Operations / Administration Director, Logan Learning Lab
Job Description
Position: Logan Learning Lab Director at The Logan School
Reporting to: Markus Hunt, Head of School
Location: Denver, CO
Status: Full-time, competitive salary; full benefits
Start Date: January/February 2021
The Learning Lab Director will be an employee of The Logan School and will therefore be required to comply with all applicable requirements and expectations of an employee, including confidentiality and appropriate school-required training.
About the position and the person
This bold, forward-looking leader will work with the Head of School and administrative staff at The Logan School, as well as with various community partners, to share Logan’s philosophy and pedagogy through external programming and leadership. Key responsibilities include: planning and executing the student summer enrichment program, year-round teacher professional development through the teacher Fellowship program, fundraising for the Lab, and thought-leadership and advocacy for expandeding support of underrepresented gifted students and learner-centered education. This leader will need a sophisticated skill set to navigate the various populations that support and serve the Lab: the Logan administration, faculty and Board of Trustees; the Lab students and parents; the teaching Fellows and their respective school communities, funders; and the broader community of education innovators.
Skilled Educator. This leader has expertise in learner-centered education, and education that cultivates curiosity and celebrates diversity, equity, and inclusion. They have a demonstrated ability to support individual and group learning, with both students and adult educators, in ways that promote agility, creativity, productivity, and growth along with social-emotional, academic, and executive function skills. They lead with engagement, inspiration, humility, and a mindset of continuous learning. This leader will help Lab students and their parents navigate resources and build relationships and networks of support. This leader will also help the Fellows navigate their own school and systems to explore how to utilize Logan’s educational approach to assist in their students’ learning
Network Architect. This leader will successfully build and sustain diverse networks of participants and constituents. This leader will utilize multimedia to make meaning of the Lab and Fellowship program for internal and external audiences by determining metrics, assessing impact, analyzing data, synthesizing insights, and iterating quickly on redesigns.
Engaging Storyteller. Key to this role is an ability to inspire and influence others, cultivate strong relationships, and build coalitions that move people (and organizations) to action. This will help to share Logan with the broader community and raise funds to support the Lab.
Key elements of the role
- Directing the Summer Lab, and providing ongoing family support
- Designing and leading the Teacher Fellowship program
- External outreach
Responsibilities:
The Summer Lab
- Set, manage and adhere to the calendar, budget, and programming (both curriculum and logistics) of the Lab each year
- Recruit students for the Lab
- Cultivate relationships with teachers and leaders throughout DPS and other community organizations to build active partnerships, communication, and joint programming
- Understand and support student developmental needs
- Hire Lab staff
- Observe, supervise, support and evaluate Lab staff and Fellows, in collaboration with the Instructional Coach
- Recruit, train, and manage Logan student Buddies for the Lab
- Maintain, create, and assess curricula and program through observation, collaboration and/or direction from the Head of School
- Foster a learning environment for students and faculty that encourages high morale and creative learning processes
- Be aware of the educational, physical, social and psychological needs of the students and work with other staff and faculty to develop plans for meeting those needs
- Work with Lab teachers to develop student portfolios that can be used as part of the students’ long-term academic plan
- Assist in the admission and retention process for Lab students and student applicants by reviewing files and leading information sessions for prospective Lab families
Ongoing Family Support
- Work with Lab families to provide support in their understanding of our program and their student’s academic and social-emotional growth
- Engage parents/guardians in learning and advocacy training
- Reach out to families every six to eight weeks to see how family and child are doing, if any additional supports would be helpful, etc.
- Plan and host 2-3 social gatherings/learning extensions for Lab students and parents over the school year.
Logan Learning Lab Teacher Fellowship
- Create a Fellowship that enables public school teachers to explore how to bring a student-centered approach to learning into their own classrooms in meaningful, authentic ways
- Design Fellowship structure: Mission/Vision, budget, calendar, and scope of programming (including monthly sessions and any work Fellows will be completing)
- Plan and attend all Lab-related meetings
- Establish positive relationships with leaders of partner organizations
- Observe, supervise, support and evaluate Fellows in collaboration with their supervisor within their home school
- Foster a learning environment for Fellows with Logan community that encourages high morale and creative learning processes
- Establish relationships with potential partner universities for Fellows to attain formal credit for Fellowship
External Outreach
- Build relationships and support storytelling and reporting for current and future funders
- Ensure positive relationships between the Logan community (students, parents, faculty, Board) and the Lab community (students, parents, Fellows, community partners, etc.)
- Create multiple means of communicating the work of the Lab
- Identify and develop partnerships with local schools, universities, foundations, and national organizations to build positive, mutually-beneficial coalitions
- Identify a future research agenda for the Lab
Characteristics needed
- Self-starter (ie, takes initiative, enjoys turning ideas into tangible programming)
- Systems-thinker (for designing Fellowship, continuing the Lab, and exploring the collaboration between the Lab and Logan)
- Highly detail-oriented and exceptional at follow-through
- Creative, collaborative, and agile
- Inspires belief and action in others
- Team player
- Ability and willingness to keep information confidential
- Good listener
- Flexible in multi-tasking
ABOUT THE LOGAN SCHOOL FOR CREATIVE LEARNING
The Logan School for Creative Learning is an independent school founded in 1989 to serve students identified as gifted with a learner-centered approach to education. The school’s mission is to cultivate the curiosities of gifted children. We currently serve 250 students, K-8, during the school year.
At Logan, students develop their own individualized units of study, allowing personal passion and interest to drive the development of academic skills and deep critical thinking. Students engage in the wide world around them through hands-on and experiential learning which ensures that their learning experience mirrors the infinite nature of their curiosity.
The independence and self-direction of the Logan model creates a strong environment for children to learn the skills of time management, organization, and personal responsibility. The exceptional faculty guide students in their learning journey and provide individualized instruction and support.
Students have myriad opportunities to collaborate with one another and learn directly from experts outside the walls of the school, which demonstrates the commitment to primary sources.
The Logan approach is as unique and individual as the children in our community. We do not believe that one size can possibly fit all when it comes to education. Instead, children are encouraged to embrace their passions and interests. We believe this is the best way to ensure their success as lifelong learners.
ABOUT THE LOGAN LEARNING LAB
The Lab launched student programming in the summer of 2018 to make Logan’s unique model accessible to a greater number of underrepresented gifted students – students of color and low-income students, who are both formally and informally identified – from neighboring public schools. While participating in the lab, students learn on- and off-campus about units in an area of interest, and share their learning with others. Students take home portfolios of their work, get personal resources to help navigate their schools/districts, and are offered additional optional cognitive testing at no cost. Additionally, the cohort (students and their parents) gathers multiple times over the school year to extend learning and build community. We are intentional about how we help develop parent knowledge around their children’s learning styles, giftedness, and systems and processes of accessing gifted programs and supports. This, in addition to experiencing a learner-centered model, can help parents reimagine what learning – and school! – can be, and help them build their own advocacy through this “two-generation” approach. Participation, food, and transportation are offered at no cost.
During the summer of 2020, we piloted a Teacher Fellowship Program with Denver Public Schools (DPS) and Clayton Early Learning. The long-term goal of the Fellowship will be to offer authentic, professional development to public school teachers so they can learn the practices of co-designing learning with students. An instructional coach will support Fellows over 13 months with an equity-focused design process to practice this work in the Lab, prototype it with their own community, and ultimately design new pilots at Clayton Early Learning and Cole Arts and Sciences Academy. This Fellowship is an investment in the groundwork for systems change through research and professional development that has the potential to shift the approach to both identifying and serving underrepresented gifted students in particular, and demonstrating concrete learner-centered practices and outcomes that can reshape our education system more broadly.
