PARTNER, SCHOOL DESIGN SERVICES
Transcend
Start Date: Immediate
Role Type: Full time
Location: Flexible
Open Roles: Multiple: currently hiring to fill multiple Partner positions, for various projects
Travel: ~30-35% time. Willingness to travel approximately twice monthly for coaching and supporting schools.
Who We Are:
Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Founded in 2015, Transcend has partnered with over 200 schools and 50 systems which collectively serve nearly 500,000 students in 30 states across the country. As a research and development (R&D) hub for the education field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. Transcend is a nonprofit that operates with a fully remote, nationwide team; currently with 85 teammates and growing.
For more information, visit our website; follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter, check out this podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted, or read this recent article that illuminates the need for this work.
The Opportunity:
In increasingly large numbers, communities across the nation are recognizing the limitations and profound inequities of the 100+-year-old, one-size-fits-all industrial design of the school. The compounding crises of the past couple of years have revealed the need for reinvention toward extraordinary, equitable learning environments that enable all young people to thrive. As a result, Transcend is partnering with more and more communities to support their work to redesign schools.
The Partner, School Design Services role will guide school design teams, in partnership with their learning communities, to design, build, and spread innovative school models. Specifically, Partners on our School Design Services team coach and support school design teams to:
1. Reimagine and create new school model designs grounded in their unique community’s context and aspirations.
2. Build the conditions for innovation in their school communities (including the capacity to do ongoing, applied R&D in their context).
3. Help create the networks and partnerships schools need for their innovation efforts to take root and thrive.
Working in portfolio teams, Partners use various methods to achieve these aims, including facilitation of in-person and virtual workshops, 1:1 coaching (virtual and in-person), hands-on instructional and new model design work, resource creation and sharing, and forging connections to support the work.
Below are snapshots of projects we are working on today, and we are currently hiring Partners for each of them:
Texas Schools: Design + Implementation
Transcend is partnering with schools, across the state of Texas, to design and implement more innovative, effective, and equitable learning environments for students across the state. Many of these schools have received D or F ratings from the Texas Accountability system, and are trying to reinvent as a pathway toward significant improvement. These new model designs include blended learning, elements to promote mental health and social resilience, high dosage tutoring, and an extended school year. Project Lead, Diego, on why he does this work!
Whole Child Model Design + Spread
The Whole Child work is rooted in the understanding that children’s academic success is inextricably linked to their overall well-being, and in the belief that we can—and must—attend to the development of the whole child while also achieving excellence in academics. We are hiring for one new Coach to join this project team, and we anticipate that much of this work will take place in Texas and/or Washington, DC.. Project Lead, Sarah, on her work at Transcend!
Rural Schools Portfolio
The Rural Schools Portfolio partners with rural communities across the US as they leverage their unique assets in redesigning schools to make the leaps towards 21st-century equitable and excellent learning. Partners who join this Portfolio will support teams in several rural communities to advance their high-level designs that they have begun to envision through leveraging skills in instructional design, adult learning, community engagement, short-cycle piloting, coaching, and facilitation towards meaningful redesign efforts. Partners will also be integral in designing, recruiting, and launching a second Rural Schools Design Cohort. To learn more about the first cohort, check out our website.
Liberate Portfolio
The Liberate Portfolio team partners with school communities to create anti-racist, liberatory, learning environments for students. The team supports school communities through 1:1 coaching and through learning communities. An example project on the team is Freedom Dreams Lab, a community for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, or AAPI individuals and teams looking to refine and pilot experiences that contribute to liberatory learning environments for students. You can learn more about the Freedom Dreams project here.
Across all projects, partners will support schools to:
1. Facilitate schools’ “Design Journeys” to articulate their unique community-driven purpose and vision, and new school designs in service of that vision
2. Run pilots to learn and iterate on their new model designs
3. Identify and implement new student experiences aligned with the school’s vision
4. Strengthen the conditions needed for innovation and enduring, transformative change
5. Codify and spread effective, innovative school models and model components
We anticipate hiring multiple Partners of School Design Services for the above-mentioned projects. New Partners will likely work on projects within their home-based Portfolio for the first one to two years (if not more). We will explore Portfolio match and team alignment more closely and share more specifics about each opportunity in the hiring process.
Who You Are:
You are a facilitator, instructional designer, and coach who believes deeply that we must redesign school as we know it, to truly achieve the outcomes we know all students deserve, and to prepare young people to thrive now and into the future. You are relationship-driven in your work and energized by coaching others to achieve excellent outcomes for students. You are able to build relationships quickly and thoughtfully and recognize the importance of elevating a whole community’s voice in the redesign process. You are excited about partnering with school and community stakeholders to bring ambitious new school designs to life.
In this role, you will get to:
Coach: Advance the school team’s conditions for change, and build capacity in others to bring new school designs to life
Create Content: Develop the teams’ capacity to design and build school schedules, curriculum, instructional practices, PD, etc., in alignment with their school blueprints, research, and best practice
Facilitate rigorous research and development (R&D): Help teams pilot their innovations throughout the year: from setting up effective pilot structures, implementing pilots, and summarizing their learning to inform their overall design and next steps
Lead Strategic Implementation of New School Designs: Guide and support schools in building and adapting the school elements needed to bring their designs to life
And in doing so, leverage your:
Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating innovative school models that generate unprecedented results for all students
Strong and demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. You design, coach, and facilitate with an equity lens
Skillful relationship building and communication skills, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including school partners, teammates, funders, research partners, etc.
Stewardship of healthy team culture, and eagerness to share and learn from your teammates
Eagerness to live into Transcend’s core values and support others to do the same
Significant experience leading in schools, preferably with experience working as a former school Principal, and with direct experience with design, innovation, 21st-century skills, change management, and/or “next generation” school models
Entrepreneurial hunger to build, learn, and lead in a lean and at times ambiguous context
Perks and Benefits:
Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our purposeful work and to one another.
Join Us!
Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team, and we encourage candidates from historically underrepresented groups to apply.