Assistant Principal of Innovation

Position Description

The Assistant Principal of Innovation is a founding member of Rocketship’s Innovation School, a first-of-its-kind lab school opening in Fall 2026 within an existing Rocketship campus. Reporting to the Director of Innovation School, the Assistant Principal of Innovation is responsible for the day-to-day execution of a new instructional model, ensuring that the school’s vision for personalized, AI-enabled, and joyful learning translates into excellent classroom practice, every day, for every student.

At its core, this is an Assistant Principal role: the Assistant Principal of Innovation School drives data analysis cycles, observes classrooms regularly, provides continuous feedback, and co-plans units and lessons aimed at increasing educator effectiveness. What distinguishes this role from a traditional Assistant Principal is its proximity to a fast-moving, still-being-built school model. The Assistant Principal of Innovation School leads teachers, tutors, and instructional support staff through new rotations, tools, and routines as they’re implemented and refined in real time, and uses student data and adult feedback to flag what’s working — and what isn’t — to the Director of Innovation School.

Reports to the Director of Innovation School. Direct reports may include teachers, enrichment center coordinators, instructional support staff, and tutors.

• Believes that adult preparation is essential to student success, and is energized rather than unsettled by helping build that preparation from scratch.
• Exhibits command of upper elementary (grades 3-5) content and is eager to use that knowledge to develop teachers who demonstrate excellence in their planning and execution of lessons, including lessons delivered through new rotations, tools, and models.
• Is fluent with data and systems — comfortable standing up new tracking and feedback loops, not just using ones that already exist.
• Understands that eliminating the achievement gap is hard work but deeply rewarding and within their control, and is eager to do that work under the added uncertainty of a first-year program.

The Assistant Principal of Innovation School is deeply committed to the success of each Rocketeer, and the breadth of responsibilities reflects that commitment. The essential functions of this position include, but are not limited to the following:

• Foster a rigorous and college preparatory culture of excellence in every classroom that ensures high levels of student achievement.
• Coach teams to build subject area expertise, including expertise in newly introduced instructional approaches (e.g., personalized rotations, AI-enabled learning tools).
• Cultivate a culture of experimentation and iteration among instructional staff, grounded in the belief that setbacks are expected and are opportunities to improve.
• Engage in cycles of data driven instruction and assessments to inform planning and personalize instruction to student needs.
• Ensure at least 1.5 years of progress for all Rocketeers annually through management and planning.
• Ensure Rocketeer progress toward Innovation School-specific growth and absolute achievement goals.
• Collaborate with the Special Education team to ensure teachers are receiving the necessary support and training to maximize the delivery of instruction in our full inclusion model.
• Teaching:
  The Assistant Principal of Innovation will at times be required to step in and teach to either model for teachers, provide assistance to teachers or the school community, or to more deeply internalize the school model. As part of onboarding, the Assistant Principal of Innovation may be expected to teach for three or more weeks to learn the curriculum and model.

• Lead implementation of the Innovation School model across classrooms and learning spaces, ensuring adult roles are enacted as designed.
• Work alongside school leaders at host school to maintain cultural consistency across shared spaces and make disciplined choices about which systems can and should diverge.
• Monitor student mastery, engagement, executive function…