Lead Coach; School Instructional Support

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Posting Date:
Sep 15, 2026, 4:06:21 PM

Position Type :
Union Position

JOB DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the cornerstones of CPS’ recommitment to strengthening the district’s instructional core is investing in empowered and supported educators. CPS continues to deepen our support to ensure all schools have strong cultures of distributed leadership that include academically-focused instructional leadership teams (ILTs) made up of Teacher Leaders, teachers actively participating in Teacher Leader-led learning cycles, individualized feedback, and support to all teachers embedded within their learning cycle.

In 2022, CPS launched Teachers Lead Chicago — our strategy to define school-based leadership roles so teachers can “lead without having to leave” the classroom. Teachers Lead Chicago (TLC) is a cross-office initiative with the Talent and Teaching and Learning Offices that formalizes teacher leadership pathways. TLC, located in the Talent Office as part of the Training and Leadership Development team, operates CPS’ formal teacher career pathway for teaching staff, which includes the qualification and selection process, guidance to principals and teachers, evaluation and record keeping, marketing and recruiting, and pipeline development.

The Office of Teaching and Learning provides professional development and implementation of formal teacher leadership roles.

Role Summary:

A Lead Coach position is available at a subset of CPS schools. This teacher role has 80% release time to provide coaching and support to teacher leaders and teacher teams within the school community in support of the local instructional areas of need. The primary objective of the Lead Coach role is to build the capacity of other teacher leaders and teachers, as well as support the distributed and supportive leadership model within their school building.

Lead Coaches have expertise in classroom pedagogy, team leadership, and coaching, and they use these skills to develop teacher capacity in classroom instruction and teacher leadership skills. This school-level support will help to improve instructional practice and improve student outcomes. Lead Coaches are critical members of the school’s Instructional Leadership Team (ILT).

The Lead Coach will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

Instructional Leadership

Serve as a lead or co-leading member of the ILT, supporting the School Leader with accelerating school-wide learning

Work collaboratively with School Leaders to plan and support the school's distributed leadership strategy

Develop and implement recruitment, development, and retention plans for teacher leadership roles within the building

Advance the instructional core foundation outlined within the CIWP

Teacher Leader and Teacher Development

Lead a team (or teams) of teachers in enacting the instructional core (including, but not limited to, planning and facilitating learning cycles to content/grade-level teams, providing lesson plan feedback, analyzing data and/or student work, and leading/participating in instructional core walks)

Develop Teacher Leaders' capacity to lead adult learners and build their expertise in planning for and facilitating inquiry-based learning cycles

Provide a structured space for Teacher Leaders to plan, reflect on, and make decisions based on teacher team inquiry-based learning cycle progress and outcomes

Coaching and Support

Provide one-to-one peer instructional coaching to assigned teacher leaders that is connected to the learning of the team…