Director, Education: Focus on Common Core State Standards

Location: San Francisco

Organization Overview:

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation (CLSFF) believes that a good education is critical to ensuring a better future for our children, our communities, our country and our world. We aim to create high-quality educational opportunities for young people, especially those in low-income communities. For over 20 years, CLSFF has been dedicated to Jewish giving. Our newer national education strategy focuses on the successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and teacher preparation. We also fund a small number of high impact education reform organizations outside of these areas of focus.

The problems we seek to address are complex and so our approach is multi-faceted. We invest in innovative new approaches, accelerating the growth and ongoing development of proven models, research to inform the field, and policy and advocacy efforts. Our lens is one of scale. As we believe that collaboration improves results, we convene our grantees and other aligned organizations through Communities of Practice to address common challenges. We strive to add value to our grantees both financially and through ongoing strategic assistance, doing so with humility and a sense of urgency.

Position Overview:

We view the Common Core State Standards (and their close cousins) as having great potential to take student learning and the teaching profession to a much higher level. Simultaneously, we recognize that teachers and school leaders need strong supports as they make this major change. Because of both beliefs, the successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) drives much of our current work. The Director will play a key role by leading the Foundation’s efforts both to develop and disseminate quality resources aligned to the CCSS for teachers/school leaders and parents, and to increase understanding of and support for CCSS among these populations. Currently, this portfolio includes Student Achievement Partners, GreatSchools, Be A Learning Hero, Expeditionary Learning, and DC Public Schools.

The Director will work closely with Foundation team members involved with our three other key CCSS initiatives: (1) supporting a set of scaling organizations that provide professional learning to teachers and school leaders; (2) cultivating a Community of Practice among organizations helping to build school and district capacity for high quality CCSS-aligned professional learning supports; and (3) working with key partners to protect CCSS politically and to increase understanding of and support for CCSS. We maximize our impact when we foster connections across our portfolio (and between our portfolio and other organizations). Team members strive to stay well-informed of the work of all of our grantees, and collaborate on various projects. We also work closely with other stakeholders and so the Director will engage with CCSS thought leaders nationally.

Responsibilities:

Building on existing work to develop a strategy to produce and distribute innovative and high quality resources to parents and teachers/school leaders, and to increase support for CCSS among both populations
Work closely with other members of the team on related CCSS implementation efforts so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. As described above, there are four streams to this work, including the work of this Director. Overlap exists and helps increase our impact. The Director needs both to lead our relationships with a set of grantees and work very collaboratively with other members of the team.
Internally, lead the building of the team’s collective knowledge about CCSS so that we can improve our support of its implementation across our various activities
Lead rigorous due diligence on potential grantees, and structure grants both to advance the goal of widespread CCSS teaching and learning and to build strong organizations
Monitor grantee progress against milestones, and provide strategic support and thought partnership to grantees
Create metrics and analyze data to track the impact of our grant making and inform our work
Represent the Foundation at meetings, conferences and other events
Develop and leverage relationships with a broad network of operators, leaders, academics, philanthropists and other partners to advance CLSFF’s goals around CCSS
Support CLSFF’s overall strategy implementation
Prepare communications and reports for CLSFF leadership

Qualifications and Skills:

Ten or more years work experience in education or relevant field
Leadership of academics or training / instruction in a large organization or of the production of instructional products preferred
Demonstrated commitment to the improvement of education and knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing public schools and education reform efforts in the U.S.
Understanding of CCSS through an instructional lens, as well as issues related to its successful implementation and defense
Insight into maximizing the distribution of materials to parents and teachers
Understanding of how to utilize philanthropy to help individual organizations meet goals and to generate broad change in education
Ability to serve as a strategic advisor to grantee organizations, including experience as an engaged board member / advisor
Policy and political savvy, including an understanding of how to use advocacy, communications and policy to advance an agenda
Strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills
Presence and communication skills necessary to represent CLSFF in broad range of contexts
Excellent initiative, project management skills, an outcomes-orientation and attention to detail while managing multiple projects
Integrity, trust and accountability
Management and operating style suited to working in a small-office setting with limited support staff, where collaboration, passion, joy and a strong outcomes-orientation are highly valued
Ability to travel at moderate levels

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages candidates of all backgrounds to apply.

How to apply

Interested candidates should submit a resume and one-page cover letter via e-mail to Eboni Dunbar (edunbar@schusterman.org) as soon as possible, but no later than August 31, 2015.