Teacher Pathways Training & Curriculum Support (Part-time/Temporary Role)

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 nearly 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.

With partners across the city, the CPS Talent Office has launched the Teach Chicago Initiative, which includes the CPS Teacher Residency Program, the Teach Chicago Tomorrow Program, student teaching and field experience for pre-service teachers. Each of these is a key lever in ensuring that Chicago has the highest quality and most diverse teaching force in the nation as we continue to work toward:

• Expanding new and alternative pipelines into the teaching profession

• Building a more diverse and representative teaching force
• Improving Day One Readiness of new teachers
• Developing a supply of teachers in hard-to-staff subject areas, like special education, bilingual education, and early childhood education
• Supporting teacher recognition, leadership and retention
• Ensuring equity in students' access to high-quality teachers

This part-time/temporary position will be compensated for time worked on an hourly basis. The work schedule for this role will consist of an estimated 30 hours per week for an anticipated period of 9 months beginning September 2024 and ending May 2024. Due to the part-time/temporary nature of this work, this is not a benefit-eligible position. This role will report to the Program Manager.

The Teacher Pathways Policy Fellow will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Assess and create policies related to program application and enrollment, participant performance and partnership management across teacher pathways programs; Monitor fidelity to said policies.
• Leverage existing data and collect new data to inform policy development across teacher pathways programs and prepare presentations for internal and external stakeholders.
• Monitor short and long-term team project progress and prepare ongoing project updates to help ensure key deadlines are met and tasks are completed.
• Support the teacher residency program throughout the training site selection process, including updating and implementing program policies and procedures and conducting interviews with prospective Mentor teachers.
• Send key communication to program stakeholders on behalf of the Training and Curriculum staff related to policy updates and changes.
• Assist the training and curriculum staff with meeting and professional logistics, including scheduling, sending reminders and leading meeting production for virtual sessions/meetings.
• Build effective relationships with pre-service teachers, cooperating/mentor teachers and principals to drive effective policy roll-out and fidelity.
• Review Resident Teacher resumes for structure and content and provide feedback to Resident Teachers for needed adjustments prior to the Spring hiring season.

• Review and reorganize the Training & Curriculum file library, as needed.
• Other duties as assigned.

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Teacher Pathways Policy Fellow must exercise the following knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Excellent coordination, communication, presentation and time management skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills with a positive demeanor, growth mindset and collaborative orientation.
• Working flexibly in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment and readily adapting to change.
• Creation and manipulation of documents in Microsoft Office/Google Suite, specifically Excel/Sheets, PowerPoint, Word/Docs.
• Superior organizational skills and attention to detail.

• Collaborative, team-player attitude and the ability to build trusting relationships with a broad cross-section of program stakeholders.
• Passion for education and serving students in the CPS community.
• Awareness of and comfort with issues of diversity, specifically around race, class, and gender.

• Excellent analytical and creative problem-solving skills.

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.