KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 59 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 34,000 students across Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose —college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.

Founded in Houston in 1994, and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in our classrooms, in our offices, and in the communities we serve is unwavering. We are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join our Team and Family and champion equity, chase excellence, persist with purpose, bring joy, and help us rise together.

KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of 255 college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, KIPP students complete four-year college at a rate of 36 percent, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average of students from low-income communities.

This role is an exciting opportunity to work alongside a diverse and dynamic Team and Family committed to building academically excellent, and critically conscious schools in KIPP Texas.  The Academic Recovery Senior Director will play a key role in crafting, implementing, and progress monitoring the academic recovery plan for KIPP Texas. In this role, the Academic Recovery Senior Director will support transformational leadership and academic support to targeted schools within their assigned region to ensure all schools reach their academic health goals. 

Specific Duties 

• Leverage transformational coaching practices to develop, mentor and induct leader, teachers, support staff, and other personnel related to ESSER funding;

• Coach, develop and support members of the site-based instructional leadership team in assigned schools in alignment with school’s student achievement goals and the KIPP Texas academic recovery plan;

• Manage and progress monitor all academic recovery resourcing and ESSER funding initiatives within a region;

• Support school and district personnel in interpreting student performance by disaggregating and analyzing formative and summative assessment data and working alongside school leader managers, school leadership teams, and ESSER personnel to craft and execute data-aligned strategic plans with a strategic and intentional prioritization of our most vulnerable student populations;

• Develop systems to progress monitor school’s academic performance across the region and within targeted schools to ensure each region/school is on-track to meet the goals set forth in the academic recovery plan;  

• As part of the central region team, develop, implement, and evaluate policies and practice, specifically those which focus on school improvement, and leadership development promoting collective responsibility for academic recovery implementation; 

• Actively model and support others to effectively demonstrate flexibility and creativity in the design of acceleration, intervention and academic recovery learning sequences within lessons and across lessons so that lessons are effective and consistently well-matched to learning objectives and the needs of learners;

• Facilitate relevant, and timely leader professional learning experiences within and across multiple schools for leaders;

• Attend role-aligned meetings and lead/facilitate task forces or workgroups related to improving student achievement outcomes;

•  Available after hours on an as needed basis to provide additional support to schools;

• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities 

• Equity: Exhibits a commitment to equity through modeling of equitable practices, and being a conscious disruptor of inequitable practices both at the school and organizational levels; 

• Instructional Expertise: Identifies effective practices in the first teach and in acceleration classrooms, and understands pedagogy that results in improved student learning outcomes; 

• Data-driven: Uses multiple data sources to differentiate the types of instructional supports and interventions needed for individual students, specific student groups, schools, and across a targeted group of schools;

• Achievement Focus: Sets challenging goals, demonstrating persistence and overcoming obstacles to achieve goals without confusing effort for results; 

• Demonstrated ability to deal with sensitive and difficult situations and information; in interpersonal problem-solving, decision-making and leadership skills; to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing and to manage and work with a team to accomplish mission and goals. Ability to maintain confidentiality with sensitive information. 

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Knowledge of general education, multilingual and special education

• Knowledge of ESSER grant requirements

• Knowledge of effective school-level and systems level strategies for acceleration 

• Strong skills in strategic planning and communication 

• Demonstrated expertise in developing a community of leaders and learners

• Experience in resource allocation for education programs, human resources, physical/equipment resources

• Effective collaboration skills alongside a variety of internal and external facing shareholder groups

Required Education and/or Experience: 

Successful candidates must demonstrate a deep belief in the capacity of all students to achieve at high levels, demonstrate strong instructional expertise and have the ability to work collaboratively with a diverse set of leaders and teachers to improve student achievement. Additionally, 

• A minimum of 3 years experience as a Successful School Leader

• Preference will be given to candidates with experience leading organizational turnaround work 

• Instructional expertise and experience across multiple grade bands, PreK- 12 

Preferred Education and/or Experience:

• Masters or other advanced degrees in administration or leadership studies preferred

• Experience in K-12 education

• Experience at KIPP or other Charter Management Organization (CMO), highly preferred

Location

Austin, TX

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.

Funding:

The Senior Director, Academic Recovery will be funded directly from the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) grants awarded by the Texas Education Agency under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (ESSER II) and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ESSER III). This position will be funded solely (100%) from the ESSER II and III allocation for direct expenses through September 30, 2023, and may continue to be funded through September 30, 2024, depending upon the availability of ESSER grant funds. At the end of the grant period this position may be eliminated unless other sources of funds are secured to maintain this position or a similar position. The employee must sign this job description acknowledging receipt of the job description and signing their acknowledgement that this position is grant funded and is temporarily aligning with the terms of the grant period.