SpEd Disabilities Coach

SpEd Significant Disabilities Coach
Sioux City Community School District

The Special Education Significant Disabilities Instructional Coach will facilitate implementation of high quality programs and services for students with significant disabilities at all grade levels. This includes professional development in daily practice for continuous improvement of instruction and intervention in the areas of academics, communication, adaptive/functional skills, and social/behavioral skills. Overall, the coach’s goal is to build the capacity of the school and its teachers to meet the learning and behavioral needs of all students, ensuring that school staff acquires the understanding and skills to enhance behavioral and instructional practices at the classroom level and raise the level of student achievement.

• Adheres to Board policies, district procedures, and contractual obligations.
• Demonstrates professional and instructional leadership, models professional and ethical behavior, and maintains professional confidentiality.
• Provides leadership for principals, teachers, special education coaches, and related staff by planning, collaborating, mentoring, and facilitating change to implement consistent, quality services for students with significant disabilities across the district.
• Assists principals in understanding, recognizing, and implementing effective programs for students with significant disabilities.
• Assists special education teachers and para‑educators through job‑embedded professional development by demonstrating strategies and lessons, introducing materials, programs, and ideas, modeling effective teaching and intervention strategies, coaching, and assisting with individual and/or team planning and problem‑solving.
• Collaborates with teachers to understand the Core Curriculum and Essential Elements in relation to intensive instruction/interventions for students with IEPs who are alternately assessed, and to modify courses, units, lessons, and assessments to meet individual student needs, providing high‑quality, rigorous academic instruction for students with significant disabilities.
• Develops and sustains trusting, productive relationships with teachers, administrators, para‑educators, AEA staff, and other colleagues individually and in teams.
• Assists in identifying, acquiring, and organizing resources to support student achievement.
• Assists in training and implementation of alternate assessments, including state and district assessments.
• Assists teachers in the collection, analysis, and use of varied data to identify student adaptive, behavioral, communication, and learning needs, to plan instruction and interventions to address these needs, to assess student progress toward expected outcomes, and to make instructional decisions based on this data.
• Conducts peer observations and provides feedback in a non‑evaluative role.
• Collaborates with other special education and instructional coaches to maximize resources.
• Conveys enthusiasm about learning, models and supports the belief that all students can succeed, and fosters excellence in teaching and learning.
• Completes other duties as assigned.

• Demonstrates ability to enhance academic performance and support the implementation of the Sioux City School District’s student achievement goals.
• Demonstrates competence in content knowledge appropriate to the teaching position.
• Demonstrates competence in planning and preparing for instruction.
• Uses strategies to deliver instruction that meets the multiple learning needs of students.
• Uses a variety of methods to monitor student learning.
• Demonstrates competence in classroom and resource management.
• Engages in professional growth.
• Fulfills professional responsibilities established by the school district.

Minimum qualifications include a valid Iowa teaching certificate with an endorsement in special education from an accredited college or university with a major in education or an appropriate content area, and a minimum of three years teaching experience. Must possess proper state certification and licensure for the position and be…