Job Description

School: Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) - (GVR Campus)

Job Title: DSST Public Schools: Director of Curriculum and Assessment

Category: Full-time

Classification: Administrator/School Leadership, Development/Fundraising, Operations/Business Office/Administrative

Work Year: 2010-2011

Position Overview: DSST Public Schools (DSST) seeks a Director of Curriculum and Assessment to manage the development and implementation of DSST’s core curriculum and assessment programs.  The Director holds primary responsibility for insuring consistent application and further development of these programs to drive student achievement growth in DSST Public Schools. 

DSST Public Schools Overview:  In its first five years, DSST has been recognized locally, state-wide, and nationally as a new model for high-performing urban secondary schools. 
• DSST was the top performing Denver Public School, high school and middle school, in the 2008-09 year.
• DSST has earned the highest student achievement growth of any high school in the state of Colorado over the last three years.
• 100% of DSST’s first three graduating classes were accepted to four-year colleges – the first Denver public high school to accomplish this achievement.
• DSST has been featured in Newsweek’s “Great American High Schools,” The Denver Post, and by the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and Colorado’s Lt. Governor as a national exemplar of school reform.

Working at DSST Public Schools: Professionals who work at DSST can expect:
• A Culture of High Expectations:  All of DSST’s graduates are accepted and go to four-year colleges and they are expected to become our city, state and country’s next leaders.
• Amazing Colleagues:  The DSST team is comprised of highly talented, successful, passionate educators who are committed to educating underserved students.
• A Supportive Team:  DSST supports each one of its team members both in their professional and personal lives in a highly collaborative environment.
• Professional Learning:  DSST is a learning organization which supports and challenges each staff member to learn, grow and become better educators daily.
• Professional Success:  DSST provides everyone on our team the opportunity to succeed at the highest level – inspiring and changing the lives of our students. 
• Leadership Training:  DSST has created a comprehensive leadership development program that helps train aspiring leaders in the organization.  Each director will benefit from this training.

Qualifications:  DSST seeks candidates who have a demonstrated track record of the following leadership skills and beliefs:
Required Skills and abilities
• Passionate belief in the mission of DSST Public Schools.
• An acute attention to detail and excellent organizational skills.
• The ability to see multiple projects with many moving parts through from beginning to end.
• Strong analytical and writing skills.
• A strong focus on results and the flexibility and willingness to do “whatever it takes.”
• The ability to understand, analyze and draw conclusions from data.
• Exceptional analytical, communication, influencing, and negotiating skills.
• Maturity, humility, strong work ethic, sense of humor, and “roll-up-my-sleeves” attitude.
• Solid technical skills in Microsoft office suite, database manipulation and vision to help design software to meet curriculum and assessment needs.

Curriculum:
• Oversee and improve the curriculum sequencing and program for DSST Public Schools
• Manage and improve core curriculum maps by subject and course network-wide.
• Facilitate the sharing and consistent implementation of DSST curriculum across schools
• Identify, cultivate and disseminate curriculum innovation across the network.
• Work closely with the Director of Human Capital to provide training and professional learning on how to best improve delivery of curriculum.
• Research and introduce new curriculum materials and delivery methods to the network
• Collaborate with school directors and the CEO to refine, articulate, and improve the DSST Public Schools educational model.
• Collaborate with school directors and the CEO to refine, articulate, and improve the DSST Public Schools educational model.

Assessment:
• Manage DSST Public Schools assessment program including grading policy, pre-post normed reference testing, CSAP testing, ACT testing, AP testing and benchmark assessments (both interim and performance).
• Constantly evaluating, updating and improving the quality of internally developed benchmark assessment to insure validity, assessment of the right standards, and generating aligned data with our normed-reference testing.
• Collecting, analyzing and disseminating student achievement data across the network to identify disaggregated student achievement performance by school, grade, teacher, race, income-status.
• Work with the Director of Human Capital to design training for teachers on how to effectively use assessment and data to improve student achievement.
• Work with the Director of Technology and Director of Operations to insure that technology software and infrastructure is best supporting student achievement data use and analysis for students, teachers, school leaders and the CMO.
 
Evaluation:  The Director of Curriculum and Assessment will be evaluated based upon metrics around student achievement growth, implementation and dissemination of curriculum and data across schools, the fostering of innovation across the network. 

Experience Required:  Director of Curriculum and Assessment candidates should have demonstrated competency in curriculum development and management, an understanding of curriculum across all content areas, using data to drive student achievement, analyzing data to determine efficacy, overseeing implementation of curriculum in multiple classrooms and 3+ years of teaching experience.

Compensation:  DSST Public Schools offers a very competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, and a commitment to continuing professional learning.

To Apply:  Please apply online at http://www.scienceandtech.org/jobs/jobs-overview.php.
 
The DSST Public Schools proudly values diversity and is an equal opportunity employer. 

Date Posted: 2010-01-06

Closing Date: 2010-04-06