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Vice President of Program & Innovation

VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAM & INNOVATION
Position Description

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

The Black Teacher Collaborative (BTC) believes in the genius and beauty of Black children and the unique role of Black Teachers in cultivating their gifts. BTC seeks to ensure that all Black children will have challenging, affirming, and innovative learning environments staffed by a critical mass of Black educators who are equipped to maximize their shared racial identity to push students’ academic growth, sociopolitical consciousness, and socio-emotional well-being.

Black Teacher Collaborative provides structured ongoing professional development opportunities for Black educators to build the mindsets, skills, experience, and knowledge needed to actualize their effectiveness and impact in racially congruent learning centers; with the ultimate goal of the advancement of Black children, our families, and our communities.

PROGRAM

BTC’s current programmatic scope focuses on improving teacher impact in shared racial identity learning environments (SRILE). BTC is developing an innovative pedagogy, professional development curriculum and teacher fellowship for Black teachers. BTC launched a pilot version of the fellowship with 35 fellows in six sites (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana and Atlanta, Georgia) in the 2017-2018 school year.

THE ROLE
We are seeking a seasoned, dedicated, tenacious educator with expertise in K-12 curriculum and instruction and adult learning to lead every facet of the programmatic and innovation work. This is an extraordinary opportunity for a visionary instructional leader who can draw on their experience as a teacher/teacher leader to develop a new pedagogical framework based on shared racial identity, design an innovative professional development program, build a strong team, and think through the organizational strategy needed to scale the program in the near future.

The ideal candidate for this role is a creative, thoughtful, strategic educator with a high standard for excellence; with this foundation, they will partner with the Founder & CEO to shape the program and its subsequent impact in the months and years to come. This person will lead from a core belief that Black teachers are uniquely positioned to cultivate the genius and beauty of Black children, and will be passionate about creating conditions to help them succeed in an intentional learning environment. This person will also operate with a belief that education as a vehicle for liberation and be familiar with, as well as have a facility articulating and indoctrinating others into, the educational philosophies associated with Liberatory/Emancipatory Pedagogy.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES 
The Vice President (VP) of Program & Innovation will report to the Founder & CEO and will be responsible for all aspects of the program presently and with an eye toward innovation and product development in future. They will also be responsible for staying abreast of current trends in professional development, educational innovation, and best in class pedagogy to ensure that the program is both relevant and rigorous.

Key responsibilities include:
 

Organizational Leadership

The VP of Program & Innovation with be a key thought partner and collaborator with the Founder & CEO, guiding BTC’s programmatic growth and development as the organization scales. This includes:

  • With the CEO, crafting the strategic vision for the long-term scope, goals, expansion, and impact of the of the organization;
  • Identifying, securing, and managing the necessary supports, partnerships, knowledge, and resources to help build and sustain the programmatic vision;
  • Supporting the identification and recruitment of prospective program sites that are aligned with the long-term program vision;
  • In partnership with the CEO and the Fund Development Partner, supporting fundraising as needed;
  • As a member of the leadership team, building and actively contributing to a thriving organizational culture and contributing to key decisions; and
  • Cultivating relationships across the field with academics, educational practitioners and thinkers, and researchers who are doing relevant work around the learning and development of Black children and Black educators.

Staff and Program Management

The VP of Program & Innovation will hire, develop, and manage a high performing team of professionals who are committed to advancing BTC’s mission by executing an outstanding, meaningful, and ultimately high impact program.This includes:
 

  • Hiring, managing, coaching, and supporting the overall development and effectiveness of the growing program team;
  • Managing a team of consultants that are responsible for developing and iterating on a new pedagogy that leverages shared racial identity to build instructional strength and practice, building on liberatory/emancipatory pedagogy and other relevant pedagogical frameworks;
  • Providing day-to-day oversight of all program components, leveraging in-person and virtual formats; and
  • Serving as a senior relationship manager for school-based partners (principals and coaches) and other strategic partners.

Program Design and Innovation

The VP of Program & Innovation will lead the ongoing creation, iteration, development, and execution of BTC’s programs. This includes:

  • Staying abreast of academic theory, real-world practice, and innovation related to effectively teaching Black children and training the educators who team them;
  • Identifying and evaluating strategies of highly effective teachers teaching Black children
  • Setting the direction for, and guiding the creation and implementation of, a set of tools and strategies that are informed by the theoretical and practical approaches to effectively serve children;
  • Leading the Program Team and consultants to build out and continuously improve the BTC pedagogy and related program content, including designing the BTC SRILE fellowship, professional development curriculum, scope and sequence, and syllabus; and
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the program and lead continuous improvement efforts.


EXPERIENCE

  • 10 + years working in education, with a minimum of five years teaching;
  • Teacher leader experience (e.g. instructional leader, coach, administrator, etc.);
  • Experience designing and conducting adult learning programming;
  • Experience building, developing, and managing high performing teams; and
  • Experience designing and leading programs.

SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE

  • Proven leadership and management skills, with a strong orientation toward innovation for continuous improvement;
  • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, and an ability to address a diverse set of stakeholders;
  • Proven program design skills;
  • Self-motivated and able to move the work forward without a lot of direction;
  • Organized and capable of creating structure in a startup environment; and
  • Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree preferred.

OTHER QUALIFICATIONS

  • Passionate about addressing issues of Black empowerment, educational inequity, and self-determination;
  • Fearless willingness to challenge the status quo to innovate, iterate, and create new programs;
  • Strong customer service orientation;
  • Demonstrable commitment to a high degree of intellectual rigor and excellence in work products;
  • Curiosity, authenticity, humility, and willingness to experiment and fail.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS

The VP will report directly to the founder & CEO, and will lead the program team.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS 
Compensation will be commensurate with experience. Employee benefits include medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, a 401K plan, and a significant paid time‐off package.

LOCATION
Flexible location; Atlanta, New Orleans, Southeast or Mid-Atlantic US preferred.

WORK DEMANDS
BTC is currently a nascent, geographically distributed team, which means the VP will need to be comfortable working from home, able to travel regularly between sites (up to 30% travel), and willing to work occasional evenings and weekends.

APPLICATION 
Interested candidates should submit a resume at VP Program & Innovation. Instead of a cover letter, we ask that you submit a brief statement outlining your philosophy of Black education. Please limit your response to 2500 characters or less.

The Black Teacher Collaborative provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees.

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