HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT CHAIR (ENGLISH & HISTORY)

Job Description

Job Description:\n\nFull-Time Founding Leadership Position · Reports to the Principal · Master’s degree required in Education, Educational Leadership, Humanities, English, History, Social Sciences, or a related field; doctorate preferred · Illinois Professional Educator License in high school social science and English preferred and National Board Certification a major plus · 3+ years of successful teaching experience required · Some form of leadership experience is required; Department, administration, or instructional leadership preferred · College-preparatory, independent, Jewish day or faith-based school experience is a plus · Being Jewish is not a requirement for this role · Fewer years but exceptional craft? We hire for mastery, not seat time.\n\n \n\nAre you an accomplished educator and academic leader passionate about teaching and learning in the humanities? Do you believe great humanities programs inspire students to think deeply, write persuasively, engage thoughtfully with complex issues, and develop the intellectual habits essential for leadership and making a lasting impact on the world? If so, Davis School Chicago wants to hear from you.\n\n \nThe Dream Team\nDavis School Chicago is a proudly Jewish, college-preparatory high school opening in fall 2027 in downtown Chicago, in a state-of-the-art building at the heart of a great city for learning. Every adult at Davis Chicago is an educator and a culture-builder. We hold two expectations at the same time: deep human warmth and uncompromising intellectual excellence. High health and high results, never one at the cost of the other. This is a summary of the characteristics that describe our dream team. Please read the full Profile of the Ideal Davis Chicago Educator and more information about our opportunities before you apply.\n\n \n\nTo thrive here you are:\n\n \n Warm and intellectually formidable. Genuinely kind and seriously bright. We hire for intellectual horsepower; only sharp minds grow students to their full potential.\n \n You bring the room to life. Passion people feel, loud or quiet, with the range to teach, support, and lead.\n \n A builder who owns it. Startup grit, a real growth mindset, open about mistakes, gives the gift of feedback, and the drive to create what doesn’t exist yet.\n \n Teach how to think, not what to think. Rigor, evidence, and a love of hard questions, including the controversial ones. Students reach their own conclusions.\n \n Rooted in tradition, built for what’s next. Ancient wisdom and modern tools, AI included, aimed at today's problems.\n \n Unapologetically Jewish. Israel has a right to exist; that is not up for debate. Everything else is fair game, including spirited debate about Israel’s actions. You’re excited to help build a proudly Jewish, pro-Israel school.\n\n \nWhat Davis Chicago Needs\nDavis Chicago is hiring a brilliant, warm Humanities Chair to build and then teach in one interdisciplinary program where students read, write, and argue across literature and history at a college level. As a founding leader, the Chair is a member of the team opening a school from scratch. Therefore, the person needs to be a builder-leader: someone who can take a bold founding vision and turn it into a living school, then run a department in that school at a level of excellence every student, parent, and teacher can feel.\nDavis School Chicago has also posted part-time English and History Teacher roles. If you want to teach your subject without leading the department, apply for the part-time role that fits; if you are open to either, apply to both.\n\n \nWho Thrives in This Role\n\n \n Warm, Relational, and High-Performing – Kind, emotionally intelligent, intellectually rigorous, and committed to excellence.\n \n A Teacher First – Leads from the classroom and teaches every day.\n \n A Reader, Writer, and Debater – Builds a program where students read whole books, write persuasively, and argue real questions.\n \n An Entrepreneurial Builder – Thrives in ambiguity, solves problems, and creates programs, systems, and traditions from the ground up.\n \n A Curious and Courageous Thinker – Embraces learning, evidence, critical thinking, and meaningful debate.\n \n Rooted and Forward-Looking – Honors tradition while embracing innovation, technology, and AI.\n \n Committed to Jewish Life and Community – Values Jewish identity, the diversity of Jewish thought, and meaningful engagement in Jewish life.\n \n A Collaborative Culture-Builder – Balances accountability, care, and results while elevating everyone around them.\n\n \nThe Role\nThe Humanities Department Chair is the academic and instructional leader of the Humanities Department and serves as a key member of the school's academic leadership team. Reporting to the Principal, the Chair provides vision, leadership, supervision, and support for faculty and curriculum across the humanities disciplines, including English, History, Social Sciences, Philosophy, and related fields.\n\n \n\nThis is a founding seat. Build a humanities program defined by rigor, creativity, curiosity, and purpose, and make Davis Chicago a destination for exceptional humanities education. The Humanities Chair will establish a cohesive departmental vision, cultivate a culture of professional excellence, and develop an innovative, college-preparatory curriculum that reflects Davis School Chicago's mission and values. The Chair will champion interdisciplinary learning, evidence-based instructional practices, student-centered pedagogy, and authentic assessment while helping to build a signature humanities program recognized for intellectual rigor and academic distinction.\n\n \n\nThis is a teaching chair, and the balance evolves by design. In the launch years, the Chair carries a substantial teaching load while building the department from scratch. As the school grows, the role carries increasing dedicated time for curriculum development, classroom observation and coaching, and professional development planning — the steady state Davis Chicago is building toward.\n\n \n1. Academic Vision and Department Leadership\n\n \n Develop and articulate a compelling vision for humanities education that aligns with the school's mission, strategic priorities, and educational philosophy.\n \n Lead the design, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of a vertically aligned humanities curriculum.\n \n Exercise founding-level design authority: architect the humanities course sequence from first principles — integrated, chronological, and other ambitious models are welcome — provided the result meets or exceeds AP frameworks and prepares students for the most selective colleges.\n \n Ensure curricular coherence, rigor, and relevance across all grade levels and disciplines.\n \n Promote interdisciplinary learning experiences that connect the humanities with STEM, Jewish studies, arts, and real-world issues.\n \n Monitor emerging research, best practices, and innovations in humanities education and integrate them into departmental programs.\n \n Analyze student achievement data and assessment outcomes to strengthen teaching and learning.\n \n Build a culture that values intellectual curiosity, civic engagement, ethical reasoning, communication, and critical thinking.\n \n Build the department around the accomplished-practice standards for English and history teaching (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards), including their signature move: authentic discussion and debate of controversial public issues in which students construct informed positions.\n \n Build relationships with universities, research institutions, humanities organizations, cultural institutions, and industry partners and develop signature experiences that distinguish Davis School Chicago among leading college-preparatory schools.\n \n Serve as an ambassador for humanities education within the school and broader community.\n \n Showcase student achievement through competitions, presentations, exhibitions, and public events.\n2. Faculty Leadership and Professional Growth\n\n \n Recruit, hire, onboard, mentor, supervise, and evaluate department faculty.\n \n Foster a collaborative professional culture focused on continuous growth, reflective practice, and instructional excellence.\n \n Serve as an instructional coach, providing regular feedback and support to teachers.\n \n Lead department meetings, professional learning initiatives, curriculum reviews, and collaborative planning sessions.\n \n Support teachers in implementing innovative instructional strategies and meaningful assessments.\n \n Encourage faculty leadership and cultivate opportunities for professional growth and advancement.\n \n Promote a culture of accountability, collegiality, and shared responsibility for student success.\n \n Facilitate weekly common planning time centered on student work, so the department's collaboration is about what students actually produce.\n \n Run a peer observation and coaching cycle focused on one targeted instructional area at a time.\n \n Co-lead the school's instructional leadership team.\n \n Lead a department that is both high-health and high-results, never one at the cost of the other.\n3. Teaching and Learning Excellence\n\n \n Model exemplary teaching and instructional leadership.\n \n Support faculty in creating engaging, student-centered classrooms that challenge students academically while nurturing student voice and agency.\n \n Ensure curriculum and instruction prepare students for success in selective colleges and universities.\n \n Master the Advanced Placement frameworks that anchor the humanities sequence — AP World, European, and U.S. History; AP English Language and Literature — and design a program that meets or exceeds them. At Davis Chicago, top AP scores are the byproduct of rich, rigorous instruction, never of test-prep culture.\n \n Promote inquiry-based learning, analytical writing, discussion, research, and project-based experiences, including immersive and experiential approaches — simulation, role-play, performance — where they deepen mastery.\n \n Cultivate a reading culture built on complete major works: teacher-curated books worth loving and reading whole rather than excerpted.\n \n Partner with faculty to develop authentic assessments that measure student growth and mastery.\n \n Advance the effective integration of educational technology and emerging instructional tools.\n4. Student Experience and Community Engagement\n\n \n Collaborate with faculty and school leaders to create enriching student experiences inside and outside the classroom.\n \n Support academic competitions, publications, speaker series, experiential learning opportunities, and humanities-focused enrichment programs.\n \n Champion portfolio-worthy student work — original writing, performances, publications, and substantial projects that give students distinctive evidence of their abilities for college admissions.\n \n Partner with families to support student growth and academic success.\n \n Serve as a visible and engaged presence in the life of the school community.\n \n Help cultivate a culture of belonging, respect, dialogue, and intellectual engagement.\n5. Strategic Planning and School Leadership\n\n \n Serve as a key thought partner to the Principal and academic leadership team.\n \n Participate in school-wide strategic planning and institutional initiatives.\n \n Contribute to accreditation, assessment, and school improvement efforts.\n \n Assist in developing and managing departmental budgets and resources.\n \n Coordinate department scheduling, course offerings, and staffing needs.\n \n Ensure compliance with applicable reporting, accreditation, and regulatory requirements.\n \n Help establish traditions, signature programs, and distinguishing features of the Davis Chicago humanities program.\nQualifications\n\n \n Education: Master’s degree in Education, Educational Leadership, Humanities, English, History, Social Sciences, or a related field required; doctorate preferred.\n \n Licensure: Illinois Professional Educator License preferred (high school social science and English) with National Board Certification highly preferred.\n \n Experience: 3+ years of successful humanities teaching experience required. College-preparatory, independent, Jewish day or faith-based school experience is a plus.\n \n Leadership: Some form of leadership experience with adults is required; instructional leadership preferred.\nCore Competencies\n\n \n Instructional Leadership: coaching, observation, and common planning time centered on student work.\n \n Curriculum and Assessment: rigorous, coherent, college-preparatory design across the humanities disciplines.\n \n Talent and Team: a high-health, high-results department culture.\n \n Teaching: daily classroom excellence.\n\n \nCompensation and Benefits\nThe anticipated annual salary range for this position is $77,543–$137,099, based on the school’s established Faculty Salary Schedule. In addition, this leadership role carries a leadership differential of $4,000–$8,000, determined by years of leadership experience. Placement within the salary range is determined by a combination of relevant leadership experience and educational attainment, including Bachelor's, Master's, Master's + additional graduate credits, Education Specialist (Ed.S.), and Doctoral (Ed.D./Ph.D.) degrees, in accordance with the school’s step-and-lane compensation structure. Final compensation will be determined consistent with the school’s compensation philosophy, internal equity, and established salary schedule. In addition to base salary, the position is eligible for a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid time off, holiday pay, medical insurance, and a 401(k) plan with employer match.\nEqual Employment Opportunity Employer\n\n \nHow We Hire\nOur process is thorough and we believe that hiring is a dual decision-making process; you are vetting us as much as we are vetting you. Our process includes focused conversations with the people you would work with, a battery of assessments we use for your development as much as for selection, and interview rounds both in-person and virtually. We move quickly, and we tell you where you stand.\n\n \nIs this you?\nThis isn’t for everyone. If it’s you, it may be the best work of your life. Read the full Profile of the Ideal Davis Chicago Educator, then apply.