Job Title
Chief Schools Officer

District Name
THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PHILADELPHIA

Job Description Reporting directly to the Superintendent, the Chief Schools Officer (CSO) is the member of The School District of Philadelphia’s executive leadership team who leads the vision to ensure the long-term success of the more than 210 schools in the District.  The CSO directs school-level initiatives through the District’s new school network model which includes: Neighborhood Networks, an Innovation Network, a Turnaround Network (turnaround schools), an Opportunity Network (alternative education settings) and an Autonomy Network.  The CSO is responsible for developing and implementing the strategic plan to for the network model with the primary focus of transforming the educational outcomes of students across all networks. The CSO manages resources, directs programs and facilitates flexibilities for each network based on their differentiated needs.  Additionally, the CSO manages and develops the leaders of the networks, Assistant Superintendents. The CSO must support, guide and supervise the 10-14 Assistant Superintendents to ensure that their principals are growing and developing as instructional leaders across all District schools.  The CSO represents the school and school network perspectives at the executive leadership team level and is the primary strategist in the development of programs to serve different school types. The ability to review and analyze systems-level data to guide continuous improvement of schools is an important function of this job.

Essential Functions

• Serve as a key member of the School District of Philadelphia’s executive leadership team, acting as a thought leader and spokesperson on behalf of the District’s schools.
• Creates collaborative and open communication channels between the central office, Assistant Superintendents and Principals, driving alignment of strategic vision, a shared understanding of challenges at the school and school network levels, and identification of opportunities for improved student achievement.
• Participates in ongoing senior leadership meetings, representing the voice of Assistant Superintendents, Principals and schools in SDP decision-making.
• Directly manages, supervises and evaluates 10-14 Assistant Superintendents, ensuring that these Assistant Superintendents effectively manage, coach and mentor school leaders in ways that drive significant student achievement gains.
• Helps Assistant Superintendents in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of their leadership, ensuring strategies are principal-focused and aligned with the district’s strategy to grow principals’ skills.
• Contributes to the implementation of effective frameworks and methods for evaluating Principals
• Creates and implements, in partnership with the Office of Talent, the strategic professional development plan for the District’s principals and Assistant Superintendents.
• Supports Assistant Superintendents to ensure school leaders carry out high-quality implementation of each school’s educational design, including school culture, standards, assessments, and instructional guidelines.
• Supports Assistant Superintendents in creating coherence in positive school culture and routines across school sites and school networks.
• Facilitates and promotes opportunities for collaboration among Assistant Superintendents and school networks.
• Assists Assistant Superintendents in developing annual strategic goals as well as plans to meet those goals, and works with the SDP executive team to evaluate outcomes.
• Provides leadership in the areas of school improvement planning, principal professional development and evaluation.
• Partners with the Chief Talent Officer to provide support to Assistant Superintendents in recruiting, identifying, and promoting excellent Principals.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Demonstrated knowledge of:

• Urban education and driving improvement in student achievement.
• Using quantitative and qualitative information in an instructional setting to drive decision-making and evaluation.
• Using systems level information to review, create and monitor school improvement programs and strategies
• Strong strategic planning, executive leadership and organizational skills.

Demonstrated ability to:

• Coach and manage others to drive student achievement gains.
• Work collaboratively to build consensus while also delivering exceptional results.
• Inspire, manage and collaborate with a wide variety of stakeholders at all levels.
• Collaborate and build relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Be flexible, resilient and adaptable to changing priorities.
• Commit to high performance standards and maintain an unwavering belief that all students can excel.
• Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.

Minimum Requirements

• Master’s degree in education, administration, business or a related field from an accredited college or university.
• Ten years of full-time, paid, professional, significant managerial experience, with a track record of effective school leadership preferred with proven success managing and coaching large teams of professionals to ambitious goals.
  

Certificates/Licenses

• Valid Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Superintendent’s Letter of Eligibility.

Selection Process
Interviews may be conducted to determine how well a candidate meets the established criteria.  Note that not all qualified candidates may be selected for an interview. The selected candidate must have no anecdotal record on file and have not been subject to any disciplinary action within the past eighteen (18) months, and have an excellent record of attendance and punctuality during the last three (3) years (defined as no more than eighteen (18) occasions of lateness or absence for personal illness in the last three years (3) years with the exception of one extended long-term absence).

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.

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