Assistant Principal of Instruction

Who We Are

Serving more than 3,300 scholars in seven schools across two cities; Jackson, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee, RePublic Schools is the only school network solely dedicated to reimagining public education in the South.

Part of reimagining education in the South means that we confront the historic inequities that work against our scholars and actively work to dismantle those inequities. We are doing this by intentionally creating environments that embrace, honor, and celebrate our scholars’ identities and experiences, as well as the identities and experiences of every member of our community.

We are looking for a determined Assistant Principal of Instruction at the middle school level to lock arms with our team Jackson, MS for the 2024-25 school year. Candidates must share our unwavering belief that all children can achieve at high levels and change the world. Sound like you?

What You’ll Do

Overview

At RePublic, we believe that the people in front of our scholars each day are the key determinants of their ultimate success. We believe that trajectory-changing teachers are not born - they are coached and developed by strong school-based leadership teams deeply dedicated to their success. In our schools, the Assistant Principals of Instruction are responsible for directly managing, coaching and developing talented teams of teachers across content areas to achieve extraordinary results for kids. Through their work empowering teachers to prepare for and deliver rigorous, engaging, and data-driven instruction, and build deep relationships with kids and families, the Assistant Principal of Instruction is able to move adults to lead scholars to extraordinary outcomes.

Reporting directly to the Principal in each school, the Assistant Principals of Instruction in each school work in tandem to ensure the highest levels of instructional quality, and have wide responsibility for the healthy operation of the school as a whole.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the second-in-command to the Principal and take ownership for the overall success of all scholars and teachers in the school.

• Drive student academic achievement and character development results through providing best-in-class instructional coaching to RePublic teachers that demonstrably moves teacher practice

• Serve as the key lever for teacher growth and development, and continually improve the effectiveness of teachers across the school through implementing a variety of coaching levers:

  • Observe classroom instruction daily and providing live real-time coaching to ensure teachers are able to lead scholars to academic and interpersonal excellence;

  • Engage in consistent (weekly or bi-weekly) observation-debrief cycles to provide more substantive feedback and to help teachers set and track progress towards development goals;

  • Lead teachers in curriculum planning sessions to ensure all teachers regardless of experience are capable of creating rigorous, differentiated, and engaging instructional materials aligned to course goals;

  • Lead teachers to intellectually prepare for strong lesson execution, including anticipation of student misunderstanding, pacing, and questioning designed to elicit in-the-moment data and ensure all scholars can access lesson content;

  • Lead teachers to analyze student work and study formative and summative data to ensure teachers are able to close academic gaps and ensure dramatic gains for all scholars; and

  • Plan and execute formal professional development opportunities to move teacher practice at the school level, and, depending on experience, support network-wide professional development for teachers and leaders across all RePublic schools

• Serve as a primary, lock-armed member of the school-based leadership team, responsible for designing, implementing, managing the execution of, and measuring the effectiveness of initiatives that span the realms of academics, culture, and operations

• Represent as a critical face of the school and network with external stakeholders, including families, and work actively to ensure strong community buy-in to the school’s vision and approach to education

• Serve as next in line to the school leader, and work actively to develop a broad scope of leadership skills to eventually assume a Principal position as RePublic grows as an organization

Who You Are

Our ideal Assistant Principal of Instruction will have an unwavering belief that our students can achieve at an exceptionally high level. Beyond that, a successful candidate is:

• Leading for Racial Equity - We believe that racism’s legacy in education is most entrenched in the South. We look at ourselves first, reflect, and talk about the role racism plays in our lives. We work to be constantly anti-racist in our words and actions.

  • Deeply committed to serving our kids. You have elected to work with historically underserved students, and do this work because you believe that all students, regardless of background, are capable of excellence - and that it’s on us as adults to get our kids there. You can speak knowledgeably about our mission, and demonstrate a commitment to our educational model. You understand that educational inequity is more pronounced in the South than anywhere else in the nation, and you want to work with RePublic in part because of our commitment to this region.

• Strive for Excellence - We believe achieving excellence is a challenging journey. We maintain high standards and endeavor towards excellence each day.

  • An instructional guru. You have at least 3-5 years of teaching experience with a demonstrated track record of exceptional student outcomes. You nerd out over content, long-term planning, and creating instructional materials that allow students to meet ambitious goals.

  • A data maven. You look for and are able to discern trends that drive your decision making, and you evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions based on how the data changes.

  • A masterful executor. Your organizational systems ensure you get things done. You prioritize your time and fervently plan to maximize the time each day you spend moving teacher practice. You do the things you say you’ll do, and you communicate when you won’t. You delegate when needed, set deadlines, and hold others accountable to get across important finish lines.

• Pursue Growth - We believe that we can and must get better. We constantly seek to both support each other and also improve our work.

  • A people developer. You believe that strong leaders move adult practice to impact scholar achievement, and your interest in leading others stems from your passion for seeing them productively struggle, develop, and grow as educators for kids - as evidenced by student outcomes. You thrive when others succeed, and you want to lead strong formal and constant informal professional development for diverse adult learners.

  • A growth-minded tinkerer. You are self-aware and humble enough to understand where you rock, where you need to pick up your game, and how this impacts the people you lead. You seek feedback constantly because you’re hungry to get better, and you take extreme ownership of the outcomes of the people you coach and manage - you always pull back the thumb before you point the finger.

  • Eager to one day assume the role of Principalship. At RePublic, we invest a ton in the development of our school-based leadership teams, and we expect that folks who assume the Assistant Principal of Instruction role are interested in one day leading RePublic schools as we grow.

• Become Better Together - We believe that each member of our community brings a unique and valuable perspective. We honor and celebrate these perspectives, and we know that our differences make us stronger.

  • A gritty problem-solver. You keep it cool when things are crazy, approach problems with viable solutions, and know when you need to roll up your sleeves to support your team.

  • ...and a people leader. Let’s be real - managing people is hard. Ideally, you’ve coached, directly managed, and demonstrably moved the effectiveness of other adults before taking this job. You build relationships across lines of difference, inspire and motivate others to buy into your vision, navigate challenging conversations with finesse, make tough calls, communicate effectively in all formats, give and receive feedback fluidly, and model/hold a high bar for adult excellence and exuberance.

• Create Joy - We believe that joy is the undercurrent of the work we do. We choose to see and create the joy that is within us and around us, and we actively work to spread that joy to others.

• Other qualifications:

  • A bachelor’s degree with a preference for a graduate degree in a related field.

  • At least 3-5 years of experience in K-12 instruction with a track record of impressive student achievement results required; experience serving scholars who are historically underserved strongly preferred

  • At least 2-3 years of prior experience directly coaching and managing teachers strongly preferred

  • Prior experience in high-performing charter organizations with aligned mission statements strongly preferred

  • Valid teaching certification in TN, MS, or in states with reciprocity not required, but strongly preferred.