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Our client is a national, education not-for-profit organization founded by teachers that 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. The organization recognizes that although teachers matter more than any other school factor in student success, the nation’s education systems are not aligned with the goal of an effective teacher in every classroom. In response, our client develops customized programs and policy interventions that enable education leaders to diagnose their teacher quality challenges and find, develop and keep great teachers.

Since its inception in 1997, the organization has recruited or trained approximately 33,000 teachers—mainly through its highly selective Teaching Fellows™ programs—benefiting an estimated 4.8 million students. It 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, our client is active in more than 25 cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York and Oakland.

Our client is currently seeking two partners to shape and lead its policy and strategy to remove state and district level barriers to ensure partner districts and states attract and retain effective teachers. These positions report to the Vice President of Policy and will work from the central office in Brooklyn, New York or from a home office anywhere in the U.S. The Partner position requires significant travel to the project sites throughout the year, which could be as much as 30-40% of the time during the busiest months of the year. These positions are available immediately.

This position offers the successful candidate the opportunity to assume a national leadership role in teacher quality reform and to have a profound impact on the direction of the organization's policy endeavors. The Partner assumes primary responsibility for implementing multiple projects according to the best practices in this business line. The Partner is the staff member who is ultimately accountable for the successful delivery of services to the district and state clients.

Specific Partner responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Overseeing the organization's State and District-level Work

   • Securing commitments from state and district leaders to partner with our client on policy reform. District commitments will include financial support for the organization, access to district data, permission to survey stakeholders and commitment to expend political capital on behalf of reforms
   • Managing high-level state and district relationships, often with superintendents
   • Leading at least 2-3 in-depth projects each year and managing teams of staff overseeing the projects. Work done by teams will include: analyzing state law and/or specific contractual language, gathering district-specific transactional data as well as survey and other qualitative data and creating data-driven reports demonstrating the impact of state law or district-level barriers to effective school staffing and providing actionable recommendations
   • Spearheading local strategies to build awareness of the barriers identified and to create political pressure for legislative and/or contractual reform. These strategies may include: identifying and engaging key community and business leaders, training and organizing parents to play a greater advocacy role and engaging local media in describing the impact of the staffing rules on the state’s or district’s schools and students
   • Advising states and districts on effective human capital strategies for hiring, developing and retaining a teaching force that can improve student achievement and close the achievement gap
   • Developing and expanding new revenue-generating offerings such as training sessions for school boards and district personnel and basic analyses of collective bargaining agreements

2. Hiring and Managing Staff

   • Managing, developing and evaluating staff who will execute deliverables for our state and district partnerships
   • Ensuring that staff are positioned for success by, among other things: establishing clear roles and responsibilities, implementing a robust orientation program, conducting performance reviews, ensuring quality of staff work, setting deadlines for staff, assigning work and regulating staff workload, and providing opportunities for appropriate, meaningful staff development

3. Working with the Business Line Management Team to Shape the Growth and Success of the Business Line

   • Providing thought leadership on education policy issues
   • Providing thought leadership on the future and direction of the business line
   • Providing leadership in creating a strong sense of possibility within team and in developing team to attain those possibilities
   • Helping to establish and reinforce team culture and values

Our client is seeking candidates who are independent and focused self-starters, believe deeply in the organization's mission, thrive in an entrepreneurial and dynamic environment, and demonstrate a record of achievement.

Successful candidates will also have:

• Significant prior experience with high-level client management, preferably experience working closely with senior state and/or district education officials
• The ability to effectively engage and motivate clients and business partners at all levels
• Excellent management skills, including experience effectively managing staff and developing talent
• Exceptional project management skills
• Excellent writing and editing skills
• Excellent analytical skills, including experience working with qualitative and quantitative data
• Excellent public presentation skills, including the ability to provide detailed, data-driven answers to questions posed in public forums
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work with a range of stakeholders including, but not limited to, state department of education leaders, district leaders, union representatives, legislators, parent groups and members of business and community organizations
• Evidence of a strong commitment to education issues and to closing the achievement gap
• Flexibility and willingness to work non-standard hours and occasional weekends
• Willingness to travel extensively

Competitive compensation commensurate with experience