Director of Diverse Learners (Special Education)

Director of Diverse Learners (Special Education)

The Director of Diverse Learners leads the design, development, state reporting and compliance oversight of a network-wide special education program for all Summit Public Schools’ students and families across 10 Summit campuses across Washington and California.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Specialized Program as a network leader on the Schools team, the Director of Diverse Learners partners closely with school and network teams to align and cohere support for diverse learners through implementation fidelity of special education services. The person in this position directly manages the Program Specialists, and collaborates frequently with the network’s school leaders, operations, finance, human relations and legal teams. The Director assists leaders in using data-driven, research-based, and legally compliant best practices to serve young people in alignment with our culture, and ultimately, to sustain and improve student achievement on Summit’s commencement level outcomes.

The Director of Diverse Learners is responsible for researching, developing, and implementing outstanding special education services integrated within Summit’s competency-based curriculum and conducting professional development opportunities for faculty. Additionally, the Director of Diverse Learners develops and maintains systems for documenting and using diverse learner data, ensuring that all schools are providing exceptional, compliant services to students with IEPs and their families. Finally, the Director is responsible for state reporting that impacts funding streams in CA and WA systems.

The ideal candidate has deep experience in special education, cultural competency, excellent communication skills both written and verbal, superb attention to detail when completing large-scale tasks, and is devoted to providing high-quality experiences for students, families, and members of the Summit Schools faculty. Familiarity with Summit Learning or personalized learning is preferred.

This position will require travel to Summit Public Schools throughout the Bay Area, CA and Seattle area, WA. (Travel required: Approximately 20%)

Who We Are:

What if all students graduated high school with the knowledge, skills and habits they need to lead a fulfilled life? This is the question that guides our mission at Summit Public Schools.

Summit is a leading network of public schools that prepare a diverse student population for success in a four-year college and to be thoughtful, contributing members of society. We operate 10 schools serving over 3,400 students in the Bay Area and Washington state. 100% of Summit graduates are college ready and Summit graduates complete college at double the national average.

We need exceptional mission-aligned educators to join our team to help prepare our students for a fulfilled life. Join us!

What You’ll Do:

Strategy and Program Implementation

• Lead the development, implementation, and communication of a vision and strategy for the diverse learner program across the organization

• Leverage deep knowledge of Summit’s instructional design to ensure that personalization meets the needs of all students in alignment with IDEA

• Lead the development of anti-biased antiracist diverse learner policies and procedures to ensure all students’ needs are met

• Develop diverse learner program budget, including federal, state, and local grants that informs individualized school budgets based on school-specific population and needs

• Act as a strategic partner for general and diverse learner teams, as well as the greater community- including professional development, consultancies, meeting facilitation, etc

• Design, scale, and evaluate continuous improvement innovations based in data and aligned to organizational mission and vision

• Serve as an advocate for students and families of students with IEPs

People Management

• Recruit, hire, manage and develop a team of highly skilled Program Specialists who support site-based teachers of diverse learners

• Facilitate the delivery of services among multiple external providers by researching, evaluating and selecting the highest-quality providers and acting as the liaison among external partners working with Summit students with IEPs

• Partner with site administrators to recruit, hire, develop, and retain effective teachers of diverse learners

• Facilitate restorative conflict resolution strategies with IEP teams to resolve disputes related to diverse learner needs and services

Capacity Building

• Develop vision, strategic plan, and implementation of evidence based practice