ABOUT THE GREAT OAKS FOUNDATION

The Great Oaks (GO) Foundation is a non-profit organization with the mission of launching and supporting a network of charter schools that prepare students for college success through high-dosage tutoring coupled with outstanding classroom instruction. By design, GO’s schools contribute to the vitality of the urban neighborhoods where they are located by attracting and creating social, human and investment capital.

What sets Great Oaks schools apart from other college preparatory charter schools is a high-dosage tutoring model provided by the Great Oaks Fellows,  a selective cadre of recent college graduates who tutor and mentor every student in the school. This is a crucial strategy in Great Oaks schools to improve achievement and prepare teachers to work in our schools.

The Great Oaks Foundation has successfully replicated this program in Newark, NJ; Bridgeport, CT; New York, NY and Wilmington, DE.  We have launched a recent partnership with Baltimore Collegiate to launch a Great Oaks Fellow group at the site.  A select group of the tutors at Great Oaks are enrolled in a Teacher Residency program that is being conducted in partnership with NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education and Relay Graduate School of Education.

To learn more about Great Oaks HTTPS://GREATOAKSCHARTER.ORG/

POSITION OVERVIEW:

Reporting to the Executive Vice President of the Great Oaks Foundation, the Chief Program Officer oversees the full implementation of the Great Oaks Fellowship program, which is at the heart of the organization’s mission. The Chief Program Officer plays a critical role in instructional/programmatic design, systems design, culture, and guiding the evolution of the Great Oaks Fellowship model. Embedded in this work is the deployment of several hundred GO Fellows across the schools in the Great Oaks charter school network and partnership schools. The Chief Program Officer oversees a team at the Great Oaks Foundation and coordinates with site-based program directors and Executive Directors to ensure effective implementation of the GO Fellowship model. The Chief Program Officer works closely with the Executive Vice President, leadership team, Academic team and Fellowship team to continue to build the GO Fellowship model.

The Chief Program Officer will ensure the success of the GO Fellowship model in 3 core areas:

• INSTRUCT FOR MASTERY– The GO Fellowship, with its intense focus on individualized instruction, changes education outcomes for students in partnership with high quality teaching. Small group instruction delivered in the context of a supportive relationship between student and AmeriCorps Fellow will result in a significant increase in student math and ELA achievement.
• MENTOR FOR LEADERSHIP- Fellows have a fundamental role in supporting students in their social and emotional growth. Fellows encourage their students through coaching conversations to have personal investment in their success and to build an understanding that they have control over their lives. Fellows help empower our students to evolve into leaders.
• DEVELOP A COMMUNITY– Fellows will help to develop Great Oaks schools into a positive, holistic community for students. AmeriCorps members will also develop as people and professionals. Fellows stay in constant contact with families, support enrichment opportunities for students and develop into community leaders as the year progresses. Through an embedded Teacher Residency Program, the GO Fellowship provides a pipeline of certified, clinically trained educators into the communities we serve, but is also dedicated to ensuring that this pipeline is diverse and representative of our student community. The GO Fellowship develops emerging professionals as promising leaders and classroom teachers.

RESPONSIBILITIES: 

LEADERSHIP, STAFF MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY 

• Program Vision, Clarity of Purpose, and Culture
  • Establish the vision and mission of the Fellows Program and align strategy and resources to achieve desired results.
  • Establish the values and culture of the Fellows Program and create a culture that inspires key stakeholders.
  • Integrate the work of the Fellows with the broader instructional efforts in schools and across the network.
  • Build and maintain trusting relationships with partners and external community partners.
  • Assists schools in cultivating the desired culture of the Fellow Program through training and development of site-based Fellow Leadership in partnership with the local Executive Director.
  • Foster a service-driven, collaborative, learning-focused, accountable and professional environment with a team of leaders.
  • Report on Fellows progress regularly to Foundation and local school boards.
  • Create opportunities for network-wide collaboration and learning.
  • Design and lead learning and development opportunities for leadership.
  • Identify and surface effective site based innovations in partnership with schools.

• Oversee and manage a team to implement the work
  • Provide effective supervision to key staff.
  • Influence and motivate team members to achieve ambitious goals – both within the team and within the broader organization.
  • Delegate tasks appropriately and coordinate the integration of support for Fellows and sites.

STRATEGIC PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, OVERSIGHT AND EVALUATION 

• Program Implementation, Evaluation, & Improvement
  • Design and develop effective training in the core domains of Instruct, Mentor, and Develop.
  • Work closely with site-based leadership to support the adaptation of that training to local site needs.
  • Lead staff in the implementation of training cycles over the course of pre-service and service year.
  • Collaborate with partner sites to determine effective daily operations and program implementation of the GO Fellowship model.
  • Ensure qualitative and quantitative goals and outcomes of GO Fellowship.
  • Provide ongoing technical support on the implementation of effective tutorial sessions, mentoring and school-wide development.
  • Monitor the quality of the program implementation in alignment with the AmeriCorps grant, AmeriCorps contract and partnership agreements.
  • Develop protocol for assessment of efficacy of program implementation and determine corrective measures if required.
  • Support schools to address concerns with program implementation. In partnership with schools, identify and surface effective site based innovations.

• AmeriCorps Grant Management
  • Lead the program implementation in alignment with the AmeriCorps grant.
  • Manage the relationship with CNCS, including providing regular progress reports, managing specific requests, situations or concerns.
  • Monitor and manage the budget for the Americorps program in partnership with the Foundation leadership team.
  • Coordinate with the Grants management team to provide quarterly reports to CNCS aggregating the performance across multiple sites
  • Coordinate with the GOF Data team and research partners in the finalization of qualitative and quantitative research studies from conceptualization to report.
  • Write multi-year renewal grant proposals with support from the Grants management team.

• Talent and HR
  • Collaborate with Talent/Recruitment and the schools to design the systems and processes to optimize Fellow recruitment and retention.
  • Ensure that issues, concerns and areas of need in HR, housing, operations, performance management and member experience are addressed effectively and efficiently by school leaders, partners and the Great Oaks Foundation.
  • Support and monitor network AmeriCorps Compliance staff in onboarding new Fellows.
  • Oversee ongoing technical support on compliance and HR issues.
  • Partner with the Chief Talent Officer to design, develop and implement high quality and effective training in key foundational professional development areas of sexual harassment, anti-bias, professional expectations, and other key domains.

• Teacher Residency Program 
  • Collaborate with the Director of Teacher Residency in identifying, interviewing and ongoing support of potential residents.
  • Strategize with the Director of Teacher Residency to ensure the long-term trajectory of the teacher residency program.

QUALIFICATIONS AND COMPETENCIES:

The successful candidate will be an experienced educational leader, with proven success in an academic or non-profit setting. Chief Program Officer for Great Oaks Fellows will bring the ability to deliver outstanding outcomes and will possess exceptional relationship building skills and the ability to communicate clearly to multiple stakeholders. The successful candidate will also bring some or all of the following:

• Minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience in the field of education: a minimum of 3 years of teaching experience preferred.
• Minimum of 3 years supervisory experience of a team through coordination of key efforts
• Experience leading young professionals and passionate about the role that emerging professional can play in schools
• Experience working with urban, underserved youth
• Experience working with AmeriCorps or recent college graduates; experience as an Americorps service member is a plus!
• Experience developing and facilitating professional development and workplace learning programs
• Ability to navigate a complex inter-institutional partnership
• Inspiring, dynamic, transformational leader and culture builder
• Master’s degree in Education, Public Administration or relevant field experience preferred
• Self confidence, flexibility and the ability to respond well to feedback
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• Impact-oriented and effective at setting and meeting deadlines.
• Highly collaborative
• Superb organizational and self-management skills and an ability to handle multiple responsibilities effectively and thoughtfully
• Awareness of and comfort with issues of diversity, specifically around race, class, and gender; ability to engage in and facilitate discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Excellent communication skills both oral and written; ability to provide constructive feedback to staff members
• Ability to travel
• A strong belief that all students can succeed

COMPENSATION

Great Oaks provides a competitive compensation and benefits package; exact compensation will vary based on experience and education.