STEM Learning Specialist (Special Education Teacher)

Overview of Position: A strong and dedicated faculty is paramount to best serving our students and families and to establishing Unity as an exemplary school. Most critically, our faculty equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to experience secondary and postsecondary success, including the desire and capacity to learn independently, think critically, and communicate proficiently. Our STEM Learning Specialists (Special Education teachers) are essential to our success as a faculty and school. They use their expertise in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and effective methods for differentiation to make sure the curriculum and instruction reflect the unique talents, needs, and multiple intelligences of our students with disabilities. In addition, Unity's Learning Specialists develop strong partnerships with students and families to ensure that students are empowered and engaged members of our school, our community, and the world at large.

Brief Overview of our School: Unity's Core Purpose is to provide all students with an exceptional educational experience that empowers them to lead fulfilling lives.

As a small, open-enrollment, community-based charter school that proudly serves the families of central Brooklyn in grades 6-12, a Unity education is best described as personalized, inclusive, well-rounded, and keenly focused on each child's long-term growth and development as skillful learners and whole-hearted human beings.

Given these qualities, Unity's most important resource as a school is the talent and dedication of our faculty and staff. At its core, a school is only as good as the learning experience of students over the course of each day. We invest significant time and resources to ensure that we, as a team, are providing all of our students with daily learning experiences that are healthy, safe, engaging, supportive, and appropriately challenging.

We aim for each and every one of our students, upon graduating from Unity, to be empowered with the skills, knowledge, experiences, and disposition to succeed in their postsecondary endeavors, lead fulfilling lives, and positively impact their communities.

Our Recent Accomplishments: Regardless of where students are academically or otherwise as they enter our school, our focus is on accelerating growth and on cultivating long-term academic and non-academic success. This focus has reaped impressive results for our students and families in recent years. Among our accomplishments:

• 94% of our first three graduating classes earned their high school diploma in four years.
• 100% of our graduates had formal college and career plans with a college matriculation rate of 76%. This compares favorably to a 58% college matriculation rate for students in NYC.
• 95% of our graduates complete at least one Advanced Placement (AP) course in high school. This compares favorably with the 33% of NYC graduates who enroll in AP courses during their high school tenure.
• Our students who comprise subgroups that traditionally have been least effectively served by our education system, including students classified as economically disadvantaged, Black, Latino, and students with disabilities, have consistently outperformed their district and state peers in our high school graduation rates.
• In holding true to our belief in providing a truly empowering education, a vast majority of our students experience the following over their seven years at Unity:
  • After-school extra-curricular activities, including athletics and clubs;
  • Formal community service initiatives;
  • End-of-year middle school Roundtable presentation - a 45-minute oral presentation given to families, Unity faculty, and community members, and;
  • Intensive counseling in College & Career Readiness beginning in 9th grade.

Key Design Elements: Collectively, these elements reflect our beliefs on what makes for an exceptional secondary education in today's world:

• A culturally relevant and rigorous college-ready curriculum that is rooted in the liberal arts and sciences, including high-school level Regents courses in middle school and 11 Advanced Placement courses available in high school
• A skillful team of devoted educators who inspire students to be their best selves, coupling high expectations with high support, and serving as role models for students. Unity's educators are lifelong learners who take the utmost pride in perfecting their craft:
  • Over 50% of our teachers coach athletic teams, lead enrichment c