Partner, School Design Services: Computer Science Focus

Transcend Education

Start Date: Immediate

Role Type: Full time

Location: Flexible; with frequent travel to Central Texas in the upcoming academic year

Open Roles: Multiple: currently hiring to fill multiple Partner positions, for various projects

Travel: ~35-40% time. Willingness to travel approximately twice monthly for coaching and supporting schools.

Who We Are:

Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Founded in 2015, Transcend has partnered with over 200 schools and 50 systems which collectively serve nearly 500,000 students in 30 states across the country. As a research and development (R&D) hub for the education field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. Transcend is a nonprofit that operates with a fully remote, nationwide team; currently with 85 teammates and growing.

For more information, visit our website; follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter, check out this podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted, or read this article that illuminates the need for this work.

The Opportunity:

In increasingly large numbers, communities across the nation are recognizing the limitations and profound inequities of the 100+ year-old, one-size-fits-all industrial design of school. The compounding crises of the past couple of years have revealed the need for reinvention toward extraordinary, equitable learning environments that enable all young people to thrive. As a result, Transcend is partnering with more and more communities to support their work to redesign schools.

The Partner, School Design Services role will guide school design teams, in partnership with their learning communities, to design, build, and spread innovative school models. Specifically, Partners on our School Design Services team coach and support school design teams to:

1. Reimagine and create new school model designs grounded in their unique community’s context and aspirations.

2. Build the conditions for innovation in their school communities (including the capacity to do ongoing, applied R&D in their context).

3. Help create the networks and partnerships schools need for their innovation efforts to take root and thrive.

Working in portfolio teams, Partners use various methods to achieve these aims, including facilitation of in-person and virtual workshops, 1:1 coaching (virtual and in-person), hands-on instructional and new model design work, resource creation and sharing, and forging connections to support the work.

Across all projects, partners will support schools to:

1. Facilitate schools’ “Design Journeys” to articulate their unique community-driven purpose and vision, and new school designs in service of that vision

2. Run pilots to learn and iterate on their new model designs

3. Identify and implement new student experiences aligned with the schools’ vision

4. Strengthen the conditions needed for innovation and enduring, transformative change

5. Codify and spread effective, innovative school models and model components

New Partners will likely work on projects within their home-based Portfolio for the first one to two years (if not more).

We are specifically looking for a Partner with experience in designing and leading innovative and effective models in Computer Science and Computational Thinking for K-12 learners. We have a specific project focused in this area for the upcoming academic year; and anticipate we will continue to have work that will draw on this expertise thereafter.

The Computer-Science Focused Project for the 2022 - 2023 School Year:

We are currently supporting 5 school systems in Texas to develop comprehensive K-12 computer science and computational thinking pathways that reach more students and prepare them for the 21st century. We know that computer science and computational thinking skills are important for careers in those fields and also for problem-solving in any field, financial literacy, online safety, and more. Furthermore, the reality that students of color and women are not equitably represented in these fields demonstrates the urgent need for reinvention. In this project, we are working with charter and district systems that already have basic computer science offerings and seek to design and implement full K-12 computer science pathways to increase the number and diversity of Central Texans qualified for these opportunities and position these schools as exemplar models.

For our computer science and computational thinking cohort, the Partner, School Design CS

Focus will customize Transcend’s strategies and methods to build products and applications in these domains. These activities help school design teams to:

1. Envision and build K-12 computer science and computational thinking pathways where all students have the opportunity to learn in an engaging, rigorous, comprehensive, and personally and culturally relevant program.

2. Leverage relationships with school and district leaders to advocate for larger school model shifts necessary to implement the vision like schedule adjustments, staffing structure shifts, making time for professional development, etc.

3. Research and curate curricula, training, and tools that can be used to support the design and implementation of computer science and computational thinking pathways.

4. In close partnership with schools, pilot new practices to test efficacy and inform implementation of new practices and build conviction about the impact high-quality computer science and computational thinking can have.

Who You Are:

You have deep expertise in and passion for Computer Science education! You are also a facilitator, instructional designer, and coach who believes deeply that we must redesign school as we know it, to truly achieve the outcomes we know all students deserve, and to prepare young people to thrive now and into the future. You are relationship-driven in your work and energized by coaching others to achieve excellent outcomes for students. You are able to build relationships quickly and thoughtfully and recognize the importance of elevating a whole community’s voice in the redesign process. You are excited about partnering with school and community stakeholders to bring ambitious new school designs to life.

In this role, you will get to:

• Coach: Advance the school team’s conditions for change, and build capacity in others to bring new school designs to life

• Create Content: Develop the teams’ capacity to design and build school schedules, curriculum, instructional practices, PD, etc., in alignment with their school blueprints, research, and best practice.

• Facilitate rigorous research and development (R&D): Help teams pilot their innovations throughout the year: from setting up effective pilot structures, implementing pilots, and summarizing their learning to inform their overall design and next steps

• Lead Strategic Implementation of New School Designs: Guide and support schools in building and adapting the school elements needed to bring their designs to life

• Apply your Computer Science expertise: As the first person on the Transcend team with significant computer science experience, you will help define and envision transformative school models that develop essential computer science and computational thinking skills, and serve as Transcend’s resident expert in this domain. Relevant previous experience could include:

  • Being a computer science teacher (or similar STEM subjects like engineering, data science, etc.)

  • Working with computer science skills in schools, districts, education, and education technology companies, education nonprofits, etc.

  • Studying computer science in college, at a boot camp, or on your own and also working in an educational setting where it may or may not have been leveraged

And in doing so, leverage your:

• Expertise in and passion for Computer Science

• Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating innovative school models that generate unprecedented results for all students

• Strong and demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. You design, coach, and facilitate with an equity lens

• Skillful relationship building and communication skills, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including school partners, teammates, funders, research partners, etc

• Stewardship of a healthy team culture, and eagerness to share and learn from your teammates

• Eagerness to live into Transcend’s core values and support others to do the same

• Significant experience leading in schools, preferably with experience working as a former school Principal, and with direct experience with design, innovation, 21st-century skills, change management and/or “next generation” school models

• Entrepreneurial hunger to build, learn, and lead in a lean and at times ambiguous context

Perks and Benefits:

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our purposeful work and to one another.

Join Us!

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team, and we encourage candidates from historically under-represented groups to apply.

Partner, Sparks Facilitator

Transcend Education

Start Date: Immediate

Role Type: Full time

Title: Partner, Sparks Facilitator

Senior Advisor: Shari Lawrence

Location/ Travel: Flexible; willingness to travel approximately 1-2x monthly. ~30-35% Travel.

Who We Are:

Transcend supports communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments.

We fulfill this mission by focusing on two key priorities:

1. School Design: We partner with communities to design, implement, and spread innovative schools and school model components; and facilitate sharing between schools/communities.

2. An ecosystem that enables innovation: We strive to build the conditions (funding, policy, capacity, etc.) so that more and more communities can innovate effectively -- to create and sustain equitable and extraordinary learning environments.

To learn more about our work, check out this recent podcast featuring our co-founders!

The Opportunity:

In increasingly large numbers, communities across the nation are recognizing the limitations and profound inequities of the 100+ year-old, one-size-fits-all industrial design of school. The compounding crises of the past year have revealed the need for reinvention toward extraordinary, equitable learning environments that enable all young people to thrive. In part as a result of this momentum, Transcend is partnering with more communities than ever to support their work to redesign school.

About Sparks:

Sparks are short term engagements that help to inspire, share knowledge, build skills, and support organizations in making decisions about their next school design steps. Sparks are an impactful part of the school design work because it's the space where people come to “ah-ha'' together. They are provoked to think differently than they have before. Spark facilitators are excellent at creating an environment that facilitates breakthroughs. See here for an example Spark workshop (deck + video). We know we are successful when our partners want us to return to do more sessions and/or they continue to do school design work on their own or in partnership with Transcend. Partner

Shari Lawrence, who leads Sparks for Transcend, shares why this work is meaningful to her.

Who You Are:

You are an expert adult-learning facilitator, experience-designer, and coach who believes deeply that we must redesign school as we know it, to truly achieve the outcomes we know all students deserve, and to prepare young people to thrive now and into the future. You are relationship-driven in your work and energized by facilitating virtual and in-person experiences that inspire others to not only reimagine the possibilities of school, but also take action in their local contexts. You are able to build relationships quickly and thoughtfully and recognize the importance of leveraging the community’s assets and elevating a whole community’s voice in the redesign process.

In this role, you will get to:

• Design Adult Learning & Transformative Experiences

  • Design coherent, emotive learning experiences that meet the intended outcomes

  • Flex your creativity and design skills to craft and lead truly transformative learning experiences for adults

• Facilitate

  • Facilitate sessions in ways that inspire and constructively provoke others to come to “ah-ha” moments. Use strategies such as vulnerability, storytelling, data, inspiration, etc.

  • Assess in the moment and during the design if, and how, the experience will lead to outcomes and modifies as appropriate

  • Holds safe and brave space for participants to interrogate key themes like DEI, power dynamics, intersectionality of oppression and privilege, and how individual experiences and identities interact with larger systems

• Listen and Collaborate Strategically with our Partners

  • Work collaboratively with partners -- schools, funders, other nonprofit partners -- to understand their needs and develop a plan for sessions that meet that need

  • Follow up with partners and team members to ensure that expectations are clear, and provide progress updates to ensure we are moving in the right direction

  • Host stakeholder meetings to enable the partner to provide feedback on session design so that they are fully invested in the session

• Build and Grow from strong Internal Relationships

  • Maintain and contribute to a strong working relationship as a project team and with the partner, gathering and providing feedback to continuously improve

And in doing so, leverage your:

• Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating innovative school models that generate unprecedented results for all students

• Strong and demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion. You design, coach, and facilitate with an equity lens

• Skillful relationship building and communication skills, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including school partners, teammates, funders, research partners, etc.

• Passion for facilitation, experience design, and creativity

• Stewardship of a healthy team culture, and eagerness to share and learn from your teammates

• Eagerness to live into Transcend’s core values and support others to do the same

• Significant experience in adult facilitation, preferably with direct experience with design, innovation, 21st century skills, change management, and/or “next generation” school models

• Entrepreneurial hunger to build, learn, and lead in a lean, and at times, ambiguous context

Perks and Benefits:

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our purposeful work and to one another. We are open to a range of experience profiles for this role. Early in our process, we will ensure that the salary band for the role based on your experience level and location is aligned with your expectations.

Join Us!

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team, and we encourage candidates from historically under-represented groups to apply.

PARTNER, SPARKS FACILITATOR 

Start Date: Immediate 

Role Type: Full time 

Senior Advisor: Shari Lawrence 

Location/ Travel: Flexible; willingness to travel approximately 1-2x monthly. ~30-35% Travel. 

Who We Are: 

Transcend supports communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. 

We fulfill this mission by focusing on two key priorities: 

1. School Design: We partner with communities to design, implement, and spread innovative schools and school model components; and facilitate sharing between schools/communities. 

2. An ecosystem that enables innovation: We strive to build the conditions (funding, policy, capacity, etc.) so that more and more communities can innovate effectively -- to create and sustain equitable and extraordinary learning environments. 

To learn more about our work, check out this recent podcast featuring our co-founders! 

The Opportunity: 

In increasingly large numbers, communities across the nation are recognizing the limitations and profound inequities of the 100+-year-old, one-size-fits-all industrial design of schools. The compounding crises of the past year have revealed the need for reinvention toward extraordinary, equitable learning environments that enable all young people to thrive. In part as a result of this momentum, Transcend is partnering with more communities than ever to support their work to redesign schools. 

About Sparks: 

Sparks are short-term engagements that help to inspire, share knowledge, build skills, and support organizations in making decisions about their next school design steps. Sparks are an impactful part of the school design work because it's the space where people come to “ah-ha'' together. They are provoked to think differently than they have before. Spark facilitators are excellent at creating an environment that facilitates breakthroughs. See here for an example Spark workshop (deck + video). We know we are successful when our partners want us to return to do more sessions and/or they continue to do school design work on their own or in partnership with Transcend. 

Partner Shari Lawrence, who leads Sparks for Transcend, shares why this work is meaningful to her. 

Who You Are: 

You are an expert adult-learning facilitator, experience-designer, and coach who believes deeply that we must redesign school as we know it, to truly achieve the outcomes we know all students deserve, and to prepare young people to thrive now and into the future. You are relationship-driven in your work and energized by facilitating virtual and in-person experiences that inspire others to not only reimagine the possibilities of school, but also take action in their local contexts. You are able to build relationships quickly and thoughtfully and recognize the importance of leveraging the community’s assets and elevating a whole community’s voice in the redesign process. 

In this role, you will get to: 

● Design Adult Learning & Transformative Experiences 

○ Design coherent, emotive learning experiences that meet the intended outcomes ○ Flex your creativity and design skills to craft and lead truly transformative learning experiences for adults 

● Facilitate 

○ Facilitate sessions in ways that inspire and constructively provoke others to come to “ah-ha” moments. Use strategies such as vulnerability, storytelling, data, inspiration, etc. 

○ Assess in the moment and during the design if, and how, the experience will lead to outcomes and modifies as appropriate 

○ Holds safe and brave space for participants to interrogate key themes like DEI, power dynamics, intersectionality of oppression and privilege, and how individual experiences and identities interact with larger systems 

● Listen and Collaborate Strategically with our Partners 

• Work collaboratively with partners -- schools, funders, and other nonprofit partners -- to understand their needs and develop a plan for sessions that meet that need

• Follow up with partners and team members to ensure that expectations are clear and provide progress updates to ensure we are moving in the right direction

• Host stakeholder meetings to enable the partner to provide feedback on session design so that they are fully invested in the session 

● Build and Grow from strong Internal Relationships 

○ Maintain and contribute to a strong working relationship as a project team and with the partner, gathering and providing feedback to continuously improve 

And in doing so, leverage your: 

• Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating innovative school models that generate unprecedented results for all students

• Strong and demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. You design, coach, and facilitate with an equity lens 

• Skillful relationship building and communication skills, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including school partners, teammates, funders, research partners, etc.

• Passion for facilitation, experience design, and creativity 

• Stewardship of healthy team culture, and eagerness to share and learn from your teammates 

• Eagerness to live into Transcend’s core values and support others to do the same

• Significant experience in adult facilitation, preferably with direct experience with design, innovation, 21st-century skills, change management, and/or “next generation” school, models 

• Entrepreneurial hunger to build, learn, and lead in a lean, and at times, ambiguous context 

Perks and Benefits: 

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our purposeful work and to one another. We are open to a range of experience profiles for this role. Early in our process, we will ensure that the salary band for the role based on your experience level and location is aligned with your expectations. 

Join Us! 

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team, and we encourage candidates from historically under-represented groups to apply.

PARTNER, SCHOOL DESIGN SERVICES: Computer Science Focus 

TRANSCEND

Start Date: Immediate 

Role Type: Full time 

Title: Partner, School Design Services 

Location: Flexible; with frequent travel to Central Texas in the upcoming academic year Open Roles: Multiple: currently hiring to fill multiple Partner positions, for various projects

Travel: ~35-40% time. Willingness to travel approximately twice monthly for coaching and supporting schools. 

Who We Are: 

Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Founded in 2015, Transcend has partnered with over 200 schools and 50 systems which collectively serve nearly 500,000 students in 30 states across the country. As a research and development (R&D) hub for the education field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. Transcend is a nonprofit that operates with a fully remote, nationwide team; currently with 85 teammates and growing. 

For more information, visit our website; follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter, check out this podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted, or read this article that illuminates the need for this work. 

The Opportunity: 

In increasingly large numbers, communities across the nation are recognizing the limitations and profound inequities of the 100+ year-old, one-size-fits-all industrial design of school. The compounding crises of the past couple of years have revealed the need for reinvention toward extraordinary, equitable learning environments that enable all young people to thrive. As a result, Transcend is partnering with more and more communities to support their work to redesign schools. 

The Partner, School Design Services role will guide school design teams, in partnership with their learning communities, to design, build, and spread innovative school models. Specifically, Partners on our School Design Services team coach and support school design teams to: 

1. Reimagine and create new school model designs grounded in their unique community’s context and aspirations. 

2. Build the conditions for innovation in their school communities (including the capacity to do ongoing, applied R&D in their context).

3. Help create the networks and partnerships schools need for their innovation efforts to take root and thrive. 

Working in portfolio teams, Partners use various methods to achieve these aims, including facilitation of in-person and virtual workshops, 1:1 coaching (virtual and in-person), hands-on instructional and new model design work, resource creation and sharing, and forging connections to support the work. 

Across all projects, partners will support schools to: 

1. Facilitate schools’ “Design Journeys” to articulate their unique community-driven purpose and vision, and new school designs in service of that vision 

2. Run pilots to learn and iterate on their new model designs 

3. Identify and implement new student experiences aligned with the school’s vision

4. Strengthen the conditions needed for innovation and enduring, transformative change

5. Codify and spread effective, innovative school models and model components 

New Partners will likely work on projects within their home-based Portfolio for the first one to two years (if not more). 

We are specifically looking for a Partner with experience in designing and leading innovative and effective models in Computer Science and Computational Thinking for K-12 learners. We have a specific project focused in this area for the upcoming academic year; and anticipate we will continue to have work that will draw on this expertise thereafter. 

The Computer-Science Focused Project for the 2022 - 2023 School Year: 

We are currently supporting 5 school systems in Texas to develop comprehensive K-12 computer science and computational thinking pathways that reach more students and prepare them for the 21st century. We know that computer science and computational thinking skills are important for careers in those fields and also for problem-solving in any field, financial literacy, online safety, and more. Furthermore, the reality that students of color and women are not equitably represented in these fields demonstrates the urgent need for reinvention. In this project, we are working with charter and district systems that already have basic computer science offerings and seek to design and implement full K-12 computer science pathways to increase the number and diversity of Central Texans qualified for these opportunities and position these schools as exemplar models. 

For our computer science and computational thinking cohort, the Partner, School Design CS Focus will customize Transcend’s strategies and methods to build products and applications in these domains.

These activities help school design teams to:

1. Envision and build K-12 computer science and computational thinking pathways where all students have the opportunity to learn in an engaging, rigorous, comprehensive, and personally and culturally relevant program. 

2. Leverage relationships with school and district leaders to advocate for larger school model shifts necessary to implement the vision like schedule adjustments, staffing structure shifts, making time for professional development, etc. 

3. Research and curate curricula, training, and tools that can be used to support the design and implementation of computer science and computational thinking pathways. 4. In close partnership with schools, pilot new practices to test the efficacy and inform the implementation of new practices and build conviction about the impact high-quality computer science and computational thinking can have. 

Who You Are: 

You have deep expertise in and passion for Computer Science education! You are also a facilitator, instructional designer, and coach who believes deeply that we must redesign school as we know it, to truly achieve the outcomes we know all students deserve, and to prepare young people to thrive now and into the future. You are relationship-driven in your work and energized by coaching others to achieve excellent outcomes for students. You are able to build relationships quickly and thoughtfully and recognize the importance of elevating a whole community’s voice in the redesign process. You are excited about partnering with school and community stakeholders to bring ambitious new school designs to life. 

In this role, you will get to: 

• Coach: Advance the school team’s conditions for change, and build capacity in others to bring new school designs to life 

• Create Content: Develop the teams’ capacity to design and build school schedules, curriculum, instructional practices, PD, etc., in alignment with their school blueprints, research, and best practice 

• Facilitate rigorous research and development (R&D): Help teams pilot their innovations throughout the year: from setting up effective pilot structures, implementing pilots, and summarizing their learning to inform their overall design and next steps 

• Lead Strategic Implementation of New School Designs: Guide and support schools in building and adapting the school elements needed to bring their designs to life

• Apply your Computer Science expertise: As the first person on the Transcend team with significant computer science experience, you will help define and envision transformative school models that develop essential computer science and computational thinking skills, and serve as Transcend’s resident expert in this domain. Relevant previous experience could include: 

○ Being a computer science teacher (or similar STEM subjects like engineering, data science, etc.)

○ Working with computer science skills in schools, districts, education, and education technology companies, education nonprofits, etc. 

○ Studying computer science in college, at a boot camp, or on your own and also working in an educational setting where it may or may not have been leveraged 

And in doing so, leverage your: 

Expertise in and passion for Computer Science 

• Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating innovative school models that generate unprecedented results for all students

• Strong and demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. You design, coach, and facilitate with an equity lens 

• Skillful relationship building and communication skills, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including school partners, teammates, funders, research partners, etc.

• Stewardship of healthy team culture, and eagerness to share and learn from your teammates 

• Eagerness to live into Transcend’s core values and support others to do the same

• Significant experience leading in schools, preferably with experience working as a former school Principal, and with direct experience with design, innovation, 21st-century skills, change management, and/or “next generation” school models 

Entrepreneurial hunger to build, learn, and lead in a lean and at times ambiguous context

Perks and Benefits: 

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our purposeful work and to one another. 

Join Us! 

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team, and we encourage candidates from historically underrepresented groups to apply.

PARTNER, SCHOOL DESIGN SERVICES 

Transcend

Start Date: Immediate 

Role Type: Full time 

Location: Flexible 

Open Roles: Multiple: currently hiring to fill multiple Partner positions, for various projects 

Travel: ~30-35% time. Willingness to travel approximately twice monthly for coaching and supporting schools. 

Who We Are: 

Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Founded in 2015, Transcend has partnered with over 200 schools and 50 systems which collectively serve nearly 500,000 students in 30 states across the country. As a research and development (R&D) hub for the education field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. Transcend is a nonprofit that operates with a fully remote, nationwide team; currently with 85 teammates and growing. 

For more information, visit our website; follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter, check out this podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted, or read this recent article that illuminates the need for this work. 

The Opportunity: 

In increasingly large numbers, communities across the nation are recognizing the limitations and profound inequities of the 100+-year-old, one-size-fits-all industrial design of the school. The compounding crises of the past couple of years have revealed the need for reinvention toward extraordinary, equitable learning environments that enable all young people to thrive. As a result, Transcend is partnering with more and more communities to support their work to redesign schools.

The Partner, School Design Services role will guide school design teams, in partnership with their learning communities, to design, build, and spread innovative school models. Specifically, Partners on our School Design Services team coach and support school design teams to: 

1. Reimagine and create new school model designs grounded in their unique community’s context and aspirations. 

2. Build the conditions for innovation in their school communities (including the capacity to do ongoing, applied R&D in their context). 

3. Help create the networks and partnerships schools need for their innovation efforts to take root and thrive. 

Working in portfolio teams, Partners use various methods to achieve these aims, including facilitation of in-person and virtual workshops, 1:1 coaching (virtual and in-person), hands-on instructional and new model design work, resource creation and sharing, and forging connections to support the work. 

Below are snapshots of projects we are working on today, and we are currently hiring Partners for each of them: 

Texas Schools: Design + Implementation 

Transcend is partnering with schools, across the state of Texas, to design and implement more innovative, effective, and equitable learning environments for students across the state. Many of these schools have received D or F ratings from the Texas Accountability system, and are trying to reinvent as a pathway toward significant improvement. These new model designs include blended learning, elements to promote mental health and social resilience, high dosage tutoring, and an extended school year. Project Lead, Diego, on why he does this work! 

Whole Child Model Design + Spread 

The Whole Child work is rooted in the understanding that children’s academic success is inextricably linked to their overall well-being, and in the belief that we can—and must—attend to the development of the whole child while also achieving excellence in academics. We are hiring for one new Coach to join this project team, and we anticipate that much of this work will take place in Texas and/or Washington, DC.. Project Lead, Sarah, on her work at Transcend! 

Rural Schools Portfolio 

The Rural Schools Portfolio partners with rural communities across the US as they leverage their unique assets in redesigning schools to make the leaps towards 21st-century equitable and excellent learning. Partners who join this Portfolio will support teams in several rural communities to advance their high-level designs that they have begun to envision through leveraging skills in instructional design, adult learning, community engagement, short-cycle piloting, coaching, and facilitation towards meaningful redesign efforts. Partners will also be integral in designing, recruiting, and launching a second Rural Schools Design Cohort. To learn more about the first cohort, check out our website. 

Liberate Portfolio 

The Liberate Portfolio team partners with school communities to create anti-racist, liberatory, learning environments for students. The team supports school communities through 1:1 coaching and through learning communities. An example project on the team is Freedom Dreams Lab, a community for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, or AAPI individuals and teams looking to refine and pilot experiences that contribute to liberatory learning environments for students. You can learn more about the Freedom Dreams project here. 

Across all projects, partners will support schools to: 

1. Facilitate schools’ “Design Journeys” to articulate their unique community-driven purpose and vision, and new school designs in service of that vision 

2. Run pilots to learn and iterate on their new model designs 

3. Identify and implement new student experiences aligned with the school’s vision

4. Strengthen the conditions needed for innovation and enduring, transformative change

5. Codify and spread effective, innovative school models and model components 

We anticipate hiring multiple Partners of School Design Services for the above-mentioned projects. New Partners will likely work on projects within their home-based Portfolio for the first one to two years (if not more). We will explore Portfolio match and team alignment more closely and share more specifics about each opportunity in the hiring process. 

Who You Are: 

You are a facilitator, instructional designer, and coach who believes deeply that we must redesign school as we know it, to truly achieve the outcomes we know all students deserve, and to prepare young people to thrive now and into the future. You are relationship-driven in your work and energized by coaching others to achieve excellent outcomes for students. You are able to build relationships quickly and thoughtfully and recognize the importance of elevating a whole community’s voice in the redesign process. You are excited about partnering with school and community stakeholders to bring ambitious new school designs to life. 

In this role, you will get to: 

• Coach: Advance the school team’s conditions for change, and build capacity in others to bring new school designs to life 

• Create Content: Develop the teams’ capacity to design and build school schedules, curriculum, instructional practices, PD, etc., in alignment with their school blueprints, research, and best practice

• Facilitate rigorous research and development (R&D): Help teams pilot their innovations throughout the year: from setting up effective pilot structures, implementing pilots, and summarizing their learning to inform their overall design and next steps 

• Lead Strategic Implementation of New School Designs: Guide and support schools in building and adapting the school elements needed to bring their designs to life 

And in doing so, leverage your: 

• Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating innovative school models that generate unprecedented results for all students

• Strong and demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. You design, coach, and facilitate with an equity lens 

• Skillful relationship building and communication skills, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including school partners, teammates, funders, research partners, etc.

• Stewardship of healthy team culture, and eagerness to share and learn from your teammates 

• Eagerness to live into Transcend’s core values and support others to do the same

• Significant experience leading in schools, preferably with experience working as a former school Principal, and with direct experience with design, innovation, 21st-century skills, change management, and/or “next generation” school models 

• Entrepreneurial hunger to build, learn, and lead in a lean and at times ambiguous context

Perks and Benefits: 

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our purposeful work and to one another. 

Join Us! 

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team, and we encourage candidates from historically underrepresented groups to apply.

Partner, Strategic Advising at Bellwether Education Partners

Flexible, United States | Full time

Our Why

Bellwether Education Partners is a national nonprofit focused on dramatically changing education and life outcomes for systemically marginalized young people and their communities. We do this by accelerating the impact of education leaders and organizations, informing and influencing policy and program design, and sharing what we learn. Bellwether is 12 years old. Our programmatic work is organized in two teams: Strategic Advising and Policy & Evaluation.

What we do

Our Strategic Advising team supports education organizations — districts, states, charters, non-profits, and foundations — to develop ambitious plans to increase their impact and solve their most critical strategic challenges. We develop highly actionable plans in partnership with the leadership teams who own and implement the plans.

What you’ll do

We are seeking a Partner, Strategic Advising, who will bring organizational leadership, strategic acumen, and an analytical mindset to guide executive teams in building compelling, actionable strategic plans that accelerate equity and excellence in the U.S. education system. In addition to day-to-day management of Strategic Advising projects and teams, the Partner serves as a member of a strong leadership team and brings a “business owner” mindset to the organization, and supports Bellwether’s growth and functioning. Our work is national in scope, so our flexible working style allows our professionals to work where they have built their lives, which means Bellwether can hire the best person for each role, regardless of geography. Post-COVID-19 restrictions, approximately 25-30% travel may be required.

Your Key Responsibilities - the “What”

Partners bring a nuanced understanding of relevant issues in education, a keen strategic lens, a strong network in the field of education, and an entrepreneurial spirit. This content expertise coupled with entrepreneurialism is particularly important given that Partners have accountability over time for business development and the success of the firm in terms of advancing equity and excellence, and financial sustainability of the organization. Your role will include the following key responsibilities: Responsibilities

How to Apply

Alma Advisory Group is honored to be supporting the search for this position. Please submit your resume and cover letter online at:

https://apply.workable.com/almaadvisorygroup/j/70ABC57106/  

Transcend Education

PARTNER, SCHOOL DESIGN SERVICES

Start Date: Immediate

Role Type: Full time

Title: Partner, School Design Services

Location/ Travel: Flexible; willingness to travel approximately twice monthly for coaching and supporting schools (~1-3 days/trip). ~30-35% Travel. 

Who We Are:

Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Founded in 2015, Transcend has partnered with over 200 schools and 50 systems which collectively serve nearly 500,000 students in 30 states across the country. As a research and development (R&D) hub for the education field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. Transcend is a nonprofit that operates with a fully remote, nationwide team. 

For more information, visit our website; follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter; or check out this recent podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted. 

The Opportunity:  

In increasingly large numbers, communities across the nation are recognizing the limitations and profound inequities of the 100+ year-old, one-size-fits-all industrial design of school. The compounding crises of the past year have revealed the need for reinvention toward extraordinary, equitable learning environments that enable all young people to thrive. In part as a result of this momentum, Transcend is partnering with more communities than ever to support their work to redesign school.

The Partner, School Design Services role will guide school design teams, in partnership with their learning communities, to design, build, and spread innovative school models. Specifically, Partners on our School Design Services team coach and support school design teams to:

1. Reimagine and create new school model designs grounded in their unique community’s context and aspirations.

2. Build the conditions for innovation in their school communities (including the capacity to do ongoing, practical R&D in their context).

3. Create the networks and partnerships schools need for their innovation efforts to take root and thrive.

Working in teams, Partners use various methods to achieve these aims, including facilitation of in-person and virtual workshops, 1:1 coaching (virtual and in-person), hands on instructional and new model design work, resource creation and sharing, and forging connections to support the work. Below are snapshots of three projects we are working on today; and we are hiring Partners for each of them. 

We Are Current Hiring for the Following Projects: 

Whole Child: Model Design + Spread

The Whole Child work is rooted in the understanding that children’s academic success is inextricably linked to their overall well-being, and in the belief that we can—and must—attend to the development of the whole child while also achieving excellence in academics. Listen to project lead, Sarah, on her work at Transcend! 

Rural Schools Collaborative

The Rural Schools Collaborative is an exciting opportunity to work with historically underserved districts in rural communities. Through this 9 month experience, we aspire to provide deep and transformative learning experiences, design support, coaching, research-driven tools, and inspiration to 8-12 rural communities embarking on school design journeys. Listen to project lead, Taina, share more about her work! 

Partners will support schools to:

1. Facilitate schools’ “Design Journeys” to articulate their unique community-driven purpose and vision, and new school designs in service of that vision

2. Support schools to craft new school blueprints that articulate their new model designs

3. Run pilots to learn and iterate on their new model designs/ blueprints

4. Identify and implement new student experiences aligned with the schools’ vision

5. Strengthen the conditions needed for innovation and enduring, transformative change

6. Codify and spread effective, innovative school models and model components

Who You Are:

You are a former or current school leader, master facilitator, instructional designer, and coach who believes deeply that we must redesign school as we know it, to truly achieve the outcomes we know all students deserve, and to prepare all young people to thrive now and into the future. You are relationship-driven in your work and energized by coaching others to achieve excellent outcomes for students. You are able to build relationships quickly and thoughtfully and recognize the importance of elevating a whole community’s voice in the redesign process. You are excited about partnering with school and community stakeholders to bring ambitious new school designs to life. 

In this role, you will get to: 

• Coach: Advance the school team’s conditions for change, and build capacity in others to bring new school designs to life

• Create Content: Develop the teams’ capacity to design and build school schedules, curriculum, instructional practices, PD, etc., in alignment with their school blueprints, research, and best practice 

• Facilitate rigorous research and development (R&D): Help teams pilot their innovations throughout the year: from setting up effective pilot structures, implementing pilots, and summarizing their learning to inform their overall design and next steps 

• Lead Strategic Implementation of New School Designs: Guide and support schools in building and adapting the school elements needed to bring their designs to life 

And in doing so, leverage your: 

• Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating innovative school models that generate unprecedented results for all students

• Strong and demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion. You design, coach, and facilitate with an equity lens

• Skillful relationship building and communication skills, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including school partners, teammates, funders, research partners, etc

• Stewardship of a healthy team culture, and eagerness to share and learn from your teammates

• Eagerness to live into Transcend’s core values and support others to do the same 

• Significant experience leading in schools, preferably with direct experience with design, innovation, 21st century skills, change management and/or “next generation” school models 

• Entrepreneurial hunger to build, learn, and lead in a lean and at times ambiguous context

Perks and Benefits: 

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our purposeful work and to one another.

Join Us!

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team, and we encourage candidates from historically under-represented groups to apply.

Apply Here

Partner, Network Learning and Development

Start Date: Immediate 

Role Type: Full time

Location: Flexible -- Fully remote/virtual team

Travel: Willingness to travel up to 25-30%, assuming safe to do so

Who We Are:

Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Founded in 2015, Transcend has partnered with over 200 schools and 50 systems which collectively serve nearly 500,000 students in 30 states across the country. As a research and development (R&D) hub for the education field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models, resources, and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. Transcend is a nonprofit that operates with a fully remote, nationwide team. 

For more information, visit our website; follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter; or check out this recent podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted. 

The Opportunity:  

The Partner, Network Learning and Development has a unique opportunity to help Transcend create systemic change that’s required for all communities to be able to pursue the creation of extraordinary, equitable learning environments. In this role, you will design, plan, orchestrate, and at times, directly facilitate powerful adult learning experiences with and for ecosystem leaders. These include funders, system leaders (district superintendents, charter leaders, and their leadership teams), policy influencers, and leaders of other influential organizations. The learning experiences you create will elevate insights, voices, perspectives, and practical resources from Transcend’s direct work with school communities. Often, this will happen in role-alike groups where ecosystem leaders can also discuss key issues on their mind and reflect openly together. When successful, your work will meaningfully grow ecosystem leaders’ understandings, mindsets, and ultimately actions in support of equitable innovation across school communities. 

Specific responsibilities include:

• Strategize creative and engaging learning opportunities for targeted ecosystem leaders

• Craft and design experiences -- including associated materials -- that respond to the needs of participants, leverage Transcend’s current work and resources, and elevate community voice

• Plan and coordinate the execution of events, including assembling (and prepping) the right set of facilitators as well as ensuring smooth operations

• At times, directly facilitate learning experiences, where appropriate 

• Analyze and organize feedback from sessions to improve and iterate

• Collaborate closely with leaders across Transcend -- as well as other partner organizations -- on all of the above

This role will work closely with leaders of Transcend’s FIELD team -- including the heads of Development and External Communications, Partnerships, and Organizational Learning -- and also with Transcend’s co-CEOs. 

Who You Are:

First and foremost you are passionate about educational equity, and believe that working together as a sector is critical to sparking and sustaining meaningful change! You are an inspiring and clear communicator, with a knack for making meaningful connections and building lasting relationships. You are fascinated by the work of school redesign and innovation, and are endlessly curious about how we can and should “do school” better to achieve more extraordinary and equitable results. You are masterful at crafting and planning adult learning experiences that can uniquely engage a range of audiences. You are adept at using your creativity to design innovative, out-of-the-box adult learning sessions and materials that are customized to your audience, informative, and inspire others to take meaningful action. You are also deeply collaborative, both internally and externally. 

As the first hire in this brand-new role, you are a trailblazer and equally energized by collaborating with others as you are by working independently to drive a strategy that is new and at times ambiguous. 

You have strong organizational and project management skills, and enjoy seeing tasks through from idea to event to iteration. You have a roll-up-the-sleeves, get-it-done type attitude and put your all into everything from planning guest lists, to designing sessions, to prepping facilitators, to even facilitating yourself!  You are nimble and believe that the learning doesn’t end when the “curtain closes” but instead understand that each experience is an opportunity to iterate and adapt. You are adept at collecting feedback, making meaning of it, and continuously learning and building better.  

You have a track record of creating powerful learning experiences for senior leaders. Ideally, you also have some experience with a range of organizations in the field of k-12, and you are comfortable engaging at a variety of levels and in a variety of methods.

Lastly, you love that your everyday work is in service to a mission that matters. You believe deeply in the power of education to change lives and elevate voices that have been marginalized for too long, and you can’t wait to contribute your talents and passion to this work. 

To all of this, you bring: 

• A commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating extraordinary and equitable learning environments

• A commitment to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion in your approach to partnerships development

• Experience in designing  transformative professional learning for small and large groups of educators, including senior leaders in the field

• Ability to manage multiple projects that move quickly; multitasking and prioritizing effectively.

• Hunger for feedback and growth based on a personal commitment to excellence and constant learning – thriving on feedback from multiple sources, and fast-cycle iteration to arrive at the best possible product.

• Ability to effectively build and nurture strong relationships and communications with a diverse range of stakeholders and at all levels of the organization, including Transcend teammates, independent contractors, partners, and other folks in the field.

• A willingness to travel up to 25-30% of the time to represent Transcend at events and visit partners when it is safe to do so

• Eagerness to embrace and live into Transcend’s core values

Perks and Benefits

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun(!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our work and each other. We are open to a range of experience profiles for this role. Early in our process, we will ensure that the salary band for the role based on your experience level and location is aligned with your expectations. 

Join Us!

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team that values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we encourage candidates from historically underrepresented groups to apply.

Apply Here

Transcend Education

PARTNER, MODEL DESIGN AND SPREAD

Start Date: Immediate

Role Type: Full time

Location: Flexible in US; fully remote team

Travel: 40%: estimated ~2-3x monthly, for 2-3 days at a time

Who We Are:

Transcend  is a non profit organization that works in partnership with over 200 schools and 50 systems which collectively serve nearly 500,000 students in 30 states across the country. Founded in 2015, Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. As an R&D hub for the field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. 

For more information, visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter; or check out this recent podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted. 

The Opportunity:  

Over our six years of supporting school communities to create extraordinary equitable learning environments, we’ve found that school communities find incredible value in being able to access an innovative school model that has already proven successful elsewhere (e.g., the Whole Child Model, Success Bound, New Tech) and adopt/adapt it into their own working school design. This can save valuable time, provide deeper insight into what really works, and avoid known pitfalls that schools find when they start from scratch. 

Although schools that have found success with their models are often willing and want to share and spread their models, it can be an additional challenge they face, and, the available supply of innovative models with strong implementation supports (quick-start guides, adaptable PD sessions, cohort or 1:1 coaching, etc.) and evidence of impact is still relatively low. This scarcity creates an environment where the majority of schools are still trying to create their own models from scratch instead of the easier and more efficient method of adopting/adapting from proven models.   

To alleviate these issues, Transcend works to address the challenges originating schools/models face in advancing and codifying their designs and helps make their supports accessible to others wanting to implement change in their own schools.

Some examples of these types of partnerships include:

• Partnering with Van Ness Elementary in DC to advance its Whole Child Model, codify its supports, and run multiple cohorts of a Whole Child Collaborative sharing approach, including expanding support to schools in TN and TX. See this case study for more details.

• Partnering with Valor Collegiate Academies in Nashville to advance its innovative socio-emotional learning (SEL) Compass model, codify its supports, and design and continuously improve a Compass Camp sharing program that is currently running its 5th cohort for schools around the country.

• Supporting Gradient Learning to codify the instructional look-fors and school-wide conditions that support the Summit Learning model, feeding into many of the implementation supports that they provide to hundreds of schools around the country.

Codifying and scaling innovative models is a major need in the field, and both existing model sharers and prospective model sharers want more support than we can currently provide.

In this role, you will get to: 

• Help transform promising designs into  shareable models

  • Explore ‘why share’ with the school partner (or other source of promising design), iterating toward a ‘case for sharing’ that the school community is aligned around.

  • Explore ‘what to share’ with the school partner, iterating toward a model design (including codified supports) that has promising evidence of impact and can potentially be transferred to other contexts.

  • Explore ‘how to share’ with the school partner, iterating toward a model sharing strategy that can be piloted, continuously improved, and scaled over time.

• Help improve and broaden existing model sharing efforts

  • Help the existing model sharer identify opportunities to improve the quality and/or scale of its sharing efforts.

  • Help the existing model sharer act on those opportunities by strengthening the model, improving the model sharing approach, and accessing new network connections,financial resources, support tools, etc..

  • Help the existing model sharer build its evidence base of impact over time, as one way of unlocking additional access to demand, funding, and continuous improvement.

To learn more about this role, listen to Ross Lipstein share more about the work here. 

Who You Are:

You are one part educator and one part organizational strategist. You understand the realities of being in schools and can deeply empathize both with leaders who want to share an innovative model and with those who want to adopt/adapt an innovative model. You know what supports are most useful in making a new model successful in a school, and you feel committed to making sure that teachers and administrators are as well-supported as possible when taking on a change in their school.

You love collaborating to develop and improve strategies for sharing a model once it’s codified. You like exploring what can be learned from existing organizations/approaches in a given sector, and you don’t shy away from hard conversations about where a team needs to grow. You are comfortable building out staffing models and budgets and growth plans. You operate with humility and in constant iteration. You have a deep understanding of what good organizational and management consultation looks like, and you go about it in ways that value practitioner voice, interrupt patterns of oppression or inequity, and meet educators where they are.

You believe deeply in the power of education to change lives, and you can’t wait to work towards increasing the supply of innovative models so that more schools around the country are able to adopt and adapt models that give their students access to equitable and extraordinary learning.

In this role, you will get to contribute your: 

• Knowledge and experience with K-12 schools or other learning environments, including understanding and empathy for school leaders, educators, and students.

• Your ability to guide an initiative or organization to set strategic direction and make intentional and effective decisions toward that direction (e.g., you have experience supporting model codification and sharing, in management consulting, or in a strategy leadership role, etc.).

• Critical consciousness regarding opportunities to undo dynamics of oppression/inequity for yourself and in work related to model-sharing/organizational strategy.

• Processes to learn about (e.g., via interviews, artifact review, classroom walk-throughs, etc.) and capture the design of learning experiences in K-12 education settings.

• Skills to develop staffing models, budgets, and growth plans.

• Ability to manage multiple projects that move quickly; ability to multitask and prioritize effectively.

• Hunger for feedback and growth based on a personal commitment to excellence and constant learning – thriving on feedback from multiple sources, and fast-cycle iteration to arrive at the best possible product.

• Ability to effectively build and nurture strong relationships and communications with a diverse range of stakeholders and at all levels of the organization, including Transcend teammates, independent contractors, school partners, and other members of the field.

• Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating extraordinary and equitable learning environments.

• Desire to live into Transcend’s core values, and be a supportive leader and teammate.

Perks and Benefits:

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental, and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun(!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our work and to one another.

Join Us!

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team that values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we encourage candidates from historically under-represented groups to apply.

Apply Here