ES Learning Support Teacher

Position Responsibilities

Elementary School Educator Responsibilities

1. Classroom Culture & Student Well-being

• Foster Student Belonging: Cultivate a caring, joyful, and purposeful learning community where all students feel valued, respected, and motivated.
• Promote Social-Emotional Learning: Utilize principles like Responsive Classroom to support the physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being of every student.
• Uphold School Values: Model the school's Core Values of respect, responsibility, honesty, fairness, and compassion in all interactions with students, staff, and the community.
• Implement Culturally Responsive Practices: Create a learning environment that is culturally responsive and affirming of students' identities.

2. Curriculum & Instructional Planning

• Standards-Based Planning: Use a planning framework to identify essential learning based on Common Core State Standards (CCSS), learning targets, and a culturally responsive curriculum.
• Interdisciplinary & Real-World Connections: Design curriculum that demonstrates an understanding of interdisciplinary teaching and connects learning to real-world issues.
• Collaborative Curriculum Development: Work with PLC teams and administration to develop cohesive curriculum materials, establish common goals, and participate in curriculum review and budgeting.

3. Pedagogy & Instructional Delivery

• High-Impact Instruction: Employ current, research-informed pedagogical practices and high-impact instructional strategies to deliver engaging lessons.
• Differentiated Learning Experiences: Design and implement collaborative and differentiated learning experiences that meet the diverse academic and social-emotional needs of all students.
• Flexible Grouping: Use data to flexibly group students based on their individual needs, abilities, and assets.
• Technology Integration: Integrate technology in innovative ways to enhance daily instruction and student learning.
• Responsive Interventions: Respond to learners' diverse needs, including those related to emerging multilingualism and neurodivergent profiles, by using measurable, research-informed interventions and extensions.

4. Assessment & Data-Driven Practices

• Comprehensive Assessment System: Design and use a variety of quality formative, summative, and self-guided assessments to provide students with frequent feedback.
• Monitor and Adjust: Continuously monitor student learning through standards-based assessments and data analysis to make appropriate modifications to goals and strategies.
• Communicate Progress: Use assessment data to accurately communicate student growth and achievement.

5. Collaboration & Professional Growth

• Engage in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): Actively collaborate with team members to plan curriculum, give and receive feedback, and engage in professional reflection and learning.
• Practice Co-Teaching: Engage in co-teaching practices and utilize flexible learning spaces with intention and purpose.
• Commit to Continuous Improvement: Strive for self-improvement as a lifelong learner by actively engaging in professional development and feedback cycles with coaches and principals.
• Support School-Wide Programs: Cooperate with and participate in the planning and evaluation of the overall school program as needed.

6. Community & Family Engagement

• Extend Learning Beyond the Classroom: Engage students in meaningful extracurricular activities such as coaching, clubs, field trips, or service projects.
• Build Strong Partnerships: Connect with and be available to parents and students during and outside of school hours through in-person meetings and email communication.

Role specific Responsibilities:
Strengths-Based Assessment for Data-Driven Decisions

• Identify Student Strengths and Needs: Employ a range of diagnostic tools to build a holistic profile of each learner, focusing first on their strengths and assets. This includes:
• Literacy: Assessing foundational skills aligned with the Science of Reading to identify both areas of proficiency and specific needs for growth.
• Numeracy: Evaluating mathematical skills through a conceptual framework to understand a student's reasoning strengths and conceptual gaps.
• Executive Function: Determining specific strengths and challenges in areas like working memory, planning, and self-regulation to inform support strategies.

Data-Driven Intervention & Strengths-Based Planning

• Leverage Strengths in Support Plans: Make data-based decisions to write and update Individual Education Support Plans (IESPs) that explicitly leverage student strengths, interests, and cultural assets to build confidence and drive progress toward SMART goals.
• Implement Evidence-Based Literacy Interventions: Design and deliver explicit and structured literacy interventions rooted in the Science of Reading , making instructional decisions based on student response data.
• Implement Conceptual Math Interventions: Plan and execute math support using conceptual frameworks (e.g., Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract), adapting instruction based on ongoing assessment data to build deep understanding.
• Provide Explicit Executive Function Support: Directly teach, model, and embed strategies for executive functions, using a student's areas of strength and interest to foster engagement and skill development.

Progress Monitoring for Informed Decision-Making

• Track Progress Towards Goals: Utilize precise strategies to continuously and systematically monitor student progress toward their specific literacy, numeracy, and executive function goals.
• Use Data to Guide Instruction: Maintain accurate records of interventions and student progress, analyzing this data to make timely decisions about modifying, intensifying, continuing, or discontinuing supports.

Collaborative, Strengths-Based Partnerships

• Foster Strengths-Based Communication: Collaborate with PLC members, teachers, students, and parents to co-create support plans, framing all conversations around student strengths and progress to build a positive, goal-oriented team.
• Lead Collaborative Data Analysis: Drive the data-based decision-making process within Professional Learning Communities by facilitating the analysis of student data, sharing progress, and planning responsive, evidence-based interventions.
• Partner for Inclusive Instruction: Collaborate with classroom teachers to build their capacity, embedding effective, research-based strategies into core instruction that capitalize on student strengths within the inclusive classroom.

Position Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in relevant field
• Master's Degree in relevant field preferred
• Teaching license or a degree in education
• A certification in special education preferred
• At least two years full-time teaching experience preferred
• Extensive experience working with students with a variety of learning differences
• Experience differentiating instruction and assessment based on student learning needs
• Experience tracking effectiveness of teaching strategies or interventions with the use of progress monitoring documentation
• Experience with tiered supports including but not limited to Response to Intervention (RTI) framework or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)
• Experience with a research based Social Emotional Learning curriculum
• Experience writing asset based individual education plans using learning data
• Comprehensive knowledge of current best practices in teaching early literacy and numeracy skills
• Demonstrate proficiency in implementing strategies and interventions to support the development of executive function skills.
• Extensive experience in collaborating in Professional Learning Communities to review data and share progress monitoring documentation and planning for next steps for a plan of intervention.
• Must be confident in their ability to teach any student, and have a willingness to provide intervention regardless of the significance of disability or learning need(s)
• Standards-based curriculum experience preferred
• Excellent verbal and written English language skills
• Confident technology skills for teaching and administrative tasks

Working Requirements

• Sponsoring and/or coaching after school activities are part of the responsibility of the professional educator. Therefore, faculty shall be available to coach and/or sponsor an athletic team or other extra curricular activity. Each faculty member is expected to do a minimum of one category 1 activity or sport per year.
• Mandatory attendance of school orientation, chaperone and participate in a minimum of four evening and/or weekend school activities each year, as assigned (including "Back-to-School Night").
• Attend Responsive Classroom professional learning (virtual), specified by the school, in the months prior to the official start of employment.

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