Assistant Principal of Instruction - SPED (Immediate) | KIPP Austin Obras - KIPP Texas Public Schools

KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 59 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 34,000 students across Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose —college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.

Founded in Houston in 1994, and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in our classrooms, in our offices, and in the communities we serve is unwavering. We are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join our Team and Family and champion equity, chase excellence, persist with purpose, bring joy, and help us rise together.

KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of 255 college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, KIPP students complete four-year college at a rate of 36 percent, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average of students from low-income communities.

The Assistant Principal’s job is to support the school in driving academic and character outcomes for students as a key member of the school’s leadership team. Assistant Principals are expected to lead both instruction and school culture while also developing leadership in the school’s emerging leaders. Our Assistant Principals aim to spend 75% of their time on instructional leadership.  They commit to establishing high-achieving schools that are diverse, equitable, and partnered strongly with the communities they serve.  

At KIPP, we believe that the Assistant Principal is a future School Leader and is therefore actively being developed for school leadership. The Assistant Principal should consider him/herself to be an apprentice to the School Leader and gradually build capacity to lead a KIPP school.

1. Model and support implementation of the school’s vision and goals
   • Support the development of the School Leader’s school-wide vision and take an active role in investing and mobilizing teachers to achieve the collective goals of the school 
   • Own the implementation of select school priorities in support of the school-wide vision 
   • With guidance from the School Leader, lead the planning and goal setting for the grades/departments that s/he coaches and ensure alignment with school-wide vision and goals 
   • Monitor progress towards goals utilizing campus and regional enabling systems
2. Contribute to school-wide planning and prioritize time to accomplish goals
   • Provide input into the strategic planning of the school, and identify areas of ownership for self and direct reports
   • Effectively plan to meet goals through prioritization, establishing enabling systems, and managing time effectively - and coach others to do the same
3. Develop emerging leaders with School Leader’s guidance
   • Support the School Leader in identifying and developing emerging teacher leaders (Content Team Leaders and/or Grade Level Chairs) through goal setting, coaching, and providing feedback　　　　
4. Model strong staff and student culture and manage school-wide character development and behavior management system
   • Support teachers in understanding processes and roles in student support and intervention; develop systems and structures to ensure that limited time is spent on reactive student discipline
   • Build relationships with parents to promote a collaborative approach to supporting students’ academic, social, and emotional development
   • Promote strong culture through the management of parts of the daily school operations (e.g. arrival/dismissal, lunch/recess, school trips, extra-curricular school activities, school events, facility maintenance) 
   • Act as the first Leadership Team contact on student intervention and parent engagement; determine next steps for issues that rise above the teacher/grade level/department
   • May manage and/or support Grade Level Chairs in their role
5. Collaborate with School Leader to hire diverse, highly-effective teachers and school staff
   • Retain the highest performers across among teachers managed
   • Engage in the regional hiring process in collaboration with School Leader to ensure campus has a strong and well-developed talent pipeline
6. Build own and direct reports’ instructional knowledge of standards, content and instructional methods. 
   • Content (Standards, Curriculum, and Assessment):
     • Develop deep mastery of the academic standards in the subjects/grades for which s/he coaches, and strong understanding of academic standards for all subjects/grades.  Understand the implications of standards on what a student should know and be able to do and connect teachers with relevant resources to improve their content knowledge
     • Drive partnership with student support team to ensure that all students, including those with exceptionalities, have the access and support needed to achieve mastery
     • Support the coordination and implementation of school-wide assessments 
     • Support and monitor strong Data Driven Instructional practices and structures to progress monitor achievement towards campus and regional goals
     • Teach teachers how to assess for both student mastery and growth towards college readiness and insist that assessments are used to inform teacher instruction
     • Study curriculum and assessment content and further develop understanding of how assessments map to content mastery, and what is required of students and teachers to accomplish mastery on assessments
   • Research-based Instructional Practices (Methods and Time):
     • Develop own and teacher’s knowledge of best practices in instructional methods and teach teachers how to match particular strategies to students’ needs
   •  Develop teachers to provide rigorous and high-quality instruction and support School   Leader in planning for and implementing enabling systems
     • Data Analysis (Data-driven Instruction and Progress Monitoring):
       • Lead Data Driven Instruction: Help teachers determine how data aligns to end-of-year goals (what is being assessed and how it maps to standards); break-out data to analyze how different student groups are performing; determine what data is saying about areas of student mastery and growth; and identify specific instructional actions and adjustments to meet students’ needs
       • Take ownership of the academic outcomes in classrooms assigned to coach/manage
       • May coach and evaluate teachers in alignment with regional Teacher Career Pathways initiatives
   • Teacher Instructional Development (Instructional Coaching, Content Teams, and Workshops):
     • Provide high-quality instructional coaching with frequent and scheduled teacher observations, actionable and bite-sized feedback, and accountability for adjustment in practice
     • May lead or coach others who lead department/content/grade-level meetings that focus on planning for and norming on instruction and culture, practicing instructional strategies, and progress monitoring the department/content/grade level
     • Work in partnership with Regional Academics Team, Achievement Specialists and Beyond Z Academics Team to ensure strong support and monitoring for curriculum implementation and content development
     • Recommend to the School Leader what school-wide professional development will be the highest leverage in improving student results; lead engaging, actionable, adult-learning professional development; and hold staff accountable for implementation of professional development outcomes  

KIPP Texas Leadership Competencies

Student Focus: 

Belief that all students, regardless of background, have the ability to develop the skills and confidence to pursue the path they choose – college, career, and beyond; demonstrated commitment to the school’s unique community

Direction Setting:

Ability to set direction for a team and motivate others to action

Achievement Orientation and Performance Management:

Demonstrated student achievement results in own classroom and from teachers that s/he manages

Equity-Centered Leadership: 

Demonstrated ability to create inclusive environments that honor and support a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives

Instructional Leadership: 

Adept at data analysis; ability to extract meaningful insights across school-wide data

Expertise in what the school-wide academic standards and state assessments require of students’ knowledge and skills to demonstrate mastery; able to translate student mastery requirements into instructional plans and strategies

Deep understanding of appropriate application and differentiation of high-leverage instructional strategies based on comprehension of child/adolescent development and pedagogy

Relationship Building: 

Expertise in cultivating relationships and managing a diverse group of stakeholders

Achievement Orientation: Demonstrated resilience and focus on student outcomes

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university (required)
• At least 2 years of teaching experience (required)
• Strong record of ensuring students achieve academic success and holistic growth (required)
• Experience working in historically educationally underserved communities and communities of color (preferred)
• Previous school-level leadership experience (preferred)

Compensation and Benefits:

As a full time KIPP Texas employee you are eligible to participate in all KIPP Texas’ benefit plans. KIPP Texas offers a robust variety of benefits choices with competitive rates, including medical, dental, and vision options, as well as life insurance and disability plans.

KIPP provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or disability.