Early Childhood Instructional Coach (26 -27 SY)

Job Description

Job Description

Organizational Overview

For 25 years, KIPP DC has partnered with students, families, and the community to create joyful, academically excellent schools across the nation’s capital. Today, our network of 22 schools educate more than 7,500 students in grades PreK3-12, supported by 1,500 dedicated teachers, leaders, and staff.

Our work is grounded in five pillars–Academic Excellence, Joy & Sense of Belonging, Highly Effective Teachers and Leaders, Safe, Structured, and Nurturing Learning Environments, and Commitment to College Readiness–which ensure every student is equipped with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to pursue success in college, careers, and beyond. Our schools combine high expectations with joyful, affirming environments that nurture academic success and personal growth for students and staff alike.

As part of the national KIPP network, we share best practices and innovations while maintaining deep roots in Washington, D.C. Together, we strive toward a future without limits for our students, alumni, and community.

Instructional Coach Job Summary

The Instructional Coach’s job is to support Discover Academy in developing and following in strong teaching and instructional systems in order to drive strong experiences and academic outcomes for all students. Instructional Coaches build strong relationships with staff, students and families and have a deep understanding of both the purpose and structures for academic systems, curriculum, standards, and assessments. Instructional Coaches rely on both these relationships and systems to plan for and respond to student academic needs.

Instructional Coaches directly manage teachers and/or staff, and are responsible for setting the standard for belief in student growth and achievement, knowing and upholding a high bar for content and pedagogical best practices, integrating culturally and linguistically responsive approaches to teaching and learning, and developing and following in systems related to students making academic growth and achievement. 

This specific role will be supporting our PreK Team (teachers, students, and families). This is an exempt role, reporting to the principal, Sheila Lewis and serving on the school leadership team. This is a full-time, in-person role.

Key Responsibilities

Vision and Goals

• Support development of school leader’s school-wide vision and takes an active role in investing and mobilizing teachers to achieve the collective goals of the school; owns the implementation of school wide systems regarding early childhood instruction
• Alongside school leader, support the planning, goal setting, and progress monitoring for their teams and teachers and ensure alignment with school-wide goals
• Support identification and action towards equity challenges within the school, especially as it may relate to issues of curriculum, student outcomes, and pedagogical approaches
• Articulate how their actions and body of work connect to KIPP DC's goal of becoming an anti-racist organization

Plan and Prioritize

• Collaborate with principal and leadership team in determining implementing systems and initiatives around school and team priorities, especially in regards to instruction
• Prioritize and manage own time to deliver on short and long-term goals or priorities
• Support teachers in planning and prioritizing their time

School Culture

• Supports teachers in leading classrooms with high-quality Tier 1 student learning and engagement and develops and supports in lesson development and implementation for intervention
• Work with staff and families to build an inclusive school environment for special populations (i.e. students with IEPs, students with 504s, ELL students, new students, students with HCYP status, etc.)
• Reliably lead and support daily school operations (e.g. arrival/dismissal, lunch, passing period, recess) 
• Builds intentional and meaningful relationships with students, their families, and school communities 
• Maintain calm and poise in unpredictable, potentially stressful, situations

Instructional Leadership

• Invest teachers and staff in a clear, inclusive instructional vision for all students; follow through on all commitments 
• Establish and communicate ambitious experiential and academic goals for all students
• Understand and explain team/s' curriculum, assessments, pedagogical practices, standards, lessons, and each one's purpose
• Be a frequent, regular presence in all classrooms and spaces you support
• Establish regular cadence for analyzing and responding to academic data (with coaches, LT, et al.) in a timely fashion
• Actively participate in ongoing learning (i.e. new research, professional texts, regional meetings, peer external PD, etc.) 
• Support teachers and hold them accountable to deep intellectual prep while simultaneously growing teacher understanding of curriculum and pedagogy
• Establish predictable cadence and work alongside coaches to ensure the facilitation of engaging and effective adult learning
• Have multiple points to measure performance against goals and expectations and then adjust approach 
• Support a culture where teachers are invested in and prepared for whole staff adult learning; work with Leadership Team to facilitate engaging, effective, relevant meetings
• Collaborate with Special Educators to understand and meet the needs (i.e. academic, behavioral, etc.) of unique learners.

Talent

• Build trusting, strong relationships with teachers and school staff 
• Identifies high-leverage coaching focuses ground in student impact and transferability
• Identify a gap across a grade level or department and develop and execute a plan that results in improved student experiences and outcomes
• Actively and regularly communicate with principal about progress, strengths, areas of growth, and potential trajectories of individual team members
• Understand and practice fair and legal employment practices
• Effectively manages and develops educators of a wide range of skill and experience level by defining responsibilities, setting goals and providing ongoing feedback and support

Operations Management

• Support the leadership team in executing school operational systems such as arrival and dismissal, mealtimes and attendance
• Demonstrate strong fiscal stewardship and judgment

Competencies

Student Focus: Builds strong relationships and holds high expectations for students, holds students’ best interests in mind, keeps owns commitments to students and makes sure others do the same and builds a culture of respect for all students

Results Driven:  Communicates that delivering excellent outcomes, in student experience and academics, is a guiding priority, sets challenging goals for self and others, takes initiative to go above and beyond to to achieve results, follows through on commitments, demonstrates resilience and flexibility 

Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: Demonstrates strong judgment and data-based, timely decision-making, gathers information from multiple sources, sorts out complexity, anticipates problems, values and encourages creative and innovative ideas, thinks expansively and avoids either/or thinking

Self-Awareness: Demonstrates understanding of own identity, privilege and power, understands strengths and weaknesses and the impact on others’ perceptions, seeks feedback and self-development, proactively asks for and willingly accepts assistance from others in a variety of roles

Equitable Practices: Believes that equity is something that can constantly drive one’s approach, rather than a lens that can be used sometimes, defines and communicates beliefs around racial and educational equity and leans into conversations about this, creates an inclusive environment that promotes a genuine sense of belonging for school community members across lines of difference

Impact and Influence: Is as clear on the purpose of actions as action themselves; effectively and reliably communicates "the why" to many stakeholders, adapts leadership style to influence others, takes the lead when there's a need; demonstrates growth mindset and learns from mistakes when they inevitably happen

Empowering Others: Actively listen to other school community members; seeks to understand others’ views and needs, intentionally builds trust within and across teams of people to promote collaboration and opportunities for shared ownership, consistently demonstrates respect and appreciation for others by empathizing, valuing their time and contributions, and being available and responsive to their needs