Lead Literacy Content Specialist 

Job Number:

240002WM 

Posting Date

: Jul 15, 2024, 1:17:45 AM

Primary Location

: Central-501 West 35th Street (Literacy)

Position Type: Non-Union Position

Overtime Status

: Exempt

JOB DESCRIPTION ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is one of the largest school districts in the United States, serving over 320,000 students in 600+ schools and employing approximately 40,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity. Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The CPS Department of Literacy is committed to increasing equity of literacy outcomes across the district and ensuring that advanced literacy skills serve as a gateway to opportunity for all CPS students. Through the CPS PK-12 Vision for Advanced Literacy, the department sets clear expectations for what literacy learning should look like in our district and outlines the district-wide shifts and key practices we promote and support through universal and differentiated professional learning to ensure students have equitable opportunities to develop advanced literacy skills. Our departmental efforts are aligned with the CPS Instructional Core Vision and the Office of Teaching and Learning strategic priorities.

Job Summary: 

The primary objective for the Lead Literacy Content Specialist will be to work to enact the CPS PreK-12 Vision for Advanced Literacy through leadership on the Department’s responsive and differentiated professional learning strategy. The Lead Literacy Content Specialist will ensure that the support provided by the Department of Literacy improves the student experience with respect to the CPS Literacy Key Practices and the CPS Instructional Core Vision, and ultimately impacts equity of literacy outcomes across the district.

The Lead Literacy Content Specialist will report to the Literacy Manager and will collaborate closely with other Content and/or Program Support Specialists to ensure a coherent vision for PreK-12 Literacy teaching and learning with associated professional learning supports is scaled throughout CPS.

The Lead Literacy Content Specialist will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Contribute to strategic planning around district-wide professional learning initiatives and the Department’s responsive and differentiated professional learning strategy
• Lead development and execution of the Skyline Year 2+ Professional Learning (PL) Model for Literacy Grades K-12
• Develop methods to identify ongoing implementation support needs for Skyline Year 2+ adopting teachers
• Develop and refine responsive and role-specific scopes and sequences of learning for teachers at various levels of experience with Skyline implementation
• Review and provide feedback to teammates on professional learning proposals to ensure both the PL plans and content are responsive to teacher needs and aligned with Department and Office expectations
• Collaborate internally and externally with professional learning partners and other CPS teams to ensure alignment with department and district expectations for content development and delivery
• Coordinate logistics for implementation of Year 2+ sprints (e.g., supporting the team in identifying teacher implementation needs, building out the annual PL calendar, establishing data collection methods/expectations)
• Co-facilitate professional learning
• Expand Department of Literacy methods for measuring the impact of professional learning, including the development of methods to capture the following:
• Measuring knowledge gained as a result of PL
• Measuring changes in teacher behavior as a result of PL
• Measuring leading indicators of impact on student experience
• Design and lead the rollout of a Literacy PL implementation research plan to establish uniform procedures and impact tracking across Literacy PL initiatives
• Facilitate meetings with Department of Literacy colleagues completing related work to support the implementation of new processes/procedures, ensure alignment with office expectations, and identify priority areas for continuous improvement
• Regularly analyze data on PL access, evaluations, and teacher feedback across grade levels to identify trends, measure impact, and guide continuous improvement; share synthesized feedback with the Department leadership team to inform collaborative, strategic decision-making surrounding the PL plan, such as:
• Utilizing a range of professional development (PD) models to achieve greater impact at scale
• Committing to flexible, responsive, and hybrid models for professional learning to meet the needs of diverse schools
• Packaging PD modules to support implementation through a variety of structures (e.g., network roll-out, Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) meetings, course team meetings)
• Utilizing technology and distance learning techniques to maximize accessibility of professional learning across our vast district

In addition to the duties described above, this role will also be accountable for the following responsibilities in collaboration with the department’s Literacy Content Specialists:

• Design and facilitate professional learning for a variety of internal and external stakeholders that deepens their understanding of the CPS Instructional Core and content-specific practices to support it
• Ensure professional learning for Instructional Support Leaders (ISLs), school leaders, central office instructional leaders, external partners, and other educators successfully achieves the following:
• Leads educators in developing, implementing, and refining network-specific professional learning plans that ensure district-wide learning is prioritized and supported within each network
• Builds their capacity to support school leaders and teacher leaders with content-specific learning
• Prepares them to lead school-based learning through coaching, team meetings, workshops, etc.
• Ensure professional learning for Teacher Leaders successfully achieves the following:
• Supports them in effectively contributing to their schools’ Instructional Leadership Teams
• Builds their capacity to lead their colleagues in content-specific learning and reflection grounded in student learning
• Design and facilitate professional learning for adopters of Skyline, the CPS universally available curriculum, including:
• Foundational Skyline learning to support educators in understanding the philosophy, design principles, components, and systems embedded within the curriculum
• Unit-specific launch sessions to prepare teachers to successfully implement each unit of instruction
• Unit-specific PLC materials to engage teachers in reflection and collaborative problem-solving around Skyline implementation
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of Skyline through the completion of tasks such as:
• Evaluating professional learning outcome data to inform future professional learning needs
• Identifying, documenting, and offering solutions around barriers to successful implementation through common progress monitoring systems
• Participating in centralized feedback structures to inform curriculum revision
• Contribute to content-specific guidance, resources, and policy to ensure a consistent instructional vision is promoted within and across content areas
• Collaborate with other department Content and/or Program Support Specialists to support shared initiatives
• Maintain content area expertise by staying abreast of current research, practices, and innovation in the field
• Perform other duties as assigned

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Lead Literacy Content Specialist must possess the following qualifications: 

Education Required: 

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study from an accredited college or university, required
• Valid teaching certificate issued by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) with appropriate grade level and content level endorsement is required. (Candidates with a valid out-of-state, reciprocal license will be considered but must obtain ISBE licensure within 6 months of hire.)
• LBSI, ESL, or Bilingual Endorsement, preferred 
• Master’s degree in a relevant field of study, preferred

Experience Required: 

• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in education, including the following, is required:
• Minimum of five (5) years of classroom teaching experience, including [content area] instruction. Three (3) years of relevant teaching experience will be considered in combination with two (2) years of experience in a comparable content specialist role. 
• Minimum of three (3) years of teacher leadership experience, such as leading school teams in the development of curriculum and assessments, analyzing student performance data, etc. 
• Minimum of three (3) years working with adult learners, including creating, organizing, and facilitating professional learning experiences to meet the needs of participants.
• Minimum of two (2) years of experience in a role responsible for providing professional coaching or managing others
• Experience with program or project management, strategic planning and adult learning to shape cross-content district-wide professional learning strategy

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

• Expertise in planning, designing, facilitating, and evaluating professional learning 
• Deep knowledge of Literacy teaching and learning instructional best practices 
• Expertise in a wide range of problem-solving strategies
• Exceptional time management and organizational skills; ability to effectively manage several multifaceted work streams, projects or situations simultaneously, driving them to completion and meeting expectations
• Capable of developing strategic goals with consideration for broad impact and scalability
• Ability to introduce new concepts or strategies with the potential to significantly innovate or improve upon existing practices
• Capable of building and sustaining positive, productive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders
• Effective in leading and motivating multiple levels of personnel in executing on a shared strategy
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; comfortable collaborating and communicating across a diverse range of audiences, including network teams, principals, teachers, and support staff
• Commitment to CPS Instructional Core Vision
• Ability to build consensus and leverage expertise with educators across the district 
• Excellent technology skills (Google Suite)

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

• Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency – Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.
• Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 – Unless approved for a medical or religious exemption, all employees are required to be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, and to submit proof of vaccination to the district within 30 days of hire. “Up-to-date” on vaccination is defined as being at least two weeks past all primary vaccine doses and any applicable boosters.

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