KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a national network of tuition-free public schools educating 120,000 students in grades Prek-12 across 21 states and Washington, DC.  We have a  network of 16,500 educators and 175,000 students and alumni across the country.  

KIPP Columbus is the only KIPP school in Ohio and educates more than 2,000 students K-12 on a 150+ acre campus in Northeast Columbus.  

In addition to academic excellence, KIPP Columbus also partners with nearly 100 community organizations to provide extracurricular activities, programming, health and wellness services, meals, and more to KIPP students, families, and the broader community. KIPP is also a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, offering more than 10 varsity sports. 

The KIPP Columbus learning campus will continue to advance student learning, expand partnerships, enable superior programming, and serve as a teaching and leadership lab for schools nationwide, reimagining education through a deeper lens of antiracism, excellence, and joy as we expand to educate nearly 4,000 students on our learning campus in the coming years. 

Interested in learning more about our school?  Please check out our website: https://www.kippcolumbus.org/

The Opportunity:
KIPP Columbus is looking for a Chief Schools Officer (CSO). This role reports to the Superintendent 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 joyful and academically excellent outcomes for our students, and managing and monitoring the progress of all KIPP Columbus Schools. 

With school leaders serving as critical agents in accomplishing the organization’s mission and vision, the CSO ensures the Superintendent and school management team is well positioned to support, develop, and evaluate school leaders in leading joyful and academically excellent schools. The CSO will collaborate with the leaders across KIPP Columbus to ensure our schools are places where our students thrive and succeed. Together, we will ensure KIPPsters have the skills and confidence they need to be successful in college, career, and beyond. 

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Execute Academic Strategy and Program

• Executes the academic strategy and program with fidelity across all KIPP Columbus schools to achieve breakthrough student results, promotes a strong culture of teaching and learning excellence, and fosters educational equity for all students.
• 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 managing director and regional SST directors, develop, coach, and train school leadership teams 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 academic team, 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 Columbus vision for a joyful school culture, grounded in equity and inclusion.
• Clearly define KIPP Columbus school culture through the specific school systems and routines that are joyful, culturally relevant, and rigorous
• Manage discipline systems, including expulsion hearings, across KIPP Columbus schools
• Engage with parents, families, and communities to listen, learn, and invest them in KIPP Columbus and the school communities
• Invest and train all teachers, leaders, and school-based staff on the KIPP Columbus 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 (C-suite, 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 School Leadership Managers, and School Leaders 
• Work hand-in-hand with the Superintendent to achieve exceptional student results
• Along with the key 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 Columbus 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 Columbus 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 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 Columbus become an anti-racist organization

Manage External Partnerships (As Needed)

• Serve as liaison to the KIPP Columbus 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

Ideal Skills and Characteristics

• 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

Knowledge and Experience

• 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 Columbus CSO will need change management and organizational development skills, and you will need to regularly model this level leadership to support the overall strategy and success of KIPPsters across KIPP Columbus. You are energized by building and implementing systems.
• A LEADER WITH A TRACK RECORD OF ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE WITH EQUITY; as a CSO at KIPP Columbus, 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 Columbus 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 Columbus, you must be deeply passionate about supporting all of our students 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 Columbus to get better. 
• A COLLECTIVIST LEADER;  the KIPP Columbus 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.

Compensation and Benefits

KIPP Columbus offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefit plan including medical and dental insurance, as well as group term life insurance, retirement plan and paid time off.  

Statement of Non-Disclosure

KIPP Columbus is committed to a policy of equal treatment for all individuals applying to the school for consideration of any position (admission, employment, etc.). KIPP Columbus does not discriminate on the basis of disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes set forth in Section 4112.02 of the Ohio Revised Code.