MS School Leader - Miami - KIPP Miami

About KIPP Miami 

KIPP Miami is part of the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) national nonprofit network of college-preparatory, public charter schools educating elementary, middle and high school students. KIPP has a 25-year track record of preparing students for success in college and life. Founded in 2018, KIPP Miami operates three nonprofit charter schools in Greater Miami’s Urban Core communities. Currently, KIPP Miami educates students in grades K-4 at KIPP Royalty Academy and middle school students in grades 5-8 at KIPP Courage Academy. To learn more, visit www.kippmiami.org.

KIPP Miami is excited to announce that we are hiring for an Middle School (MS) School Leader to found & lead KIPP Miami’s second middle school, which will open its doors to students in Fall 2026.  Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply by Friday, Nov. 15th, although we will continue to review applications on a rolling basis.  We anticipate holding interviews for this role in January 2025, for a Summer/Fall 2025 start date.

Here’s what you need to know:

The School Leader’s primary responsibilities are to drive outcomes for students and to develop talent within the building and for the network. We expect our School Leaders to focus 75% of their time on instructional leadership, specifically focused on instruction, talent development and hiring and retention.  We also expect our School Leaders to build lasting and sustainable organizations by developing strong internal capacity in teaching and leading, a pipeline of future School Leaders for their school and the network, and creating systems for the ongoing development of school staff. Good leaders create good leaders, and we ultimately define good leadership by the results leaders get for kids. Finally, we expect our School Leaders to perform their role through an equity lens, with an eye toward outcomes for traditionally underrepresented students and staff members. 

Here’s what you’ll be doing:

Instructional Leadership

• Drives and owns all instructional results for all students
• Strong content knowledge: knows essential content, rigor of standards, and highly effective teaching strategies well enough to establish and maintain a standard and coach it; is able to readily adapt to leverage resources across less-known or more nuanced subject areas
• Develops the capacity of leaders in driving results and developing teacher/leader capacity through  observations, walkthroughs, real time coaching, and data analysis through O3s focused on student data and coaching towards goals, weekly walkthroughs, and frequent observation of leader work
• Leads weekly conversations with school leadership team focused on progress monitoring, student achievement data and establishing strategies to meet school-wide goals; delegates system of instructional leadership expectations to team
• Develops intervention systems that address gaps in sub-groups of students based on race, gender, SPED, or other identity marker.
• Maximize the impact of formal PD time (including Content Team Meetings) by ensuring all sessions are well-planned and ample practice is prioritized such that it results in improved teacher effectiveness

Student Culture

• Establishes a clear vision for excellent school culture and regularly articulates this vision to leaders, students, staff, and families
• Consistently reinforces high expectations for all students all the time
• Actively develops school culture where students find joy in learning and where students are joyful and engaged
• Creates a culture in which teachers build strong and lasting relationships with students, especially the most challenging
• Develops, upholds, maintains, and course-corrects clearly articulated systems for how the school culture will function (e.g., behavior, recognition, consequences)
• School meets all org-mandated, federal, and state student compliance expectations

Staff Culture

• Establish a clear vision for excellent school culture and regularly articulate this vision to leaders, students, staff, and families
• Consistently reinforces high expectations for all staff all the time
• Actively develops school culture where teachers find joy in teaching and student learning
• Develops clearly articulated systems for how the staff culture will function (e.g., staff attendance, coverage, etc.)

Community Engagement

• Engages families and community stakeholders proactively and productively as partners in school goals. Performs this through various opportunities for families to engage (e.g., virtual and in-person Town Hall events)
• Creates a culture and expectation that teachers reach out to parents and enlist their proactive support in their child’s long-term success 

Talent Management

• Actively seeks to recruit, cultivate, and retain high-quality candidates; prioritizes building a diverse staff and emphasizing staff that share similar backgrounds as our students
• Identifies top performing teachers and leaders at regular points throughout the school year and works strategically to retain them
• Manages struggling performers through goal setting and increased support and manages-out underperformers where necessary.

Strengthen the Network

• Provides input to strengthen regional support: seeks to cultivate a partnership and proactively works to ensure a true feeling of team and family throughout the organization. Specifically:

  • Collaborates with Achievement Directors and other Teaching & Learning TEAMmates to monitor achievement data and inform the instructional leadership development of Assistant Principals

  • Prepare for and participate in regional selection, progress monitoring calls and professional development

  • Collaborates in a forthright manner with Talent team to make sure hiring needs of their campus and other campuses are met

  • Ensures that all school functions (operations, electives, instruction, leadership, etc.) have systems to coordinate and communicate with one another

  • Attends ~monthly school leader PD to hone content and instructional expertise

• Bachelor’s Degree
• Demonstrated student achievement results from teachers and leaders that he/she manages and coaches; preferably in a high performing high school
• Strong track record with achieving results through other including community partnerships
• Demonstrated success in developing leadership capacity in others 
• Demonstrated resilience and focus on student outcomes
• Ability to set direction across an entire school and motivate others to action 
• Adept at data analysis; ability to extract meaningful insights across school-wide data using pertinent software applications
• 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 (e.g. make kids sweat, pacing, stretch it, etc.) based on comprehension of child development and pedagogy 
• Command of instructional design and the benefits and tradeoffs of school design decisions in driving student achievement at the high school level
• Preparing and maintaining accurate records
• Operating standard office equipment
• Operating classroom technology equipment (ie. smartboards, projectors, chrome books, computers)
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills

Physical Requirements

The usual and customary methods of performing the job’s functions require the following physical demands:

• Prolonged periods of working at the computer and sitting at desk.
• Travel to various school locations in Newark, Camden and Miami.

Compensation & Benefits

KIPP Miami offers a full comprehensive benefits plan, including health care, competitive 403(B) plan, and a school laptop.

KIPP New Jersey | KIPP Miami is an equal opportunity employer