National Director of Teacher Residency

About the Great Oaks Foundation

The Great Oaks (GO) Foundation is a non-profit organization with the mission of launching and supporting a network of charter schools that prepare students for college success through high-dosage tutoring coupled with outstanding classroom instruction. By design, GO's schools contribute to the vitality of the urban neighborhoods where they are located by attracting and creating social, human and investment capital.

What sets Great Oaks schools apart from other college preparatory charter schools is a high-dosage tutoring model provided by the Great Oaks Fellows, a selective cadre of recent college graduates who tutor and mentor every student in the school. This is a crucial strategy in Great Oaks schools to improve achievement and prepare teachers to work in our schools.

The Great Oaks Foundation has successfully replicated this program in Newark, NJ; Bridgeport, CT; New York, NY and Wilmington, DE. We have launched a recent partnership with Baltimore Collegiate to launch a Great Oaks Fellow group at the site. A select group of the tutors at Great Oaks are enrolled in a Teacher Residency program that is being conducted in partnership with NYU's Steinhardt School of Education and Relay Graduate School of Education.

To learn more about Great Oaks https://greatoakscharter.org/

Position Overview

The National Director is responsible for coordinating, developing and supporting a rigorous, clinically rich teacher preparation program and ensuring all students have access to high-quality, well-prepared teachers. The National Director serves on a Great Oaks Foundation Academic Team that oversees the instructional learning across the Great Oaks schools and partner sites.

Great Oaks current residency program exists as a pathway into teacher certification for select Great Oaks Fellows. As the program has grown and evolved, there is an exciting opportunity to imagine how to more effectively integrate the residency experience more deeply within the school model and ensure that each succeeding generation of residents are ready to contribute to ensuring that Great Oaks student graduates are college and career ready. Additionally, as we plan further expansion into non Great Oaks schools, we intend to parallel the opportunity to have residents at the sites. The National Director would be responsible for building out the residency program at new and emerging sites.

The National Director reports to the Executive Vice President.

Position Responsibilities

• Program Design and Vision Setting:

• Oversee the current residency efforts across the Great Oaks Schools.
• Establish a process for developing the 2.0 model of the Great Oaks residency, in collaboration with the Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer..
• Prepare for expansion and building and managing a Teacher Residency team as the organization begins to grow.

• Program Implementation, Coordination, and Evaluation:

• Identify and work closely with schools of higher education to ensure effective partnerships with the Great Oaks Foundation and our partner schools.
• Coordinate with schools of higher education, the Foundation and school leaders in clearly defining what candidates should know and be able to do.
• Collaborate with schools of higher education to develop and deliver competency-based curricula aligned to rigorous k-12 standards.
• Design and implement rigorous performance assessments of teacher practice to assess resident readiness.
• Act as liaison between both school-based leaders and schools of higher education to ensure program alignment, specifically that coursework aligns to the intensive clinical experience.
• Establish effective school-based models to support residents and ensure effective monitoring, support and mentoring that results in the gradual release of teaching responsibility for residents.
• Work closely with residency leads and mentors in each site to ensure effective practice and support.
• Ensure collaboration and coordination across coursework instructors, training site staff, instructional coaches, and mentor teachers regarding resident performance, progress, and needs
• Collaborate with the Great Oaks Data Team to compile, track, and monitor data to continuously improve program implementation and impact.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Building Great Oaks as an anti-racist organization with specific training and support for residents, mentors an other educators on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
  • Establishing a culture of adult learning within the Residency and the model development work more broadly.
  • Establish a culture of improvement science, using this method to support schools and partner sites in testing new ideas and bringing initiatives to scale.
  • Strengthening our connections between the schools and residents and the communities we serve.
  • Onboarding and Training of all Fellows to ensure quality implementation of the Fellow program
  • Establishing an in-service "bridge to teaching" program for interested Fellows that serves as a potential pipeline for the residency program.
• Work closely with other members of the Academics team to ensure that the residency program is integrated into the instructional improvement efforts across the National organization.
• Coordinate and collaborate with members of the Academics team on projects in service of the broader Great Oaks Model and vision. This includes, but is not limited to the following key domains:

Qualifications and Competencies

The successful candidate will be an experienced educational leader, with proven success in an academic or non-profit setting. National Director of Teacher Residency will bring the ability to deliver outstanding outcomes and will possess exceptional relationship building skills and the ability to communicate clearly to multiple stakeholders. The successful candidate will also bring some or all of the following:

• Master's Degree (required)
• Minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience in the field of education
• Previous teaching, mentoring, and teacher educator experience required
• Passionate about innovative teacher preparation programs committed to principles around mastery, personalization and strengths-based youth development
• Experience leading adults - through professional development, facilitation of adult learning conversation and director supervision or coordination of key efforts.
• Self confidence, flexibility and the ability to respond well to feedback
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• Impact-oriented
• Highly collaborative
• Ability to navigate a complex inter-institutional partnership
• Strong project management and team management skills. Superb organizational and self-management skills and an ability to handle multiple responsibilities effectively and thoughtfully.
• Awareness of and comfort with issues of diversity, specifically around race, class, and gender; ability to engage in and facilitate discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion
• The ability to thrive in a fast paced environment where the ability to multi-task and prioritize work is essential
• Excellent communication skills both oral and written; ability to provide constructive feedback to staff members.
• A do-whatever-it takes attitude doing whatever is necessary to help all students achieve academic success including a willingness to work occasionally on the weekend or in the evening.
• A strong belief that all students can succeed

Compensation

Great Oaks provides a competitive compensation and benefits package; exact compensation will vary based on experience and education.