Principal

Position Description

Principals are the backbone of our school communities. They are charged with driving academic achievement and building a rigorous college preparatory culture. The Principal also serves as a cultural and community leader by building staff capacity in culture, behavior, and parent engagement.

We staff Rocketship campuses with a Principal, Assistant Principals, a Business Operations Manager, and an Office Manager. Together, they lead a team of teachers, tutors, enrichment coordinators, and support staff who collectively deliver gap-closing, personalized instruction to students from pre-K to fifth grade.

Principals provide instructional leadership by regularly observing classrooms, providing continuous feedback, co-planning units of study and lesson plans, and leading data analysis cycles. They share responsibility for professional development, culture and behavior in common spaces, and special events. Rocketship principals are partners with parents and families and community leaders.

As a Principal, you will receive ongoing professional development in conducting rigorous observations, providing meaningful feedback, and strategically planning based on analysis of results. Additionally, since Rocketship is a growing network, our school leaders can access a number of career paths within our Network Support Team.

The Principal reports to the Director of Schools and has direct reports including Assistant Principals, Business Operations Manager, Office Manager and Teachers.

Our Ideal Candidate

Understands that eliminating the achievement gap is hard, but deeply rewarding work

Believes that adult preparation is essential to student success

Has a track record as an instructional school leader of leading a group of adults to achieve excellent student outcomes

Possesses elementary content expertise and is eager to use that knowledge to develop assistant principals and teachers’ instructional and leadership skills

Has experienced success managing and coaching adults

Values parents as partners in ensuring student achievement

Essential Functions: The essential functions of this position include, but are not limited to the following:

• Developing Effective Educators
• Our Principals’ primary focus is around making sure all students receive an excellent education and that our teachers are prepared to deliver on this goal.
• Foster a rigorous and college preparatory culture of excellence in every classroom that ensures high levels of student achievement
• Work with teachers to build content expertise in humanities or STEM that is captured in units of study and daily plans
• Engage in cycles of data driven instruction and assessments to inform planning and personalize instruction to student needs
• Ensure significant progress for all Rocketeers annually through management, planning and coaching of grade level teams
• Support effective collaboration of Special Education Team, Enrichment Center Coordinators, and Operations staff so that all school staff are aligned towards common goals
• Parent Partnership
• Our families are very involved with their students’ education and, as a result, both parents and teachers own each child’s successes and challenges
• Build trusting relationships with all students and families embracing the knowledge parents have as their child’s first teacher
• Create a school community that frequently and proactively communicates with families and fully involves parents in student achievement through multiple outlets including home visits, regular community meetings, and parent/family meetings
• Rocketship Professional Culture
• Rocketship Principals are deeply committed to doing and being their best, and to growing their skills as professionals and as individuals, so our daily and annual expectations reflect that commitment.
• Exhibit a high level of honest and humble self-reflection owning good and bad outcomes.
• Effectively respond to and implement constructive feedbackCreate a healthy, high-achieving environment where staff and students feel challenged, and also fully supported and valued
• Promote and participate in collaborative opportunities across schools to share practice, problem solve, and gather feedback, including actively participating in the Rocketship principal cohort within their region
• Lead human capital activities for their school, including hiring, promotion, staffing, and termination decisions

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience teaching in an urban school classroom delivering significant achievement gains
• 3+ years of experience as a Principal (or equivalent) or a similar administrative position at an urban elementary school serving a diverse student population with a track record of realizing significant achievement gains
• Experience managing, coaching and developing teachers
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate staff and families
• Personal drive for high expectations
• Results-oriented, using data to make decisions
• Adaptable and able to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
• Experience with instruction of multilingual learners
• Experience in building and maintaining outstanding school culture
• Excellent time management and organizational skills
• Commitment to parent partnership
• Strong verbal and written communication skills

Education Requirements

• BA from an accredited university
• Valid teaching credential in CA or ability to transfer credentialing to CA (Note that the Teaching credential must have English as a Second Language endorsement)