Posted: August 23, 2010

Site Manager – Louisiana Practitioner Teacher Program
New Orleans, LA (preferred)

The New Teacher Project (TNTP) helps school districts and states fulfill the promise of public education by ensuring that all students—especially those from high-need communities—get excellent teachers. A national nonprofit organization founded by teachers, TNTP is driven by the knowledge that although great teachers are the best solution to educational inequality, the nation’s education systems do not sufficiently prioritize the goal of effective teachers for all. In response, TNTP develops customized programs and policy interventions that enable education leaders to find, develop and keep great teachers and achieve reforms that promote effective teaching in every classroom. Since its inception in 1997, TNTP has recruited or trained approximately 37,000 teachers—mainly through its highly selective Teaching Fellows™ programs—benefiting an estimated 5.9 million students. TNTP has also released a series of acclaimed studies of the policies and practices that affect the quality of the nation’s teacher workforce, most recently including The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness (2009). Today TNTP is active in more than 40 cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York, and Oakland, among others. For more information, please visit www.tntp.org.

We are currently seeking a Site Manager to lead an initiative to professionally develop and certify high quality teachers in classrooms across the state of Louisiana. The Site Manager will be a TNTP employee based in the New Orleans or Baton Rouge area. The Site Manager must commit to reporting to the New Orleans program office at a minimum of 3 days a week; and will need to travel to the other program sites throughout Louisiana (current sites include Shreveport, Baton Rouge, the Northeast Louisiana Delta, and the Greater New Orleans area). This position requires up to 25% travel and is available immediately.

The Program

In 2001, at the request of the Louisiana Department of Education, The New Teacher Project launched the Louisiana Practitioner Teacher Program (LPTP) as the first non-university certification provider in Louisiana. The goal of the program is to provide rigorous, relevant training to new teachers that maximizes their impact on student achievement in high-need schools. The program, now in its tenth year of operation, has been extremely successful, certifying over 1000 new teachers in 10 districts in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and the New Orleans areas, including RSD and New Orleans charter schools.

Participants are recruited and selected by program partners – the Louisiana Teaching Fellows, Teach For America, and Teach Baton Rouge, and teachNOLA. Following a rigorous summer training institute, they teach full-time with a Practitioner License while participating in LPTP’s Teaching for Results certification seminar series.

The seminars prepare new teachers to raise student achievement by helping them become effective at understanding the content their students must master, delivering focused instruction, and using assessment tools and data to set goals, inform instruction and gauge student progress so all students meet or exceed grade-level standards.

According to an ongoing state-sponsored study of teacher preparation providers, teachers who went through LPTP were found to be more effective than experienced teachers at raising student achievement in the areas of math and reading. More information on this study is available on the Louisiana Board of Regents website. http://www.regents.state.la.us/Academic/TE/Value%20Added.htm

For more information about LPTP, go to http://www.lptp.org.
Role and Responsibilities

The Site Manager is responsible for ensuring the successful execution of the program. Specifically, the Site Manager will be responsible for the following:

• Ensuring that LPTP meets programmatic goals around teacher effectiveness, instructor quality, and client satisfaction
• Creating management tools to monitor operations and track progress towards goals
• Ensuring clear messaging to participants and other stakeholders by creating ongoing communication structures
• Managing, developing and evaluating LPTP staff members including Training and Instruction Managers and Operations Managers
• Conducting observations of seminars and reviewing both Seminar Leader- and participant-created materials to monitor overall program quality
• Overseeing the process for recommending candidates for state credentialing
• Traveling at least once a month to rural LPTP sites (Shreveport and the Northeast Louisiana Delta) to ensure quality program implementation
• Engaging with program partners (current partners include Louisiana Teaching Fellows, Teach For America, and Teach Baton Rouge, and teachNOLA) to develop and implement practices for ensuring program quality
• Building effective relationships with district staff, charter school leaders, school administrators, and other key stakeholders
• Pursuing opportunities to expand impact across the State by conducting outreach to potential partner districts and organizations
• Managing state relationships and requirements to ensure that LPTP remains in good standing as a state-approved credentialing program
• Serving as a member of the State Research Team
• Assisting in the design of district specific Assessments of Classroom Effectiveness as a means to determine teacher quality
• Working with the Louisiana Department of Education and local districts to ensure access to student outcome data in preparation for the implementation of the Assessment of Classroom Effectiveness (in the 2011-2012 school year)
• Working with TNTP’s Teacher Effectiveness central team to assess participants’ Assessments of Classroom Effectiveness.
• Reviewing and sharing best practices with The New Teacher Project staff who run PTPs in other states
• Serving as a member of TNTP taskforces and workgroups to contribute to larger organizational priorities

The Site Manager reports to the Partner in the Training and Certification business line.

Qualifications

We are seeking candidates who believe deeply in our organization's mission, who thrive in an entrepreneurial and dynamic environment, and who demonstrate a record of achievement. Successful candidates will also demonstrate:

• Strong education background and instructional skill set with at least two years instructional or school leadership experience, preferably in a high-need school
• Excellent project management, planning, and implementation skills
• Superior leadership skills, including prior experience managing and developing staff
• A record of setting and achieving ambitious goals
• Excellent communication and writing skills
• Exceptional client management skills
• The ability to work independently and manage multiple responsibilities simultaneously
• Outstanding interpersonal and teamwork skills
• A commitment to producing consistently high quality, detailed work
• The ability to learn quickly and work in a fast paced environment
• The ability to identify challenges and actively work to find solutions
• Flexibility and comfort with ambiguity
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills
• Extraordinary attention to detail
• The ability to work effectively with others at all levels of an organization and to consistently display a high level of professionalism in all interactions
• Public-speaking abilities, including the ability to inspire others
• Experience with adult facilitation
• Working knowledge of Louisiana schools and Grade Level Expectations (preferred)
• Familiarity with Louisiana curriculum standards and teacher standards (preferred)
• Previous experience developing and leading teacher professional development (preferred)
• Experience working with under-performing schools (strongly preferred)
• Superior quantitative and computer skills, specifically Microsoft Office suite
• A willingness to work non-standard hours and occasional weekends, including weekday evenings weekends

Compensation

The annual salary for this position is $76,000 or commensurate with experience in a similar position. We also offer a motivated team of colleagues, a collegial atmosphere that values professional development, a comprehensive benefits plan effective on the first day of employment – including medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, flexible spending account options, generous vacation time, and a 403(b) plan with matching – as well as the opportunity to impact the direction of a growing, mission-driven company that is committed to the success of our nation’s children.

To Apply

Please submit your resume and tailored cover letter online at http://tbe.taleo.net/NA5/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=THENEWTEACHERPROJECT&cws=1&rid=644

We review applications on a rolling basis – so it is to your advantage to apply as soon as possible. We will not consider applications without a cover letter tailored to this position, which can be addressed to the Human Capital Team. The New Teacher Project is committed to fostering and capitalizing on the diversity of our organization. We are an equal opportunity employer and seek individuals of all ethnic and racial backgrounds to apply to this position. If you would like to learn more about our mission, please visit our web site at www.tntp.org.