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Elementary Principal (K-4) - App Deadline 5/17

Employer
KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools
Location
Philadelphia, PA, US
Salary
Competitive
Company Description

We are seeking a committed, experienced, culturally competent leader to join our team as an Elementary Principal for the 21-22 school year to lead KIPP West Philadelphia Elementary Academy (KWPEA), a K-4 school. The initial deadline to apply for this position is Monday, May 17th. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, but all candidates who apply by the deadline will hear from us regarding the status of their application by Monday, 5/24.
Leadership opportunities at KPPS begin July 13th, 2021. Submitting this application considers you for all 2021-2022 opportunities for which you are qualified. To browse immediate openings, please visit our careers website .
About Us
KIPP is a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools in educationally underserved communities. Over 100,000 students attend one of the 242 KIPP schools that operate in 31 regions across the United States. KIPP Philadelphia Schools Public Schools (KPPS) is a part of the national KIPP network and currently leads six schools serving approximately 2,400 students in North and West Philadelphia. By 2030, KPPS will lead ten schools serving approximately 4,000 students.
Our Mission
Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students to pursue the paths they choose-college, career, and beyond-so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.
Life at KPPS
We know that talented, committed, culturally competent teachers, leaders and staff members have the power to amplify our children's potential by creating a school experience that affirms, values, and challenges them each day. We seek to create a professional environment full of joy, candor, care and community where excellent educators can make a long-term home. Educators at KIPP -
  • Are committed to anti-racism, equity and inclusion
  • Are part of a close-knit, diverse community of educators
  • Show up as themselves, inspiring our children to do the same
  • Access resources, workshops, and affinity spaces that support physical, emotional, and financial well-being
  • Lead with care and candor and take ownership of our children's learning and growth
  • Constantly evolve their craft via coaching and high quality professional development
  • Enjoy a competitive, equitable, predictable approach to compensation, comprehensive health benefits for employees and their families, a 403B matching program, and free access to financial services


Job Description

At KPPS, the Principal's primary job is to drive a joyful, rigorous school experience for students that yields strong academic outcomes and ensures all children feel affirmed, valued and challenged every school day. To that end, our Principals focus 75% of their time on instructional leadership, specifically all of the activities involved in leading and developing teachers to improve their instruction and drive student growth and achievement. At KPPS, we also expect our Principals to invest in their school's talent, building a lasting and sustainable impact by developing a thriving adult culture and a pipeline of future teachers, teacher leaders, and Assistant Principals.
Key Responsibilities
School Vision & Programming
  • Establish, communicate, and build investment in an ambitious school-wide vision for learning, school experience, and culture that sets the stage for both children and staff to grow and thrive
  • Create a welcoming, inclusive school environment, and operate with a mindset of families as authentic partners in children's school experience
  • Operate with strong knowledge of the core academic and social-emotional skills, knowledge, and mindsets that are essential for children's development and success across K-4, ensuring that all students are challenged with rigorous, grade appropriate content
  • Ensure that school programming effectively serves all students, monitoring and enhancing special education, intervention, and student support services as needed
  • Set a vision for student culture that ensures all children are affirmed, valued and challenged on a daily basis, and ensure that all student culture approaches, systems, and strategies are grounded in equity, are clear, effectively communicated, and are internalized by all staff
  • Plan and prioritize time and resources to achieve annual goals and the broader vision of the school, analyzing and acting on data on a regular basis to identify, plan for, and drive the success of key initiatives and improvements in practice
Communication & Relationships
  • Set a vision for adult culture rooted in our core values, building a community bound by mutual trust and by a shared purpose and pride in the school's vision
  • Model how to unpack interpersonal interactions and conflicts with an equity lens and identify a path forward
  • Create and refine systems for communication and collaboration across the leadership team and school staff at large, ensuring opportunities for authentic discourse
  • Seek out opportunities to understand and respond to staff, leader, student and family needs and perspectives
  • Build individual relationships with every staff member, children and families

Staff Development & Coaching
  • Directly coach, develop and manage members of the leadership team (including Assistant Principals and the Director of Operations) via 1-1 check ins, observation, walkthroughs, feedback, real time feedback, practice, data analysis, co-planning, and other direct supports
  • Create a culture of feedback, continuous improvement, and safety in trying new approaches
  • Ensure teachers have the data, development, and support needed to provide rigorous, affirming, high quality instruction
  • Sharpen and norm with APs on classroom analysis and classroom bar via walkthroughs
  • Develop teachers' and leaders' conceptual understanding of what students must know and be able to do and what instructional methods drive student growth
  • Develop knowledge of how standards map to curriculum and assessment
  • Lead analysis of and develop teachers' and leaders' ability to analyze student data to identify strategies that will move students toward mastery
  • Regularly observe and coach instructional coaches (Assistant Principals) to support them in providing high-impact, actionable and bite-sized feedback to teachers on a weekly basis
  • Ensure teachers can collaborate, analyze their practice and their student data, and adjust instruction in content teams
  • Lead whole-school professional development workshops that drive highest-impact improvements in teacher practice
  • Cultivate a diverse, high-potential school leadership pipeline (from teacher leader to AP to successor)
  • Effectively interview, select, and onboard new staff members
  • Operate with an intentional strategy regarding staff and teacher retention, cultivating a desire for the team to make KWPEA their long-term home
  • Cultivate School Leader's own success and sustainability by engaging lifelines and renewing to get stronger
Leadership
  • Model expectations for leaders, teachers, and students on school-wide practices for a positive learning culture, including modeling our KPPS core values (Children First, Community, Cultural Competence, Ownership)
  • Operate with a management approach that centers staff members' humanity, operating with both high expectations and a high degree of care
  • Operate with four core KPPS leadership mindsets:
    • Equity is Everything: Principals approach all of their work with an equity lens. Principals recognize and take responsibility for naming and tackling school and region-wide barriers to inclusiveness.
    • Change Management: Principals lead change fully, supporting staff, children and families in embracing a new way. Principals drive the investment, collective ownership, and operational systems needed for change to take root.
    • Make the Weather: Principals recognize and leverage daily opportunities to set the tone for the school and shape staff norms, beliefs, reactions, and values. Principals influence retional approaches and supports to best meet their school's needs.
    • Talent Mindset: Principals demonstrate a deep belief that people are a school's most precious resource by devoting significant energy to hiring, developing and retaining a talented, diverse team and cultivating strong staff culture.


Qualifications

Skills & Qualifications
  • Love and see the high potential of all children
  • Demonstrated ability to drive student growth and achievement and to create a warm, inclusive, rigorous learning environment
  • Passion for facilitating professional learning, including a desire to continuously grow and learn as a leader and the ability to cultivate staff ownership of learning
  • Ability to build relationships and establish rapport quickly with all stakeholders, including leaders, teachers, staff members, families and children
  • High expectations for children and staff; ability to motivate, inspire and hold others accountable
  • Self-awareness and ability to reflect on your practice, biases, and leans
  • Cultural competence and commitment to inclusion, anti-racism, and eradicating anti-Blackness
  • Belief that teachers are the primary drivers of student growth, learning and achievement
  • Solutions-orientation; ability and eagerness to adapt to and manage change and solve problems
  • Adept at data analysis; ability to extract meaningful insights across school-wide data and transform those insights into action plans
  • 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
  • Deep understanding of appropriate application and differentiation of high-leverage instructional strategies based on comprehension of child development and pedagogy
  • Strong command of instructional design and the benefits and tradeoffs of school design decisions in driving student achievement
  • Belief in parents and families as authentic partners in students' school experience
  • Demonstrated success in developing leadership capacity in others
  • Ability to exercise excellent judgement in decision-making
  • Bachelor's Degree required
  • 3+ years of experience leading (Principal experience preferred, Assistant Principal experience minimum) a strong school that serves an under-resourced population required
  • Willingness to work toward Pennsylvania leadership certification (if not currently held)
  • Complete all required criminal and child abuse background checks:
    • PA State Police Clearance
    • PA Child Abuse Clearance
    • Cogent Federal Fingerprinting


Additional Information

Compensation
  • Salaries at KPPS are competitive, equitable, and commensurate with experience. The starting salary for a Principal at KPPS is $130,000.
  • All KPPS employees enjoy access to a comprehensive benefits package, a 403B matching program, and free financial advising services.
Note to Applicants
KIPP Philadelphia Schools is an equal opportunity employer. Employees are selected on the basis of ability without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation, in accordance with federal and state law.

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