Chief Schools Officer

at  KIPP Foundation

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a national network of tuition-free public schools educating 120,000 students in grades Prek-12 across 21 states and Washington, DC. We have a network of 16,500 educators and 175,000 students and alumni across the country.
KIPP Columbus is the only KIPP school in Ohio and educates more than 2,000 students K-12 on a 150+ acre campus in Northeast Columbus.
In addition to academic excellence, KIPP Columbus also partners with nearly 100 community organizations to provide extracurricular activities, programming, health and wellness services, meals, and more to KIPP students, families, and the broader community. KIPP is also a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, offering more than 10 varsity sports.
The KIPP Columbus learning campus will continue to advance student learning, expand partnerships, enable superior programming, and serve as a teaching and leadership lab for schools nationwide, reimagining education through a deeper lens of antiracism, excellence, and joy as we expand to educate nearly 4,000 students on our learning campus in the coming years.
Interested in learning more about our school? Please check out our website: https://www.kippcolumbus.org/

THE OPPORTUNITY:

KIPP Columbus is looking for a Chief Schools Officer (CSO). This role reports to the Superintendent and serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Team. The CSO’s most important roles are driving student performance results by executing the academic strategy and plan, building school cultures that create joyful and academically excellent outcomes for our students, and managing and monitoring the progress of all KIPP Columbus Schools.
With school leaders serving as critical agents in accomplishing the organization’s mission and vision, the CSO ensures the Superintendent and school management team is well positioned to support, develop, and evaluate school leaders in leading joyful and academically excellent schools. The CSO will collaborate with the leaders across KIPP Columbus to ensure our schools are places where our students thrive and succeed. Together, we will ensure KIPPsters have the skills and confidence they need to be successful in college, career, and beyond.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

EDUCATIONAL EQUITY

• Establish and promote a clear vision of educational equity for all students as a guiding principle across all KIPP Columbus schools, and ensure it is reflected in schools, classrooms, school culture, instruction, and program offerings
• Lead from an equity-centered approach, centering the most marginalized students in the creation of strategy and execution of the instructional vision
• Conduct equity audits to ensure the school culture and instructional program is culturally responsive
• Be a champion for equity in all regards, including doing the self-work necessary to help KIPP Columbus become an anti-racist organization

IDEAL SKILLS AND CHARACTERISTICS

• Strong systems-level thinking with a deep understanding of school transformational work
• Ability to set a clear vision and aligned priorities, develop strategic plans, and empower others to achieve them
• Deep knowledge and experience in the design, integration, implementation, and management of school systems including knowledge of teaching and learning, instructional practices, school culture, school operations, and management, and teacher and leader development
• Structures work–can frame key questions, analysis/work to resolve those questions; can divide work into discrete pieces with clear activities/deliverables; thinks about the interdependencies of projects/efforts and proactively manages those touchpoints
• Drives to action, delivers results–ensures work is getting done; proactively recognizes and addresses hurdles; thinks beyond just “the work today” and incorporates that perspective into the planning and execution
• Ability to work independently but also comfort asking for help/input from others where needed
• Comfort with ambiguity–works to resolve open questions, can define a process to resolve ambiguity, is comfortable that the plan may change
• Concise and effective verbal and written communication skills–can talk easily to a variety of audiences
• Outstanding leadership and management skills, including managing conflict, goal setting decision-making, and holding people accountable
• Ability to work urgently in a fast-paced and results-oriented environment
• Demonstrated effectiveness in exceptional people leadership and management, including selection and hiring, coaching and development, managing and improving performance, building inclusive and effective adult culture, and retention and promotion of top performers
• Ability to be flexible and adapt to changing priorities
• Demonstrated track record of leading with a commitment to diversity equity, inclusivity and anti-racism
• Ability to synthesize knowledge and present it to stakeholders in a comprehensive manner
• Strong organizational and planning skills

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year institution, plus 3-5 years of proven teaching excellence
• Minimum 5 years of experience in a school leader/principal role with a record of achieving outstanding academic results for students from traditionally under-resourced communities or populations
• Minimum 7-10 years of experience managing and/or coaching school leaders/principals to drive student academic results
• A SYSTEMS-LEVEL THINKER AND BUILDER; the KIPP Columbus CSO will need change management and organizational development skills, and you will need to regularly model this level leadership to support the overall strategy and success of KIPPsters across KIPP Columbus. You are energized by building and implementing systems.
• A LEADER WITH A TRACK RECORD OF ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE WITH EQUITY; as a CSO at KIPP Columbus, you must have experience directly leading affirming and empowering schools with a record of achieving outstanding academic and social results for students from economically disadvantaged communities.
• AN ANTI-RACIST, EQUITY, AND CULTURE CHAMPION; the CSO will be among many models for how KIPP Columbus exemplifies our core values and, specifically, what it looks like to lead for racial equity. You must approach all issues with an explicit values-based lens and bring a skill set that includes getting to the root of adaptive challenges and tackling equity issues manifested at the systemic level.A LIFE-LONG LEARNER; AS A CSO AT KIPP Columbus, you must be deeply passionate about supporting all of our students through a strong instructional model and curriculum design, socio-emotional learning, teaching, and pedagogy. You will be more than just a manager; you will be a life-long learner
• -someone who will continue learning about great instruction and school culture. You will continually push KIPP Columbus to get better.
• A COLLECTIVIST LEADER; the KIPP Columbus CSO will have to make decisions that impact the lives of KIPPsters to and through college, career, and beyond. You are someone who values diverse perspectives, especially from those most impacted by your efforts. Power is shared and distributed equitably.

Please refer the Job description for details