Description

Instructional Leader Fellows (ILFs) are strong educators or early-career leaders interested in putting themselves on a trajectory towards instructional school leadership. ILFs are currently based in Philadelphia and Delaware.

We emphasize developing future instructional leaders who represent the experiences and backgrounds of the students they’ll serve; these educators often have less access to leadership pathways and, when they do pursue leadership roles, are often steered toward discipline and culture roles and away from academic leadership roles. The Jounce Fellowship aims to upend this dynamic by helping aspiring leaders of color gain hands-on instructional leadership experience and deep, content-specific coaching expertise.

ILFs are strong educators who join the Jounce team to grow into a future role as a school-based or network-based instructional leader. They may be teachers who will join the Jounce team for 2 years and then return to a school as an assistant principal (or in a comparable instructional leadership role). Or they may be formal or informal leaders (teacher coaches, mentor teachers, grade level leads, department chairs, assistant principals) who will join the Jounce team for 2 years and leave us to become a principal/school leader. They are willing to step away from a school-based role for two years to deepen their knowledge, refine their skills, and grow as a coach and leader; but ultimately, they know that they belong in school buildings with kids, families, and teachers, driving life-changing outcomes and setting a standard for what a great school can be.  

Responsibilities include planning and executing teacher development and school leadership trainings for leaders at up to 15 partner schools; coaching up to 15 teachers directly across up to 6 partner schools; and, in collaboration with the entire Jounce team, updating and refining Jounce’s teacher development and school leadership model.

Support and Training:
Instructional Leader Fellows get their most important training through being in the field each day coaching teachers. In addition, ILFs have a designated coach who will provide personalized development touch points each week, focused on instructional knowledge and coaching and leadership skills. ILFs will also participate in a weekly Jounce team training and a weekly differentiated cohort training, as well as a full summer of intensive development during each year of the program. During the Fellowship, ILFs will drive above average learning outcomes at our partner schools through their teacher coaching; after finishing the Fellowship, they will be ready to step into school-based leadership roles and drive even more student success.

Requirements

Applicants should be committed to ultimately being a school-based or network-based instructional leader.

To be strongly considered, an applicant should have excellent classroom results and some leadership experience, formal or informal (department chair, grade team lead, content team lead, mentor teacher, assistant principal, etc.).

Additional qualifications include: 

• Deep belief in the ability of all children to excel academically and the ability of schools to be the drivers of that success; extremely high expectations for student success and school performance;
• Openness to, and desire for, frequent feedback, often delivered publicly and in front of external partners;
  Intense desire to improve and grow professionally.
• Strong lesson design, unit planning, lesson execution, content knowledge, and data analysis skills as a classroom teacher;
• Current K-12 teaching certification and/or administrative certification (preferred).

Note: This is an on-site position. Reliable transportation to and from worksites throughout the day is needed, and the role may include some travel to out-of-region partner schools.