21-22 Principal in Residence

  • Full-time
  • Start Date: Next year opening
  • Department: School Leadership

Company Description

 

ABOUT KIPP TEXAS PUBLIC SCHOOLS:

KIPP Texas Public Schools is a nonprofit public charter school network, dedicated to preparing students in educationally underserved communities for college success and choice-filled lives. Today, KIPP Texas operates 52 public charter schools educating over 27,700 students across four regions – Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio – and is among the top 50 largest school districts in the state. KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. KIPP schools are free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life. There are currently 224 KIPP schools in 29 regions of the United States serving nearly 100,000 students. www.kipptexas.org

Job Description

PRINCIPAL-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM OVERVIEW:

The goal of a school leadership pathway is to build and sustain high performing schools. KIPP Texas is investing in a residency program to ensure that there is a transparent pathway to leadership with consistent succession plans and an equitable process for promotions. With a structured on-ramp to school leadership and targeted coaching and support, leaders will develop the skills necessary to thrive as principals. 

The KIPP Texas Principal in Residence program is a one- or two-year, regionally-operated residency to prepare aspiring principals in the adaptive, technical, and managerial skills to lead a KIPP TX school as either a Successor or a Founder. Those in the one-year program are on an accelerated track to become a Successor at the school at which they are placed or a Founder at a school in community they will found in. Those in the two-year program are placed in schools with Mentor School Leaders. PIRs are full-time members of their residency school leadership teams and will have daily opportunities to practice the skills and competencies required to lead high-performing schools.

The PIR program operates within a set of KIPP TX leadership development programs, all with the goal of strengthening the leadership pipeline and developing a transparent pathway to leadership. 

PRINCIPAL-IN-RESIDENCE ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES OVERVIEW:

A Principal in Residence is an aspiring principal preparing to lead a KIPP TX school in 1-2 years. PIRs are committed to and actively contribute to the success of their placement school and act in alignment with school leadership team vision and priorities.

The PIR’s role mirrors that of an Assistant Principal for the majority of the development program, namely: coaching and developing teachers, teacher leaders and deans and contributing to the overall academic and cultural vision of the school. In some cases, a PIR who enters the program without teaching experience in KIPP TX may also have teaching responsibilities to enhance their instructional leadership expertise. Towards the end of their time as a PIR, the role mirrors more of School Leader, with clear responsibilities fully owned by the PIR at the school-level.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: 

1. Model and support implementation of the school’s vision and goals

  • Supports the development of the 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 School Leader, leads the planning and goal-setting for the grades/departments that s/he coaches and ensures alignment with school-wide vision and goals

2. Contribute to school-wide planning and prioritizes time to accomplish goals

  • Provides input into the strategic planning of the school, and identifies areas of ownership for self and direct reports

  • Effectively plan to meet goals through prioritization and excellent time management and coach others to do the same

3.  Develop emerging leaders with School Leader’s guidance

  • Supports the School Leader in identifying and developing emerging teacher leaders (Content Team Leaders and/or Grade Level Chairs) through goal setting, coaching and providing feedback    

4. Model strong staff and student culture and manage school-wide character development and behavior management systems

  • Supports teachers in understanding process and roles in student support and intervention and develops systems and structures to ensure that limited time is spent on reactive student discipline

  • Manage parts of the daily school operations (e.g. arrival/dismissal, lunch/recess, school trips, extra-curricular school activities, school events, facility maintenance)

  • Acts as the first Leadership Team contact on student intervention and parent engagement hierarchy; determines next steps for issues that rise above the teacher/grade level/department chair

5. Collaborate with School Leader to hire diverse, highly-effective teachers and school staff

6. Build own and direct reports’ instructional knowledge of standards, content and instructional methods.

    Content (Standards, Curriculum, and Assessment):

  • Develops deep mastery over the academic standards in the subjects/grades for which he/she coaches, and strong understanding of academic standards for all subjects/grades. Understands the implications of standards on what a student should know and be able to do, connect teachers with relevant resources to improve their content knowledge, and therefore what a teacher needs to know and be able to do to facilitate student mastery 

  • Studies curriculum and assessment content and further develops understanding of how assessments map to content mastery, and what is required of students and teachers to accomplish mastery on the assessments

  • Teaches teachers how to assess for both student mastery and growth towards college readiness and insists that assessments are used to inform teacher instruction 

     Research-based Instructional Practices (Methods and Time):

  • Develops own and teacher’s knowledge of best practices in instructional methods and teaches teachers how to match particular strategies to gaps in student mastery

7. Develop teachers to provide rigorous and high quality instruction and support School Leader in planning and implementing enabling systems of the KHPS Academic Strategies Pyramid

     Data Analysis (Data-driven Instruction and Progress Monitoring):

  • Lead data-driven instruction. Help teachers determine how data aligns to end-of-year goals (what is being assessed and how it maps to standards); break-out data to analyze how different student groups are performing; determine what data is saying about areas of student mastery and growth; and identify specific instructional actions and adjustments to fill students’ knowledge and skill gaps and a timeline to do so 

        Teacher Instructional Development (Instructional Coaching, Content Teams, and     Workshops):

  • Provide high-quality instructional coaching with frequent and scheduled teacher observations, actionable and bite-sized feedback, and accountability for adjustment in practice

  • Coach emerging leaders on their instructional coaching practice  

  • May lead or coach others who lead department/content/grade-level meetings that focus on planning for and norming on instruction and culture, practicing instructional strategies, and progress monitoring the department/content/grade level

  • Recommend to the School Leader what school-wide professional development will be the highest leverage in improving student results; lead engaging, actionable, adult-learning workshops; and hold staff accountable for implementation of the workshop practices  

8. Prioritize Assistant Principal’s own success and sustainability by engaging lifelines and renewing to get stronger

9. Support student recruitment, enrollment, and retention activities as needed. 

10. Other duties as assigned

In addition to their school-based performance goals, PIRs are actively developing the leadership skills and competencies outlined in the Development Roadmap. They actively seek growth on the Roadmap and in their journey to school leadership through one-on-one coaching, site visits on their campus and other campuses, formal professional development and by engaging lifelines. PIRs also actively participate in the KIPP TX PIR cohort.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

  • Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university (required)

  • At least 2 years of teaching experience (required)

  • At least 1 year of school-level leadership experience (required)

  • Strong record of helping students achieve academic success and holistic growth (required)

  • Fluency in Spanish (preferred)

Competencies

  • Student Focus: Belief that all students, regardless of background, have the ability to go to and through college; demonstrated commitment to the school’s unique community

  • Direction Setting: Ability to set direction for a team and motivate others to action

  • Achievement Orientation and Performance Management: Demonstrated student achievement results in own classroom and from teachers that he/she manages

  • Cultural Competence: Demonstrated ability to create inclusive environments that honors and supports a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives

  • Instructional Leadership: Adept at data analysis; ability to extract meaningful insights across school-wide data

  • Instructional Leadership: Expertise in what the  school-wide academic standards and state assessments require of students’ knowledge and skills to demonstrate mastery; able to translate student mastery requirements into instructional plans and strategies

  • Instructional Leadership: Deep understanding of appropriate application and differentiation of high-leverage instructional strategies (e.g. make kids sweat, pacing, stretch it, etc.) based on comprehension of child development and pedagogy

  • Relationship Building: Expertise in cultivating relationships and managing a diverse group of stakeholders

  • Achievement Orientation: Demonstrated resilience and focus on student outcomes

Skills

  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook)
  • Proficiency using computers, printers, copy machines, and fax machines
  • Excellent organizational, verbal, and written skills
  • Ability to travel throughout the KIPP Texas regions (for programming, residency and development opportunities) and the PIR’s placement city

Additional Information

APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCESS: If you are a current KIPP employee, you must discuss this opportunity with your manager before applying.   

General Sign-Off:
The employee is expected to adhere to all company policies. Duties may be changed at the discretion of KIPP Texas at any time.

As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or disability.

Compensation and Benefits:

In addition to a competitive salary scale, a part of KIPP Texas’ competitive benefits options, KIPP offers all employees an $0 HMO plan for the employee only. In addition to our $0 plan, KIPP provides a $600 employer contribution towards a Health Savings Account and a variety of other supplemental benefits such as Dental, Vision, Short and Long-Term Disability, Pet Insurance, Life, etc.

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