Director, Partnerships (West)

POSITION: Director, Partnerships (West Region)

LOCATION: West Region - California and Bay Area preferred

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION:

EL Education is a leading K-12 nonprofit helping to build great schools in diverse communities across America. For over 25 years, EL Education has been bringing to life a three-dimensional vision of student achievement that includes mastery of knowledge and skills, character, and high-quality student work. EL Education promotes active classrooms that are alive with discovery, problem-solving, challenge, and collaboration. EL Education drives results: teachers fulfill their highest aspirations and students achieve more than they think possible. EL Education students have both the capacity and the passion to build to a better, more just world. EL Education’s expert educators work with public schools—both district and charter—across 35 states, serving over 200,000 students and 16,000 teachers in our school network and literacy partnerships. Rigorous impact studies by Mathematica Policy Research demonstrate that EL Education’s approach works: teachers significantly improve their craft and students achieve more, regardless of background. Grounded in decades of in-depth work with educators,

EL Education creates highly respected, widely distributed open educational resources, including the following:

• An acclaimed literacy curriculum that has been downloaded more than 9 million times and received the highest possible ratings from EdReports
• The world’s largest collection of exemplary student projects
• Inspiring instructional videos with millions of views
• Hundreds of free online resources
• Best-selling education books

EL Education was founded in 1992 by the Harvard Graduate School of Education in collaboration with Outward Bound USA based on the belief that learning and achievement flourish when teachers and students are engaged in work that is challenging, adventurous, and meaningful. ELeducation.org

ABOUT THE POSITION:

Reporting to the Managing Director, the Director, Partnerships is a critical leadership position that manages a portfolio of school and district partnerships on their path to achieving excellent and equitable student outcomes. This role leads a team of dedicated EL Education coaches and consultants to provide high-quality professional development, coaching and strategic planning to partners.

The ideal candidate has a passion for working alongside talented educators to help students do more than they think is possible in advancing educational equity in K-12 education. The Director believes whole-heartedly in EL Education’s mission, instructional model, products and services and has an ability to leverage these assets in service of excellent and equitable outcomes in the Three Dimensions of Student Achievement. They also possess a deep commitment to and knowledge of the EL Education’s instructional approach and vision of teaching and learning. They have experience leading teams to achieve results in diverse educational settings.

RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE (but are not limited to):

Leading for Equity & Impact

• Strategically set vision for quality instruction and implementation of the EL Education instructional model (including English Language Arts curriculum) in a set of partnerships to ensure excellent and equitable outcomes for all students
• Ensure that high-quality, impactful strategic planning focused on continuous improvement for equity, professional development and coaching services are provided to teachers, instructional coaches, building leaders and system leaders.
• Actively monitor progress of partners through site visits, mid-year and end-of-year reviews and ongoing data analysis
• In response to data analysis, identify trends/gaps and develop action plans to address
• Boldly invite and lead discussions about diversity, equity and inclusion that lead to disruption of historical patterns of inequity and equitable outcomes for historically oppressed communities
• Oversee portfolio strategy and manage portfolio program leaders towards partnerships to drive healthy, sustainable and impactful growth over time

Partnership and Portfolio Management

• Support Managing Director and Partnership Development team to cultivate new partnerships, as needed; partner with Partnership Development team to transition signed partners into Director’s portfolio
• Proactively conduct due diligence around partners’ community landscape to ensure EL’s services and support are relevant and effective; identify opportunities for partner networking and engagement across portfolio
• Develop and manage partnership portfolio strategy that results in deep impact with and retention of partners

- Develop strategic work plans through deep collaboration with partners and internal EL staff
- Ensure partners receive high quality relationship management and support from EL Education staff
- Create and manage staffing plans for partnerships; adjust as needed to meet goals/outcomes of partnership
- Manage budget and allocate resources to achieve successful partner outcomes; intervene when needed to address barriers to impact
- Deliver direct service (e.g. professional development, coaching) to selected partners

Team Leadership, Performance Management and Talent Development

• Hire, draw upon assets, coach and develop a diverse team of EL Education coaches and staff
• Cultivate positive and accountable team culture through ongoing team meetings, check ins, etc.
• Lead across lines of difference to create an inclusive, anti-racist team culture of belonging
• Lead annual performance management cycle for team, including goal setting, midyear/end of year reviews and ongoing feedback
• Provide direct and differentiated coaching/leadership to staff in service of achieving partner impact goals and outcomes; partner with internal teams and peers to identify cross-training and capacity building opportunities
• Ensure ongoing talent management, bench building and retention of staff

Other Responsibilities

• Leverage and integrate various capacities of the national organization (e.g. program, research, marketing, finance, development) to support partners and EL Education staff
• Engage in special projects based on organizational needs (Program, Research, etc.)
• Other responsibilities as assigned

Estimated travel: 40% on average
(examples of travel may include: in-person meetings with potential school/district partners, delivery of professional development, internal team meetings, internal leadership meetings with colleagues, select industry conferences to promote EL Education’s awareness, etc.)

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS:

Work Experience:

• 5+ years of K-12 experience, including classroom and leadership roles, in environments serving diverse student populations
• 2+ years of demonstrated success with developing and executing impactful partnerships with schools, districts and instructional leaders
• Experience with supporting large scale curriculum adoption and implementation at a system level (state, district or charter network)
• Demonstrated experience in successfully designing and delivering high quality professional development for teachers and leaders
• Demonstrated experience using data to guide progress monitoring, strategic decisions, performance and impact analysis, and equitable results.
• 2+ years of demonstrated effectiveness in leading, managing, and building capacity of high-performing teams
• Strong knowledge of creating an evidence-based culture of continuous learning
• Previous experience as a school, district or state level leadership role, preferred
• Previous experience with deep community engagement initiatives, preferred

Skills/Competencies:

• Ability to work effectively with educators of all backgrounds, particularly in larger urban settings.
• Adept cultural understanding of yourself and use your understanding of yourself and others to build trusting relationships with direct reports, colleagues and clients.
• Authentic self-reflection, self-awareness, and high emotional intelligence are central to candidate identity, and these skills shape a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Ability to navigate large complex systems and demonstrate political savviness, effectively dealing with ambiguity to achieve desired outcomes/goals
• A drive to think strategically to solve challenging educational issues.
• Exceptional abilities to build relationships, forge alliances and garner trust.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills (including group facilitation skills)
• Excellent organizational skills, with an ability to manage multiple projects and tasks simultaneously.
• Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment and take calculated risk
• A commitment to respecting and increasing diversity through inclusive practices
• Ability to create and implement innovative solutions to address systemic educational issues
• A growth mindset for the students, teachers and classrooms they serve – and most of all for him, her or themselves.

Other

• Commitment to and knowledge of EL Education’s approach to teaching and learning, including EL Education’s vision of student achievement.
• Commitment to leveraging this role to identify and disrupt patterns of inequity within districts and schools
• Willingness to live in or travel to the West region (ideally CA, OR, WA) -- ideally in San Francisco Bay Area
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 40%
• Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required for employment, absent an approved medical or religious accommodation.

Education:

• Master’s degree in education, educational leadership or related field, strongly preferred

EL Education seeks individuals of all backgrounds to apply for this position. As an equal opportunity employer committed to racial equity and social justice, we make a particular effort to recruit people who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color, and want to engage all those who can contribute to this effort.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:
The compensation range for this position is $125,000 - $135,000 and a wide variety of benefits, including paid time off, 403b match, maternity/paternity leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, etc.

HOW TO APPLY

Please apply online at www.ELeducation.org in the Careers section. No phone calls please. Thank you.

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION POLICY AND COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
EL Education seeks individuals of all backgrounds to apply for this position. We are committed to maximizing the diversity of our organization and want to engage all those who can contribute to this effort. EL Education provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees and prohibits discrimination with respect to the hiring or promotion of individuals, conditions of employment, disciplinary and discharge practices, or any other aspect of employment on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, disability, or any other factor which cannot lawfully be used as a basis for an employment decision.