Early Learning Teacher

About KairosPDX

KairosPDX is a non‑profit organization focused on delivering excellent, equitable education to underserved children, their families and their communities. Through innovative pedagogy, community collaboration and family partnership we are working to close Portland's persistent achievement and opportunity gaps in measurable and sustainable ways. Our mission is to eliminate the prolific racial achievement and opportunity gaps by cultivating confident, creative, compassionate leaders.

We aim to do this through an organizational approach that includes: PK‑5 KairosPDX Learning Academy, Family Connections Programming, KairosPDX Training Academy and Local and Legislative Policy. Please visit (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)..

KairosPDX is currently seeking candidates for a full‑time, Teacher‑Early Learning position starting Summer 2026. Persons of color and members of other under‑represented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. KairosPDX launched its flagship program, the Learning Academy, a public charter school sponsored by Portland Public Schools, located on N. Gantenbein Avenue in 2014. We practice a combination of direct instruction and inquiry‑based experiences to maximize learning for all students.

Our curriculum approach is culturally‑responsive, infusing mindfulness, restorative practice, studio art, STEM, music and fitness into teaching the whole child at all points of the day. KairosPDX also launched the Training Academy in 2021, focused on training leaders across sectors on equity, transformation and belonging. The Early Learning Academy, opened in 2022, affirms and celebrates Black identity in young children and families, using culturally‑specific experiences to expand opportunities and foster engagement.

• Share responsibility with a team of colleagues and parents to honor the mission:
  • To eliminate the prolific racial achievement and opportunity gaps by cultivating confident, creative and compassionate leaders.
  • Practice the values of KairosPDX in professional conduct and daily interactions: respect, responsibility, honesty, excellence and service to community.
  • Incorporate the beliefs of KairosPDX in all approaches and instruction:
    • Every child is uniquely capable, innately curious and inherently creative.
    • Character and agency are essential to achievement and are developed through relationship and service to others.
    • A multi‑cultural context delivers a strong sense of self and is a requirement for participation in our global society.
    • Children must be supported in the context of their families.
    • Support multicultural practice and inquiry‑based approaches that are:
    • Actively anti‑racist – confronting bias in all forms.
    • Education for social justice – acknowledging history and studying the present to make informed decisions for a more equitable future.
    • Pervasive – examining practices at all levels of school culture and organization.
    • Personal – beginning with consideration of self as a cultural being.
    • Critical Pedagogy – pursuing multiple perspectives, anticipating contradictions and challenging assumptions.
    • Empowering – providing children the ego strength to challenge racist societal views.
    • Helping children think deeply about themselves and others.

• To create a social environment where learning can thrive.
• To design a physical environment that welcomes all children, respects them and sustains learning.
• To create a collaborative community of learners.
• To strengthen habits of mind that provide the building blocks of all learning.
• To introduce and practice curriculum structures that strengthen habits of mind through an inquiry approach to teaching and learning.
• To embed early academic awareness within curriculum structures, protocols and routines.
• To document the learning process of the group and individual children through learning stories and documentation boards.

• Plan, facilitate and reflect on age‑appropriate learning experiences designed to nurture children's social‑emotional, cognitive, cultural and creative intelligences.
• Facilitate inquiry‑based learning experiences grounded in an understanding of the developmental…