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.

You can see all our job opportunities at https://kipptexas.org/join-our-team/.

The Opportunity

KIPP Texas is looking for a Chief Schools Officer (CSO). This role reports to KIPP Texas’ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Team. The CSO’s most important roles are driving student performance results by executing the academic strategy and plan, building school cultures that create brave and belonging spaces for Little (students) and Big KIPPsters (staff), and managing and monitoring the progress of all KIPP Texas Schools. With school leaders serving as critical agents in accomplishing the organization’s mission and vision, the CSO ensures their Regional Superintendent and school management team is well positioned to support, develop, and evaluate school leaders in leading joyful and academically excellent new and existing KIPP Texas schools in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and beyond. The CSO will collaborate with the Chief Academic Officer (CAO) and other leaders across KIPP Texas to ensure our schools are places our students want to run to every day. Together, we will ensure KIPPsters have the skills and confidence they need to be successful in college, career, and beyond. 

You know you are successful if: 

• You communicate and embody KIPP Texas’ culture and core values
• You lead with the highest ethics, build relationships based on trust, and inspire and motivate others to achieve rigorous goals
• You develop the next group of KIPP Texas and regional leaders through coaching, management, and impact and influence
• You position of all KIPP Texas’ four regions: Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio  to achieve excellent academic results for every student and alumni;
• You lead efforts to build best-in-class academically excellent schools that provide powerful, personalized learning that is engaging and joyful for all Big and Little KIPPsters
• You partner with the School Support Partners (SSP) Team to meet all operational, financial, and other non-academic goals, ensuring a sustainable organization at all levels;
• You drive the successful integration of evidence-based strategies to ensure the growth and success of all KIPP Texas schools
• You assist in creating and executing KIPP Texas multi-year Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion roadmap that moves us along on the anti-racism framework

Key Responsibilities

• Execute Academic Strategy and Program
  • Executes the academic strategy and program with fidelity across all KIPP Texas schools to achieve breakthrough student results, promotes a strong culture of teaching and learning excellence, and fosters educational equity for all Little KIPPsters
  • Effectively manages change to invest all teachers, school-based instructional staff, and leaders in the instructional vision
  • Ensures the academic achievement of all specialized learning groups, including students with IEPs, emergent bilingual and multilingual students
  • In partnership with the talent team and Chief Academic Officer and their team, develops, coaches, and trains school leadership teams and Regional Superintendents with the on-the-ground coaching and instructional tools to implement the curriculum and instructional program with excellence
  • Use data effectively to drive instructional practice and, in collaboration with the CAO, improve and adjust the academic strategy and program
  • Maintain a cutting-edge awareness of the promising practices and innovations in programs and policies for teaching, learning, and school design that are emerging locally and nationwide 
• Build School Culture and Systems Grounded in Equity 
  • Create and implement a unified KIPP Texas vision for a joyful school culture ensuring our schools are places children want to run to every day and are brave and belonging spaces for Little and Big KIPPsters 
  • Clearly define KIPP Texas school culture through the Heartbeat and specific school systems and routines that are joyful, culturally relevant, and rigorous
  • Manage discipline systems, including expulsion hearings, across KIPP Texas schools
  • Engage with parents, families, and communities to listen, learn, and invest them in KIPP Texas and their school communities
  • Invest and train all teachers, leaders, and school-based staff on the KIPP Texas school culture norms, expectations, and practices for students and staff
  • Regularly audit and evaluate school culture to ensure it is in line with our values and allows us to progress on the path to becoming an anti-racist organization
  • Maintain a cutting-edge awareness of the promising practices and innovations in systems and routines amplifying our culture and values that are emerging locally and nationwide 
  • Create proactive systems that garner feedback from stakeholders (CAO, regional leaders, school leaders, staff, and community partners) to inform school support and school improvement strategy and practice
• Senior Leadership
  • Be a senior leader who always models our mission, beliefs, and values
  • Make leadership decisions with students’ and families’ best interests and needs in mind and holds peers and staff accountable to do the same
  • Lead, develop, manage, and evaluate Regional Superintendents, School Leadership Managers, and School Leaders 
  • Serve as the liaison between School Management Team and the KIPP Texas Executive Team
  • Work hand-in-hand with the Chief Academic Officer and other Chiefs, Regional Superintendents to achieve exceptional student results
  • Along with the CEO and other members of the Executive Team, serve as one of the most senior leaders in our organization, helping us achieve our goals and exercising strong judgment in making critical decisions about what we prioritize and how we operate
  • Leverage effective change management practices and strategies that are people- and relationship-centric
  • Model excellence as a manager, developing others, and modeling a KIPP Texas work ethic for teams
• Educational Equity
  • Establish and promote a clear vision of educational equity for all students as a guiding principle across all KIPP Texas schools, and ensure it is reflected in schools, classrooms, school culture, instruction, and program offerings
  • Lead from an equity-centered approach, centering the most marginalized students in the creation of strategy and execution of the instructional vision 
  • Conduct statewide equity audits to ensure the school culture and instructional program is culturally responsive 
  • Be a champion for equity in all regards, including doing the self-work necessary to help KIPP Texas become an anti-racist organization
• Manage external partnerships (as needed)
  • Serve as liaison to the KIPP Texas Board for matters related to School Management
  • Assess and select partners and consultants when needed
  • Serve as primary academic liaison to any external partners, including KIPP Foundation
  • Ensure partners are engaged appropriately and adhere to project workplans
  • Compile reports that highlight achievement of objectives, summary of participants’ experiences, and lessons learned for future research, design and innovation initiatives

Skills and Qualifications

• Strong systems-level thinking with a deep understanding of school transformational work
• Ability to set a clear vision and aligned priorities, develop strategic plans, and empower others to achieve them
• Deep knowledge and experience in the design, integration, implementation, and management of school systems including knowledge of teaching and learning, instructional practices, school culture, school operations, and management, and teacher and leader development
• Structures work–can frame key questions, analysis/work to resolve those questions; can divide work into discrete pieces with clear activities/deliverables; thinks about the interdependencies of projects/efforts and proactively manages those touchpoints
• Drives to action, delivers results–ensures work is getting done; proactively recognizes and addresses hurdles; thinks beyond just “the work today” and incorporates that perspective into the planning and execution
• Ability to work independently but also comfort asking for help/input from others where needed
• Comfort with ambiguity–works to resolve open questions, can define a process to resolve ambiguity, is comfortable that the plan may change 
• Concise and effective verbal and written communication skills–can talk easily to a variety of audiences
• Outstanding leadership and management skills, including managing conflict, goal setting decision-making, and holding people accountable
• Ability to work urgently in a fast-paced and results-oriented environment 
• Demonstrated effectiveness in exceptional people leadership and management, including selection and hiring, coaching and development, managing and improving performance, building inclusive and effective adult culture, and retention and promotion of top performers
• Ability to be flexible and adapt to changing priorities
• Demonstrated track record of leading with a commitment to diversity equity, inclusivity and anti-racism
• Ability to synthesize knowledge and present it to stakeholders in a comprehensive manner
• Strong organizational and planning skills

Education and Knowledge:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year institution, plus 3-5 years of proven teaching excellence 
• Minimum 5 years of experience in a school leader/principal role with a record of achieving outstanding academic results for students from traditionally under-resourced communities or populations
• Minimum 7-10 years of experience managing and/or coaching school leaders/principals to drive student academic results
• A systems-level thinker and builder; the KIPP Texas CSO will need change management and organizational development skills, and you will need to regularly model this level of Statewide Leadership to support the overall strategy and success of KIPPsters across KIPP Texas. You are energized by building and implementing systems.
• A leader with a track record of achieving excellence with equity; as a CSO at KIPP Texas, you must have experience directly leading affirming and empowering schools with a record of achieving outstanding academic and social results for students from economically disadvantaged communities. 
• An anti-racist, equity, and culture champion;  the CSO will be among many models for how KIPP Texas exemplifies our core values and, specifically, what it looks like to lead for racial equity. You must approach all issues with an explicit values-based lens and bring a skill set that includes getting to the root of adaptive challenges and tackling equity issues manifested at the systemic level.
• A life-long learner; as a CSO at KIPP Texas, you must be deeply passionate about supporting all of our Little KIPPsters through a strong instructional model and curriculum design, socio-emotional learning, teaching, and pedagogy. You will be more than just a manager; you will be a life-long learner--someone who will continue learning about great instruction and school culture. You will continually push KIPP Texas to get better. 
• A collectivist leader;  the KIPP Texas CSO will have to make decisions that impact the lives of KIPPsters to and through college, career, and beyond. You are someone who values diverse perspectives, especially from those most impacted by your efforts. Power is shared and distributed equitably.

Physical Requirements: 

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.
• Considerable time is spent at a desk using a computer/laptop
• Attending conferences or training sessions 

Work Environment:  

• Typical office environment with frequent interruptions

Travel Requirements:

• Ability to travel to various locations, travel time approximately 40-50%

Compensation and Benefits

As a full-time KIPP Texas employee you are eligible to participate in all KIPP Texas’ benefit plans. KIPP Texas offers a robust variety of benefits choices with competitive rates, including medical, dental, and vision options, life insurance, and disability plans.

KIPP provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or disability.