Executive Director, MS Math Product Developer

This is a full-time position with flexibility to be located anywhere in the country, with regular regional and national travel expected. Applicants living on the west coast or in the PT/MT time zones are preferred.
 

Position Description

We are searching for an Executive Director, MS Math Product Developer to lead an ambitious effort to help 25-30 high-poverty schools achieve proficiency in math for at least 50% of students and to strengthen the students’ learning experiences and mathematics identity, with no gaps for students of color, students experiencing poverty, and multilingual learners. With math proficiency results starting in the single digits for many student groups across states, our team is piloting extraordinary efforts to help our partners achieve dramatically outsized growth in students’ math proficiency and learning experiences, year-over-year. We expect this effort will allow us to have significant immediate impact for students, develop repeatable services that can scale to many more schools and districts in the future, learn how to build deep-impact, product-specific services in a way that can translate to other products, and identify clearly how state departments of education can support conditions to enable these rates of progress for more schools. 
 

What You’ll Do

The Executive Director will lead our product/service design, research, and national thought leadership focused on system-, school- and classroom-level math strategies that center the success of students in priority groups, particularly students of color and multilingual learners, and our team’s implementation of these services. This role will guide the vision, partner recruitment and engagement, fundraising, team capacity-building and implementation strategy, research, public thought leadership, and accountability for progress to the goals of our Middle School Math Initiative. 

They lead a team that brings together our earliest stage, innovative pilots on belonging-centered instruction in mathematics, attention to multilingual learners, and curriculum-based whole class instruction and intervention systems of support for students and their teachers. This leader will guide our strategic planning to translate and scale our learnings to the entire organization and to inform and inspire the field at large, while empowering their team to learn and perform at their highest potential by embracing diversity in thinking and joy in learning new ways of doing the work. The Executive Director fosters team member growth and development, and ensures human-centered, evidence-based decision-making and implementation of Instruction Partners’ Middle School Math Initiative.

The Executive Director, MS Math Product Developer reports to the Chief Program Officer and sits on the Leadership Team of the organization. Given the cross-functional nature of the work, the ED will serve as an orgwide and Program Team leader modeling and encouraging a culture of collaboration across teams, with particular attention to effective collaboration with the CEO and leaders of our Engagement, Development, and Partnership delivery teams.

Responsibilities:

Drive Equitable Learning Outcomes for Students

• Lead our team, school system and state partners, funders and collaborative stakeholders in the field toward the achievement of our ambitious goal: 50%+ of students are proficient in math by the end of middle school with no gaps in how students identify as mathematicians across priority groups: students of color, students experiencing poverty, and multilingual learners.

Program Design Leadership and Learning

• Guide the vision and liberatory design strategy of the team’s emerging services centered on improving middle school math learning outcomes and experiences for students  through delegated leadership and collaboration with team leaders. 
• In partnership with the Senior Director of Research & Development, support the measurement and continuous improvement of the Middle School Math Initiative’s program design and implementation. 
• Provide equitable content design leadership, quality assurance, and accountability for leaders within the team with particular attention to guiding fast-paced testing and iteration of the product designs.  
• Champion productive conflict and collaborative yet divergent thinking to guide team members to generate novel ideas to solve complex problems as a team.
• Codify lessons learned from the team’s service/product pilots and collaborate with senior leaders on the Program and Partnership teams to guide translation to core service work at scale.

Partner Engagement and Fund Development

• In partnership with the Executive Director of Engagement and the Chiefs of Program and Partnership Delivery, develop and cultivate a pipeline of partner candidates to co-design and test the team’s pilot services in ways that complement vs cannibalize the partner pipelines for other organizational service lines and teams. 
• Nurture ongoing relationships with pilot partners and market influencers. 
• Nurture and strategically delegate to team leaders the cultivation of ongoing relationships with pilot partners.
• In partnership with the Senior Directors of Marketing and Communications and Development and the Chief Program Officer, sustain and renew philanthropic funds to support design, delivery, research, and thought leadership of our emerging services.
• Manage financial planning and an annual budget of up to $10M.

Team Management and Personal Development

• Manage and lead a team of senior leaders, directors, and service delivery professionals in the design, implementation, impact measurement and market testing of new high impact services for instructional leaders to drive middle school math learning experiences and outcomes. 
• Cultivate a clear and compelling vision of team success and purpose that all team members believe in and work toward.
• Hire, coach, inspire, and hold accountable individual team leaders and the team as a whole to achieve performance goals by leveraging our core values. 
• Model and contribute to a joyful and inclusive team experience for team members that encourages openness, self-reflection, collaboration and rapid learning.
• Design and intentionally engage in diverse learning opportunities to further individual and collective growth and development.
• Engage in continuous learning. Stay abreast of key research and new developments in the field that impact or are impacted by Instruction Partners’ learning priorities for middle school mathematics learning outcomes and student experience, including belonging-centered instruction and affirming relationships in math content classrooms; culturally and linguistically responsive core instruction;  tiered systems of student support within and across content areas; product and service innovation in mathematics curricula, instruction, intervention and instructional leadership; fundraising, and other relevant areas of leadership responsibility.
• Serve as a member of Instruction Partners’ leadership team and inform and guide the work of our collective programmatic work and impact.

Thought Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement:

• Champion and communicate service goals, learning, impact, and implications internally and externally.
• Collaborate with the Marketing and Communications team, Research and Development team, partners, funders, and journalists to co-author reports, articles, blog postings, videos, and other communications.
• Represent Instruction Partners in public presentations, forums, and research that advances education outcomes and business development opportunities.

1. 15+ years of professional experience in K-12 public education and/or consulting leading equity- and evidence-based program design and service improvement efforts that resulted in dramatic improvement in middle school math outcomes and student experience. System and school leadership experience preferred. 
2. Successful leadership of others through all phases of programmatic service development centering students in our priority groups, including market research, identifying key questions to solve, enthusiastically learning about new content areas and user experiences, co-creating approaches or solutions without prior models, partner recruitment, fundraising, bringing new services or products to market, and diligently applying learning to evidence-based decisions.
3. Experience working in and managing multi-layered teams of managers while building the capacity, empowering culture, and independent leadership and decision-making of team members. 
   • Ability to nimbly strategize with and coach leaders “at the balcony level” and drive practical, timely execution of project details “on the dance floor.”
   • Experience navigating the power structures within and across teams and organizations with an equity lens and knack for direct conflict resolution.
4. Demonstrated success in growing and leveraging internal and external peer and partner networks and building strong relationships across diverse stakeholders in education. 
5. Successful experience recruiting and managing sales-based service partnerships with state departments of education and school districts/charter management organizations.
6. Convincing public speaking and facilitation skills, with the ability to articulate inspiring educational visions and practical solutions.
7. Thrives making fast-paced, collaboratively informed decisions and taking decisive action in ambiguous situations. 
8. Ability to travel across the country as needed, on average 5-10 days per month, with preference for applicants who live on the west coast or in the PT/MT time zones.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Hiring

At Instruction Partners, we know that difference enhances, transforms and strengthens our ability to serve students and schools. We invite and celebrate diversity of all perspectives, and we are deeply committed to ensuring equitable access and voice throughout our organization. Instruction Partners is proudly an equal opportunity workplace, and we value the inclusion of persons who have experienced poverty and/or for whom English is not their first language, and every race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, culture, ancestry, religion, national orientation, age, marital status or Veteran status. Join us, and let's work together to support great teaching and accelerate learning for every student.
 

Compensation:

The salary for this role is $191,800. Detailed information about the organizational compensation philosophy can be found here. Competitive benefits and private retirement investment options are available, as well as a generous vacation policy. See our detailed benefits package here: 2023 Benefits in Brief Overview

Timeline: This is an immediate opening.
 

Our Vision

All students experience an excellent education that prepares them to contribute to their community, achieve economic security, and pursue their dreams.

Our Mission

We strengthen instructional leadership in schools, school systems, and states to ensure teachers have the support they need to improve learning experiences and learning outcomes for students - with attention to students of color, students experiencing poverty, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities.

Our Core Values
 

Live Big-Hearted

We care deeply about ourselves, each other, our work, our partners, and the students we serve. We value the differences each other brings to the table because we know diversity of voice, thought, and experience makes us better. We operate joyfully and without ego, collectively focused on the broader good.
 

Choose Optimism

We believe that, with the right support, every student can succeed. We have the courage to lean into challenges and believe in the possibility of overcoming obstacles while holding a high bar for ourselves, partners, educators, and students. As we advance antiracist actions, our path may not be smooth, but we will walk it anyway because we have faith that the journey will make our team and our education system better.
 

Advance Antiracism

We create and uphold space for all team members, partners, and students so they are seen, valued, and heard. We lift the voices and experiences of Black, Latinx, Native, and Asian American and Pacific Islander people. We actively look for and confront patterns and systems that cause inequitable harm in order to create more equitable outcomes within our organization and with partners. We embrace diverse expressions of excellence that make our team more inclusive and effective.

Be Honest

We are open, authentic, and truthful with ourselves, teammates, and partners. Our trust in each other and our work gives us the courage to lean into difficult conversations, put forth new ideas, and give and receive feedback through the lens of equity of voice and experience. We understand the intense and gripping nature of our work, so we name our needs to ensure we are practicing self-care and love within our beloved community.

Get Practical

We believe support should be thoughtful by meeting people, schools, and systems where they are. We leverage the voices, strengths and stories of families, educators, partners and teammates to find answers, because we know there isn’t a “one size fits all” solution to the challenges of our education system. We always look for ways to work smart, focus on the most relevant impact, and reduce friction to make it easier to take action while grounding our progress in equity.

Keep Learning

We know and love that we don’t yet have all the answers because we are nerds for learning, even when it’s hard or ambiguous. We actively pursue new knowledge, research, and evidence so that we can leverage the latest insights and best practices in our work, then we put that knowledge to work in partnership with our team, our partners, and the students and communities we serve. We respect the learning that springs from our own anti racist journeys, and vow to activate our knowledge in pursuit of equity and excellence.

How We Work

Instruction Partners is a nonprofit organization dedicated to excellent instruction for all students, with a focus on students in poverty, students with disabilities, students learning English, and students of color. We keep one foot in practicality and the other in evidence-based best practices, because we believe that leveraging high-quality, grade-level content and providing just-in-time supports will accelerate learning for all students.

Instruction Partners spends time getting to know the needs of the educators, leaders, and systems it serves, allowing the team to custom-build service plans to support partner goals. Partnerships include on-the-ground support, and partnership team members serve as thought partners to the school systems they serve, a team educators can reach out to and feel supported by.

Instruction Partners provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Instruction Partners complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.