Lead Facilitator, Jewish Day School Educational Leaders Collaborative

Lead Facilitator

Gateways is seeking a lead facilitator to be the backbone of a new initiative built on the premise: teachers are scientists of learning, equipped to experiment with fidelity, observe outcomes and refine practice. Its purpose is to invert the prevailing default- in which tier-one instruction is general and specialists are pulled in when students struggle- by building general education capacity on the front end, so that classrooms are universally designed for diverse learners and specialists are freed to do the work only they can do.

This work is likely to be targeted at K-5 instruction.

The lead facilitator will be a sustained, paid professional engagement designing the learning arc with school leaders, convening the cohort, coaching between sessions, bringing in subject matter experts on specific topics, and holding schools accountable to the deliverables that distinguish this work from standard professional development. This is primarily a school-year position, 2-3 days a week, and reports to the Director of Day School Programs.

The position is grant-based with a two-year opportunity or more.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design the learning arc in collaboration with school leaders and the Slifka advisory committee. The two core topics are tier-one instructional strengthening and formative assessment; additional topics (executive function, behavioral case consultation, social-emotional and mental health capacity, admissions and enrollment boundaries) may be folded in based on cohort priorities.
• Convene the cohort of up to 20 educators (roughly two per school) across a September kickoff retreat, regular sessions through the school year (mix of in-person and virtual), and a year-end convening. Sessions starting the second half of year 1 are structured as "laboratory meetings"—the cohort co-designs a lesson, protocol, or instructional approach; cohort members implement it at their own schools;
  
  the group reconvenes to share what worked, what didn't, and how to refine.
• Coach between sessions with light-touch check-ins for cohort representatives and the school-based learning labs they convene internally. The collaborative's learning has to diffuse to educators who aren't at the table; the facilitator is the connective tissue that makes that happen.
• Curate and bring in outside expertise on specific topics as the cohort surfaces them to shed light on research, insight, and new ideas— for example, an executive function specialist, training and implementation of a multi-sensory literacy program, a clinical consultant. The facilitator is responsible for the quality of every voice in the room.
• Steward concrete deliverables. Each topic cycle produces a tangible output: a vetted shortlist of recommended K–5 math or literacy curricula, a shared framework for adapting tier-one practice for diverse learners, a cross-school formative assessment protocol.
• Jointly approve discretionary experimentation funds with each head of school. Schools can apply for funds to pilot ideas emerging from the cohort. Funds are released against specific proposals, not awarded upfront, and the facilitator and head of school jointly agree that each deployment is worth trying and aligned with the collaborative's learning arc.
• Hold schools accountable to participation criteria that determine eligibility for Year 2 continuation: minimum session attendance, contribution to deliverables, convening of a school-based learning lab, and adoption of at least one collaborative output as ratified school policy or practice.
• Co-develop the evaluation framework with schools and the advisory committee at the September kickoff, so data collection is embedded from the start. Year 1 success looks like cultural and behavioral shift in participating teachers;
  Years 2–3 look toward measurable student-level outcomes.
• Time commitment: approximately 200 hours per year, distributed across the Fall kickoff retreat (one full day, currently targeted at Fall 2026), regular cohort sessions through the school year, between-session coaching of cohort members and school-based learning labs, year-end convening, and design/curation work between sessions. The…