KIPP DC

Legacy Learning Center Assistant Program Director Job Description

About KIPP DC Public Schools

By 2025, KIPP DC will build upon two decades of proven results to develop into a more impactful, innovative, and inclusive school system that provides joyful, identity-affirming learning experiences so that all students and alumni achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Our work is grounded in a commitment to excellence, equity, and justice. We believe all students have the right to rigorous, relevant, and joyful learning experiences led by exceptionally talented and diverse educators who promote student achievement and a sense of belonging. We believe students and teachers best succeed when surrounded by an ecosystem of supports, including our central headquarters team that supports KIPP DC’s 20 schools, 7,300 students, and 1,500 teachers, leaders, and staff members dedicated to this mission.

About the Legacy Learning Center Program Director Role

The Legacy Learning Center is a 9-12th grade program located within Legacy College Preparatory High School that serves students whose Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) indicate that they require specialized instruction in a full time setting. The Legacy Learning Center uses multiple adults per classroom and wrap-around services to effectively support every student.

The Legacy Learning Center Assistant Program Director leads the program in driving academic outcomes, care, and a sense of belonging for our students as a key member of the leadership team. Through goal setting and planning, designing meaningful school culture, strong instructional leadership, coaching staff, and managing operations, this person will set the vision for a rigorous and joyful school for all.

The Assistant Program Director is an exempt role and reports to the Program Director of the school, and serves on the school leadership team.

Key Responsibilities

• Vision & 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 select school priorities in support of the school-wide vision
  • With guidance from the Program Director, leads the planning and goal setting for the Legacy Learning Center program teachers and ensures alignment with school-wide goals
  • Set, communicate, and execute a vision for a program-wide initiative/priority that addresses an inequity
  • Connect teams' vision, goals and actions to KIPP DC's goal of becoming an anti-racist organization
• Plan & Prioritize
  • Prioritize and manage own time to accomplish short and long-term goals or priorities
  • Demonstrate strong judgment and data-based, timely decision-making
  • Act decisively to overcome barriers and make difficult choices with the long‐term and short‐term impact in mind
• Lead School Culture
  • Lead an affirming and joyful culture for students; monitor, follow in and refine PBIS systems for Legacy Learning Center
  • Work with staff and families to build an inclusive school environment for students programmed for in Legacy Learning Center
  • Plan for and predictably respond to student behavior to support them in both the Legacy Learning Center program and Legacy College Preparatory; follow up with teachers to coach and empower them to plan and respond most effectively
  • Maintain calm and poise in unpredictable, potentially stressful, situations with students
• Instructional Leadership
  • Establish & communicate experiential and academic goals for students dependent on students IEPs
  • Communicate and invest teachers and staff in a clear, inclusive instructional vision for all students; follow through on all instructional commitments
  • Collaborate with instructional coaches to support teachers with clear, meaningful, and realistic unit and lesson internalization strategies while simultaneously growing teacher understanding of curriculum, pedagogy, standards, and assessments
  • Be a frequent, regular presence in all classrooms you coach and manage
  • 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
  • Lead a culture where special educators, instructional assistants, dedicated aides and other team members collaborate to meet the needs of Legacy Learning Center students
• Manage & Develop
  • Builds trusting, strong relationships with teachers and school staff as the foundation for development and management work
  • Capture sharp, meaningful evidence during observations
  • Ground feedback and next steps for teachers in student impact and data
  • Identifies high-leverage coaching focuses grounded in student impact, transferability, context and teacher match
  • Develop, rely on, and refine systems that result in the effective coaching of all teachers
  • Identify an academic and/or behavioral gap across Excel and Agency programs and develop and execute a plan that results in improved student experiences and outcomes
• Hire & Retain
  • Actively and regularly communicate with Program Director and School leader about progress, strengths, areas of growth, and potential trajectories of individual team members
  • Understand and practice fair and legal employment practices
• Operations Management
  • Take the lead on staff facing, school based systems (i.e. testing, school schedule, arrival, dismissal, etc.)
  • Support the Program Director and school leadership team in executing school operational systems such as arrival and dismissal, mealtimes, etc.

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

Qualifications

KIPP DC is looking for Assistant Program Director candidates who are committed to KIPP DC’s mission that all students can learn and achieve at high levels, have a strong teaching background, a commitment to creating identity-affirming learning experiences, and are looking to develop the leadership skills necessary to lead great schools. Specifically, candidates should have:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Minimum of four years Special Education teaching experience
• Minimum of two years of school leadership (i.e., Dept, chair, Special Education Coordinator, Dean, grade-level chair, MTSS coordinator, etc.) experience
• Experience teaching core subjects (ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, Special Education) (preferred experience, not required)
• Demonstrated academic results
• Demonstrated leadership experience
• Demonstrated record of timeliness, good attendance, reliability and responsiveness
• Unquestioned integrity and commitment to KIPP DC’s mission and to advancing its anti-racist ambition through their work with staff, students, alumni, and families

Compensation & Benefits:

• KIPP DC offers an extremely competitive compensation and benefits package. The salary scale for this role is the Dean and Instructional Coach scale and can be found on page 11 of this document.
• KIPP DC offers a robust benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurances; various voluntary benefits; and employer paid benefits such as short term disability, long term disability, life insurance, and a membership to One Medical.
• KIPP DC also offers a 403(b) retirement account with a 3% employer contribution and a 3% match with vesting after three years.
• Currently, individuals in this role have up to 10 paid sick days, 12 paid holidays, paid Thanksgiving week break, winter break, spring break, and summer break. This is subject to change and your exact schedule will be shared in your offer letter.
• All employees who use public transit through WMATA are eligible for pre-tax deductions for transportation costs.

Equal Opportunity Employer

KIPP DC Public Schools does not discriminate against, or tolerate discrimination against, employees or applicants for employment on any legally-recognized basis or protected class including, but not limited to, actual or perceived race; color; national origin; immigration status (except as necessary to comply with federal, DC, state, or local law); religion; sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, and related medical conditions); age; physical or mental disability; medical condition; sexual orientation; gender (including gender identity or expression); marital status (including domestic partnership status); genetic information; political affiliation; pregnancy; family responsibilities; personal appearance; veteran status; uniform service member status; status of being unemployed; status as a victim or family member of a victim of domestic violence, sexual offense, or stalking; matriculation; or any other protected class under federal, state, DC, or local law.

Click here or here to review KIPP DC’s non-discrimination policy and KIPP DC’s Title IX Coordinator’s contact information.

Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

KIPP DC Public Schools does not discriminate against, or tolerate discrimination against, employees or applicants for employment on any legally-recognized basis or protected class including, but not limited to, actual or perceived race, color, national origin, immigration status (except as necessary to comply with federal, DC, state, or local law), religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity or expression), marital status (including domestic partnership status), genetic information, political affiliation, pregnancy, family responsibilities, personal appearance, veteran status, uniform service member status, status of being unemployed, status of victim a survivor of domestic violence, sexual offense or stalking, matriculation or any other protected class under federal, state, DC, or local law.

Click here or here to review KIPP DC’s non-discrimination policy and KIPP DC’s Title IX Coordinator’s contact information.

Please Note: If you encounter difficulties submitting your application or fail to receive a confirmation email after applying, kindly reach out to Danica Cunningham at danica.cunningham@kippdc.org. Please include your name, resume, and specify the role you are applying for in your email. We appreciate your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience caused.