Title: Professional Learning Specialist
Department: Leadership Development
This is a full-time, 12-month, non-represented position. The salary grade is 4028, starting at $88,606, commensurate with experience and aligned to ensure internal equity with similarly situated roles.
The School District of Philadelphia is committed to becoming the fastest improving District in the country and transforming the educational opportunities it offers to our city’s more than 194,000 students. The District seeks leaders who have a passion for working with schools and communities who are committed to ensuring all students achieve. Serving a population as diverse as ours requires creativity, commitment and vision. Will you join us?
Job Summary
The School District of Philadelphia is committed to having schools staffed with great teachers and principals. Professional Learning Specialists are responsible for supporting the continuous development of teachers, principals, and support staff. Professional Learning Specialists design, align, and facilitate, professional learning opportunities for educators throughout the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Work involves formulating and implementing plans to meet the short-term and long-term needs of the District’s teaching and administrative staff. Work additionally involves determining training and personnel development needs on a learning network, school and individual level. Professional Learning Specialists are tasked with providing high-quality professional growth opportunities that will enhance educators’ leadership, cultural competency, organizational, communication, problem-solving, and outcomes-oriented skills. Their work also involves supporting the District’s curriculum, assessment, and instructional goals. Supports the District, network, and schools in delivering a seamless system of comprehensive support in alignment with the District’s Equity-based Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) Model. Works to ensure equitable services to students and expands existing support structure for delivery of all levels of MTSS implementation within schools by collaborating with school administrators, teachers, and support staff to ensure that MTSS is effectively integrated to address the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs of all students.
Essential Functions
• Designs and facilitates professional learning and development sessions and courses on a variety of topics to support the designated programmatic framework.
• Conducts professional learning and development sessions by learning network, grade band, and school type to bolster educator effectiveness and student progress.
• Research new trends in education in an effort to keep staff aligned with the Pedagogical shifts and SDP instructional practices.
• Thoughtfully creates customized professional learning modules for educators.
• Support District initiatives.
• Leads content programming, logistics, and communication for large-scale District wide professional learning programming.
• Coaches leadership teams, teacher leaders, and teachers in the implementation of professional learning.
• Develops plans for measuring the impact of professional learning; creates tools for collecting data; analyzes that data to make in-year and end of year programmatic decisions.
• Hires and develops part-time employees who support facilitation and logistics in District-wide programming.
• Partners with the Office of Academic Supports, Assistant Superintendents, network Professional Learning Specialists, and other administrators to ensure the intentional, proactive, and responsive design of professional learning opportunities.
• Leads content programming, logistics, and communication for large-scale District-wide professional learning initiatives and programming, specifically around Common Planning Time and equity-centered leadership development.
• Develops plans for measuring the impact of professional learning initiatives and programming for both network and district-wide professional learning; creates tools for collecting data; analyzes that data to make in-year and end-of-year programmatic decisions.
• Works with external partners, including University leadership preparation programs, to design and deliver professional development sessions to support instructional leadership.
• Documents the training modules, supports, resources, and exemplars to aid in replication and sustaining future instructional and equity-centered leadership development.
QualificationsMinimum Requirements
• Master’s degree program from an accredited college or university in education, teacher leadership, administration or a related field.
• Five years of full-time, paid, professional teaching experience which have included leading and designing professional learning for adults.
Certificates/Licenses
• Possession of a valid Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Administrative certificate for K-12 or Elementary and Secondary Principal.
The candidate must ensure that all of their relevant work experience is reflected on their resume prior to the submission of their application for District employment.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Demonstrated knowledge of:
o the Pennsylvania Core Standards, National Standards, National Association for the Education of Young Children Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards.
o adult learning theories, techniques, and coaching/mentoring models.
o group processes, effective oral and written communications, adherence to deadlines and action plans, and organizational planning.
o solid teaching and learning methods, principles and practices.
o exemplary performance evaluations from rating officers.
o asynchronous learning and various on-line platforms preferred.
Demonstrated ability to:
o inform and design the scope and sequence of professional learning for educators.
o align educational and training initiatives with the District’s mission and action plan.
o analyze issues, shift priorities, and cope with ambiguity in a fast-paced
o environment.
o be open and direct without being intimidating.
o support adult learning and professional development strategies.
o plan, organize, and direct professional learning targets.
o be punctual and follow through in work related projects and responsibility.
o work collaboratively.
o communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
o establish and maintain effective working relationships.
Disclaimer
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified.
Nondiscrimination
The School District of Philadelphia provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, age, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, ancestry, national origin, disability, pregnancy, marital status, gender identity, or genetic information. Please refer to Board Policy 348 for further information regarding the District's commitment to Nondiscrimination in Employment Practices.