Chief Schools Officer

Chief Schools Officer

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is a district on the rise, serving over 325,000 students across 500+ schools and employing over 45,000 people, most of whom are teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.

To fulfill this mission, we developed the five-year strategic plan, Success 2029:
Together We Rise, which sets goals and outlines strategies to ensure a rigorous, joyful, and equitable experience for every student. Six core values are embedded in the plan – student-centered, whole-child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

District-run CPS schools are organized into 18 networks. The Office of Network Support provides strategic direction, leadership development, and administrative support to the schools within each network, while also delivering critical support that boosts student learning and well-being.

Under the direction of the Chief Education Officer, the Chief Schools Officer will lead the Office of Network Support for Chicago Public Schools. This position is responsible for principal quality and school performance, primarily through the direct management of CPS' 17 regional Network Chiefs, the Independent Schools Network, and the Options Schools Network. The Network Chiefs directly supervise Principals, who are responsible for leadership development and support for Principals that lead to high-quality teaching and learning in every classroom and to student achievement in their schools.

The Independent Schools Network comprises 60+ semi-autonomous schools; the Principals in these schools are also evaluated through the Office of Network Support.

The Chief Schools Officer will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Develop and effectively execute an implementation plan that advances the District's five-year vision, supports a seamless PreK-12 learning community and allows for transparent accountability towards CPS' student outcome goals
• Actively recruit, hire, support and develop Network Chiefs and an internal team of over 30 staff
• Cultivate a culture of high expectations with shared strategic goals around measurable and continuous improvement in principal quality, as well as around student academic achievement in all schools
• Create, manage and sustain effective systems that enable Network Chiefs to identify, recruit, support and develop a strong pool of highly-skilled Principal candidates for schools as well as a strong pool of Network support team members; this work includes but is not limited to:
• Monitoring performance ensuring the development and utilization of data and performance management systems that enable weekly, real-time coaching conversations with Network Chiefs, centered on continuous improvement of Principal and school quality and on the impact of Network support
• Developing leaders by leveraging transparent, fair and effective tools for assessing Principal and Network team leadership capacity;
  Developing leadership and succession plans and providing differentiated supports that result in improved performance
• Setting a learning agenda that includes a learning scope and sequence for Network Chiefs that is built on regular assessment of chief and team capacity and that results in measurable improvement of the coaching and management provided to Principals in schools
• Building and implementing systems that allow Network Chiefs to make data-informed decisions about Principal needs and to allocate resources accordingly, including the allocation of instructional supports and content experts to specific groups of Principals, based on need
• Developing and maintaining a communication system for ensuring Network Chiefs, their teams and the Principals receive actionable information in a timely and efficient way, and that peer leaders in CPS, external stakeholders, and leadership team members are well-informed of Office initiatives, successes, and struggles
• Managing team administration and operations, ensuring that all team members are held…