Director of Special Education & ENL

Company Description

Uncommon Schools is a nonprofit network of high-performing, public charter schools providing an outstanding K-12 education in historically under-resourced communities. We have proudly built schools that reflect our student population, with more than 60% of our teachers and staff across our network identifying as a person of color. Uncommon currently manages 53 schools serving more than 20,000 students in five cities: Boston, Camden, New York City, Newark and Rochester. We are proud that Uncommon graduates persist in and graduate from college at five times the rate of their peers nationally. We achieve this by offering strong academic, co-curricular, and social-emotional learning that prepares students for success in college and beyond.

Job Description

The Director of Special Education acts as a visionary and leads the continuous growth and development of our Special Education and ENL programming in Camden. Beyond compliance the Director of Special Education safeguards that our schools provide equitable opportunities for all learners, through innovative and supportive programming, inclusive policies, and supported daily instructional and operational practices. Directors of Special Education are viewed as  instructional, operational, and compliance experts in all areas of Special Education and English Language Learner programming, as given such, are provided opportunities to inform best practices with other regional leaders around Special Education and ENL programming in each region. They are viewed as a regional leader, serve as key partners to the ASUP and ACOO roles in each region, and are informed and able to provide relevant and accurate data and supporting information around major drivers of school culture and success. These drivers are inclusive of, but not limited to: school policy, external partnerships, staffing considerations, budgeting determinations based on the needs of the region and needs of individual students, curriculum design and implementation, and coaching and professional development of Special Education and ENL staff.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Data Analysis, Budgeting and Planning:

• Collect, analyze and present student achievement data using measures to identify trends, areas of strength and areas for improvement.
• Analyze student work and interventions to identify both student, teacher and support staff areas of support.
• Track progress of training for each special education coordinator on caseload.
• Make decisions based on opportunities presented in the data.
• Collaborate with the Data & IT Team to create or procure a data platform to house enrollment data, IEP data, staffing data and progress monitoring information.
• Examine historical special education and English language learner data to predict staffing needs and costs throughout the year and year over year.
• Implement planning procedures to accommodate the growth of Uncommon’s special education and English language learner student population and staff.
• Build out structures to support the most thorough and post-secondary educational outcomes for students with disabilities and English language learners.

Regional and School-based Management and Development:

• Lead and manage a team of associate directors for special education and English Language Learners and Related Services, dependent on region size.
• Train, support, and coach Regional and school-based administrators in the areas of special education, English language learner instruction, and at-risk student services.
• Train, support, and coach general education teachers in the areas of special education, English language learner instruction, and at-risk student services.
• Provide direct management to a group of school-based special education coordinators.
• Lead all aspects of professional development of school-based special education teachers and English New Language Teachers.
• Coordinate, in collaboration with the Uncommon Schools Content Development and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Teams, the development of content related to instruction for special education and English language learners.
• Coordinate, in collaboration with the Uncommon Schools Recruitment Team, the recruitment of full-time and part-time staff.
• Consistently review and collaborate with regional leadership (ASUP & ACOO) the data and student population needs for continued innovation efforts, inclusive of program expansion, curriculum improvements, and innovation in instructional practice

External Partner Engagement:

• Maintain our relationship with each external districts of residency, and our authorizer, on matters related to special education and English language learners.
• Maintain relationships with related service providers and agencies