Senior Manager, ELA Academics - Northeast Region

Senior Manager, Academics (ELA)

Northeast Region

TNTP seeks a full-time Senior Manager, Academics (ELA) to join our Consulting Team in the Northeast Region. This position is based in a home office anywhere in the Northeast: DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Candidates must reside or be willing to relocate to a state in TNTP's Northeast region to be considered for this role.  Frequent travel of up to 40% will be required, contingent upon organizational/state/federal travel regulations.

Who We Are

A national nonprofit founded by teachers, TNTP believes our nation’s public schools can offer all children an excellent education. Today we’re a diverse team from a wide range of fields, united by a fierce commitment to helping school systems end educational inequality. We work at every level of the public education system to attract and train talented teachers and school leaders, ensure rigorous and engaging classrooms, and create environments that prioritize great teaching and accelerate student learning.

Staff in TNTP's Consulting Division work alongside teachers, school leaders, districts, and states to help them achieve their goals for students. Our Northeast Regional team supports districts across the region in the implementation of a rigorous vision for equitable ELA and Math instruction through the use of high-quality instructional materials. We support teachers and leaders to build their understanding and mindsets of research-based practices in ELA or Math, including a focus on knowledge-building and explicit teaching of foundational skills.

What You’ll Do

As a Senior Manager, Academics (ELA), you will partner with school districts across the region to support, coach, and develop teachers and leaders to shift and improve their instructional practice in ELA classrooms.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Supporting district and school leaders to deliver on their instructional leadership priorities and improve instruction for all students, by supporting them with key aspects of their roles, such as:
• Leading compelling and practical professional learning on research-based practices in literacy instruction with a focus on equity.
• Designing and executing regular cycles of teacher professional learning, observation and feedback, or student work analysis intended to improve instruction and student outcomes.
• Conducting classroom visits to assess the quality of instruction and support coaches and leaders in identifying trends within and across schools.
• Modeling effective observation and feedback practices.
• Facilitating the implementation of strong instructional materials aligned to the shifts and demands of the state standards.
• Setting up and maintaining data systems and supporting teachers and leaders to engage in ongoing reflection and use of data to drive improvements.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with academic departments and school-based staff.
• Tracking progress towards contract goals and making strategic decisions regarding client management and support.
• Motivating and influencing clients to consistently integrate equity-focused mindsets and practices into their academic strategy, including authentic community engagement and cultural proficiency.
• Developing strategies to tackle instructional challenges and creating plans to implement them.
• Contributing to the creation of high-quality, data-driven reports demonstrating the effect of the team’s approaches towards quality of instruction.
• Designing tools and resources in real-time to respond to client needs, in support of academic or instructional goals.
• Engaging with and communicating progress to a variety of district school and community stakeholders.

What You Bring

First and foremost, we are looking for amazing people who have diverse backgrounds and experiences, are inspired by our mission, and are highly motivated to change children's lives through education.  We value diversity of ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, gender, religion, language, ability, and experience and exemplify this through the makeup of our team at all levels. You'll be right at home here if you cultivate strong relationships and push yourself, your work, and the people around you to the next level. We encourage those with the following identities to apply: Black, Latinx, Asian American, and Pacific Islander, local Indigenous people, LGBTQIA+ and non-binary people, people living with disabilities, and others with lived experience being part of marginalized communities.

We expect our Senior Managers to:

• Have a passion and understanding of the education landscape and communities.  You bring deep background knowledge in the current education landscape and a passion for embedding community engagement and involving communities in our work.
• Know great teaching and learning when you see it. Whether you are watching how students engage during a lesson or looking at student performance data, you can identify whether students are grappling with the right content and diagnose what needs to happen to improve student learning outcomes immediately and in the long-term. You understand the implications of the shifts in instruction required by the Common Core State Standards for students, teachers, school leaders, and district staff. You know high-quality instructional materials in ELA and can support partners in their implementation at the classroom and school level.
• Translate your instructional knowledge and ELA content expertise. We’re counting on your strong public presentation skills, ability to assess and adjust to the learning needs of your audience, and ability to communicate complex information to a variety of audiences, including teachers, school leaders, and district staff.  You have a deep understanding of effective ELA instruction. You use this knowledge to meet our clients where they are at by designing reasonable solutions to their challenges.
• Connect the dots in ambiguous circumstances. You’ll use your analytical and problem-solving skills to design and facilitate trainings and meetings, craft strategic academic interventions that improve student performance, and propose solutions to academic challenges every day. Ambiguity doesn’t scare you; just the opposite, you thrive on it. Your creative instincts will help you deal with vague situations and develop new approaches with limited guidance. 
• Partner with education leaders. You’ll regularly interact with, and be expected to influence clients, motivating and guiding them to lead transformative change efforts.  
• Build relationships. You have the ability to connect and build relationships with diverse communities. Multilingual or Bilingual abilities are considered a strong asset - Spanish language fluency is a plus.
• Embrace cross-cultural agility.  Authentic self-reflection, self-awareness, and high emotional intelligence are central to who you are, and you utilize these skills to contribute to a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. You have an adept cultural understanding of yourself and use your understanding of yourself and others to build trusting relationships with colleagues and stakeholders. 
• Manage time carefully.  You may manage multiple projects simultaneously, and you’ll need to prioritize your time carefully to meet deadlines and the needs of our school and district partners.

Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of content and instruction in ELA, particularly with highly rated instructional materials, with at least three years Pre-K-12 teaching experience, preferably in high-need schools or with high-need populations, and a proven track record of raising student achievement.
• Experience designing and delivering strong professional development for adult learners and creating systems to support ongoing learning and development.
• Teacher leadership experience and experience coaching teachers or other leaders.
• Strong familiarity and expertise with the College and Career-Ready standards, like the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), in literacy, including:
• Experience as a practitioner in a school system that has adopted the CCSS and/or a deep conceptual understanding of the instructional shifts in ELA.
• Experience with the role of complex text in ELA instruction and research-based approaches to foundational skills and the major work of each grade.
• Experience using high-quality ELA curricular materials and knowledge of how the curriculum supports strong, rigorous instruction.
• Prior experience with equity-based, asset-oriented and culturally responsive practices, especially in teaching and learning.
• Multilingual or bilingual abilities are considered a strong asset - Spanish language fluency is a plus.