Teacher - Instructional Coach

Instructional Specialist

Waukegan Community Unit School District No. 60 serves nearly 13,000 students in preschool through grade 12 and is located halfway between Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. The District has 1 early learning center, 15 elementary schools, five middle schools and a high school program divided between two 9th 12th grade campuses. The District encompasses portions of Waukegan, Beach Park, and Park City.

The Waukegan Community Unit School District No. 60 has set an ambitious agenda for change, guided by the belief that all children, regardless of circumstances, can achieve at high levels and academic gaps can and will be eliminated with the support of teachers who deliver engaging, relevant, and academically-rigorous instruction that excites students and instills a love of learning in them.

Instructional Specialists will provide job-embedded support within their assigned building(s) with administrators, classroom teachers, and student support personnel to increase student achievement using data-informed practices. The Instructional Specialist will be service-driven and committed to providing strong instructional support for teachers. This individual will establish and implement a cycle of continuous data-driven professional learning at the school level. The Instructional Specialist will be directly responsible to the building principal(s) of assigned buildings in collaboration with the Director of Teaching and Learning.

Essential duties and responsibilities include:

• Support building administrators, teams, and teachers with analyzing and using student data to identify areas of strength, school-wide patterns, and target areas for improvement across all areas of academic and social/emotional instruction.
• Support school administrators with the development of a school-wide schedule that creates sufficient time and intensity of targeted intervention and support services without loss of core instructional time.
• Meet regularly with building administration, building-based instructional leadership teams, and Grade- and/or Content-Level PLC teams to report on instructional practices and progress, facilitate the problem-solving process, and plan "next steps" to maximize student growth and school improvement.
• Support building administration and classroom teachers with scheduling and oversight of universal screening/benchmark assessments, diagnostic assessments, and progress monitoring utilizing valid and reliable assessment measures to evaluate student response to instruction and interventions.
• Mentor and coach building staff in the areas of instructional best practices and data-based problem-solving.
• Provide job-embedded professional development and support to building administrators, teachers, student support personnel, and school-based teams to facilitate implementation of instructional best practices, problem-solving and multi-tiered systems of support.
• Support the implementation of technology-enriched instruction and classroom environments.
• Prepare and present regularly scheduled data reports detailing student achievement and growth to school and district administration.
• Work with the building principal and Instructional Leadership Team to develop the school's professional development plan, structure related support, and identify specific, measurable, and attainable benchmarks of teacher and student performance.
• Support and sustain the district's development and implementation of the core curriculum, multi-tiered systems of support and instructional best practices by attending district-level professional development and, in turn, providing building-level instructional staff with professional development related to curriculum, instructional best practices, the MTSS framework, problem-solving model, analysis of data, and progress monitoring.
• Attend and actively participate in regularly scheduled district-level meetings and professional development opportunities as determined by the Department of Teaching and Learning.
• Keep in confidence all personal, student or personnel records and information.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned by the building principal and/or Department of Teaching and Learning.

Qualifications include:

• Commitment to the belief that all children, regardless of circumstances, can achieve at high levels.
• Demonstrated ability to multitask effectively and prioritize strategically.
• Openness to feedback and willingness to take personal responsibility.
• Passion to embrace the goals of raising achievement for all students and closing achievement gaps.
• Proven leadership experience and capacity to coach, monitor, and evaluate strategies put in place to raise student achievement.
• Sound knowledge of the MTSS framework, Common Core State Standards, Illinois Social-Emotional Learning Standards, content, curriculum, evidence-based best practices, appropriate research-based intervention and support services, and assessment procedures.
• Excellent interpersonal…