Partner, School Design - Assessment

Who We Are

Transcend is a national nonprofit that helps communities reimagine and redesign schools so every young person can thrive in a rapidly changing world. Across the country, communities are recognizing that classrooms built for the industrial age aren't preparing learners for what's next. Instead, schools must be designed for continuous evolution: relevant, resilient, and ready for the future. For more than a decade, Transcend has partnered with school and system leaders to build the capacity for bold, lasting change---change led by the people who live it every day.

We've worked with nearly 500 schools and 200 districts serving over 225,000 students in 35 states. Together, we've seen what's possible when communities lead redesign with proven methods, insight, and support. From that work, we develop and share tools, research, and models that help schools everywhere make the leap to extraordinary learning---for every child, in every community.

For more information, visit our website or follow us on Linked In.

The purpose of Transcend's Evidence team is to make it possible for extraordinary learning communities to understand and communicate their impact. Unfortunately the most predominant tools for measuring that impact, standardized tests in English Language Arts and math, have significant limitations. These tests capture only a slice of what matters most, leaving higher-order skills like critical thinking, complex problem-solving, and collaboration largely unmeasured.

They are built on the assumption that all students progress and learn at the same pace, making personalized and competency-based learning difficult to implement while creating significant logistical burdens for students and teachers. Part of Transcend's mission is to help change that reality, pushing the field toward new and better forms of assessment.

The Partner, School Design
- Assessment will work at the center of that challenge. This role will work directly with schools and districts to help them pilot, validate, and scale innovative assessment approaches that are more personalized, less administratively burdensome, and able to measure a wider range of outcomes and experiences than the current systems allow. In particular, we believe there is significant promise in assessments that combine proven practices such as portfolio- and performance-based assessments with new possibilities enabled by AI.

This role sits at the intersection of psychometrics and school design, requiring someone who can translate technical rigor into practical guidance for educators and facilitate the kind of community-driven design that builds genuine ownership.

To hear more about the role, the work, and the team, please watch this video from David Nitkin.

As a Partner, School Design
- Assessment on the Evidence team, you will work closely with school and district teams through design journeys focused on piloting, implementing, and strengthening innovative assessment practices and tools. You will support communities across the country as they build shared vision; align instruction and systems; and move from design into piloting and implementation --- while contributing to a collaborative project team committed to learning, iteration, and meaningful impact.

You'll be a project lead, taking on ownership of a complex project from end to end. You work with the Managing Partner to define what success looks like, align the work and any team members to get there, manage the conditions for a thriving partner relationship and team culture, and take on increasing external stakeholder management alongside your manager. This will include:

• Leading project planning and execution: Define overall project success, including milestones, deliverables, and metrics. Build a clear project plan aligned to goals, Transcend's core schema, and local context. Manage project expenses to the approved budget and communicate progress to ensure timeline, quality delivery.
• Building and leading your project team: Foster a project team culture where members do their best work. Put clear collaboration and communication structures in place, ensure role and work clarity, and create opportunities to reinforce Transcend's values, mission, and equity commitments.
• Managing external relationships: Support the cultivation and stewardship of school partners, funders, and system leaders. This may also include supporting your manager with scoping for prospective projects and grants.
• Contributing to ongoing learning: As you work across schools and districts, you'll contribute to the Evidence team's collective learning about the future of assessment and accountability systems. You will also share your experiences working on the ground with school and system leaders with internal and external audiences to showcase examples of innovative assessment practices in action.

Sample projects that you would lead:

• Piloting uses of AI in literacy assessment: Partner with two secondary schools to…