Lead Instructor

Overview

The Lead Instructor holds the primary responsibility for the ongoing development, implementation, and assessment of the Excel Center's instructional delivery. The Lead Instructor will provide instructional leadership to instructors and work closely with the Director to carry out the instructional vision for the Excel Center model in alignment to the mission and vision. The Lead Instructor will manage, evaluate, and onboard a team of 5-10 instructors in all GEC content areas.

The Lead Instructor works in collaboration with the Director to plan all required assessments and will take the lead in implementing the assessment cycles. The Lead Instructor will be a member of the site leadership team and work collaboratively with the team in supporting the school's motto: "Relationships, Relevance, and Rigor". This position is responsible and will be held accountable for behaving in accordance with and organizational RISE values and expectations.

Key Competencies:

• Customer focus

• Building effective teams

• Drive for results

• Planning

Responsibilities

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Demonstrates a relentless drive to improve education and career outcomes for all Excel Center students. Manages the development and implementation of the educational strategies and curriculum for the Excel Center, including but not limited to, design and implementation of curriculum and systems to assess student outcomes.

Develops an instructional professional development plan and calendar in collaboration with the Director based on areas of need for GEC instructors' growth. Delivers professional development sessions to instructors and staff regarding best practices in curriculum, instruction, assessment, and data analysis. Observes and coaches instructors daily and creates an observation calendar that aligns with informal and formal evaluation calendars.

Develops teacher practice by providing instructional support through coaching, observation, and feedback cycles. Creates and implements coverage plans in collaboration with the Director when teachers are sick, absent, and/or on scheduled PTO. Conducts all teacher formal and informal evaluations using the GEC evaluation rubrics.

Teaches at least one class to model instructional excellence for staff and assigns content instructors to courses each term based on term schedule needs during the scheduling process. Monitors student credit attainment, attendance, and pathway to graduation using PowerSchool and other relevant data tracking systems (e.g. teacher gradebooks and student work). Works in collaboration with GEC team members to lead the development and implementation of academic interventions as needed. In close collaboration with the Director, and other relevant GEC staff, manages the coordination, registration, and curriculum alignment needed for all assessments (including, but not limited to:

ACT, iReady, DC Cape, etc.). Ensures all assessments are carried out with ethics and adherence to all testing protocols. Works closely with the Director and Data Performance Manager to ensure all assessment results are entered into PowerSchool and/or the required systems and spreadsheets for each assessment cycle. Leads the instructional data analysis (primarily focused on credit attainment, attendance, retention, math and reading growth data points) and presents solutions to the Director to address gaps during and after each academic term.

Develops plans to address the gaps and leads the implementation of these plans. Creates onboarding plans for new instructors and is responsible for carrying out those onboarding plans. Works in collaboration with the Director, Data Performance Manager, Lead Academic Success Coach, and Manager of Special Education to execute effective course scheduling within student management system.

Works in collaboration with the leadership team across the LEA to plan and facilitate professional developments, execute effective cross-site course scheduling, and common curriculum development. Participates in recruitment and enrollment processes during the summer and between each term and participates in new student orientation sessions. Leads new student testing (math and reading assessments) during the new student orientation sessions.

Understands the importance of student retention and re-engagement and leads through a lens of creating an instructional environment to support student retention. Participates as a member of the Leadership Team. Participates in disciplinary meetings with Director, Lead Academic Success Coach, Manager of Student Support and Manager of Special Education. Performs other related duties as required and assigned.

Supervisory Responsibility:

Supervises the Excel Center instructional staff and conducts informal and formal evaluations of all instructors. Designs and implements teacher coaching cycles and improvement plans when necessary.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor's Degree. Minimum of three years teaching experience.

Minimum 2 years supervising and providing formal evaluations to a team of instructors. Minimum of 2 years hiring and onboarding instructors. A substitute for this requirement is 3 years of being an effective or highly effective instructor at GEC and 1 year of coaching instructors.

Strong knowledge of Humanities and STEM curriculum and Common Core Standards. Strong curriculum development skills and an understanding of various instructional models and co-teaching models. Strong organizational skills; extremely careful attention to detail and follow-through.

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; ability to analyze data for informed decision making, create and monitor systems to support data, and the ability to present well-planned solutions to move data forward. Strong communication skills; ability to communicate direct feedback in a compelling way that empowers teachers to make immediate improvements to instruction. Ability to work well in a team; ability to bridge and enhance professional learning communities and work across content areas.

Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment; flexible, able to work autonomously as well as take direction as needed. Effective presentation skills accompanied with inspiring stage presence. Has working knowledge of and demonstrated experience with computer applications such as: Microsoft Office, Internet Browsers, Student Information Systems, and Document Management Systems (such as SharePoint or Google Docs).

Preferred Qualifications

Master's degree in teaching, curriculum, or administration/leadership. Current teaching license in DC.

Experience teaching in a high-needs community. Experience with adult learners returning to school for a high school diploma. 4 or more years of teaching experience. 3 or more years supervising instructors and providing instructional coaching and support. Experience facilitating and leading professional development sessions on instructional delivery and outcomes. Experience evaluating instructors and providing ongoing feedback and developing coaching plans.