admissions processes; providing professional development and support for mentors and Assistant Principal (AP) Program Leads; co-developing, implementing, and adjusting expectations for the resident and mentor’s role and responsibilities at the school site; providing direct instructional coaching and support to a portion of resident-mentor pairs; maintaining open and frequent communication with AP Program Leads and school administrators and supporting problem-solving to ensure effective program implementation; working with Hunter faculty and CMO Special Education team to increase the alignment of coursework and clinical experiences; and utilizing formative data about the program’s rollout to monitor effectiveness and revise the program. The Charter Residency Project Director will spend approximately 50% of his/her time at the Charter schools and will report to the Director of Teacher Certification, while maintaining close ties to the New Visions CMO.
Essential Job Functions
During Spring 2017, lead planning team to establish systems and structures for the clinical components of the residency and align them to Hunter College coursework and certification requirements.
Develop up to 15 effective novice teachers per cohort
Lead team of AP Program Leads to support resident-mentor pairs. Develop Program Leads’ capacity to coach effectively, monitor, and act on ongoing formative data about resident and mentor progress, and function as a team
Collaborate with program partners (CMO, school leadership, and Hunter College) to implement performance-based assessment system
Provide direct coaching and support to a portion of resident-mentor pairs as needed, and monitor supports for struggling residents or mentors
Support communication, coordination, and coherence between program partners; problem-solve challenges or issues that arise for residents and mentors and advocate for their needs
Improve instructional practice and coaching skills of up to 15 mentor teachers
Develop and implement effective processes for selecting and training mentors
Collaborate with partners to plan and implement ongoing mentor professional learning, related to both mentors’ coaching skills and to their instructional needs.
Build capacity for novice teacher development at Charter schools
Collaborate with CMO staff and Charter school leaders, especially AP Program Leads, to integrate residency work into school setting and leverage residency-related capacity development to support teacher development across the Charters
Collaborate with Hunter College faculty and staff to ensure coherence and alignment of the coursework with the clinical residency components and to use data to assess the effectiveness of the program and revise it based on that formative data
Support the work of the Teacher Certification team and New Visions, including collaboration with team members across various Teacher Certification initiatives
Required Knowledge and Skills
Commitment to providing high-quality educational outcomes for all students and supporting teacher development as a means to achieve those outcomes
Knowledge of best practices in teacher preparation, development, adult learning, and coaching
Ability to use continuous improvement and data-driven decision-making to support learning and growth, and to foster those skills in others
Excellent communications skills, including writing, editing and oral presentation
Strong collaborative interpersonal skills and the ability to build partnerships
Ability to manage complex, time-sensitive initiatives; strong skills in organization, prioritization, and project management
Commitment to developing capacity in internal staff, partners, and program participants
Required Education and Experience
Masters Degree in related field
Teaching experience in an urban public or public Charter school; urban secondary (grades 7-12) school experience preferred
Experience supporting the growth of adult learners through coaching or mentoring and through designing and facilitating professional development; experiences with novice teacher preparation and/or residency models preferred
Experience with Special Education preferred
New Visions for Public Schools is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
