Vice President, KIPP Forward

Company Description

KIPP Public Schools is a national network of public charter schools that prepares students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 278 schools, nearly 16,500 educators, and 190,000 students and alumni.

 
Our mission: Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world. 

Our vision: Every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities. 

The KIPP Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports KIPP schools across the country. The KIPP Foundation trains and develops outstanding educators to lead KIPP public schools; provides tools, resources and training for excellent teaching and learning; promotes innovation; and facilitates the exchange of insights and ideas across KIPP and other public schools and organizations. 

Job Description

About The Position 

The Vice President of KIPP Forward will set the vision and lead a team to ensure that excellent student academic outcomes are achieved and seamlessly integrates with our national high school counseling and our college-and-career preparation programs for KIPP Public Schools. The VP, in collaboration with the senior leadership of the broader Schools team and KIPP Foundation, ensures that KIPP Forward’s theory of action aligns with KIPP’s broader theory of change, and supports the KIPP Forward team in implementing the theory of action with regional leaders and their KIPP Forward teams at the regional and school level. The VP also leads continuous improvement of the KIPP Forward program, ensuring that the KIPP network tangibly benefits from best practices developed nationally and regionally and learns from areas of growth to constantly strength the program, its implementation and resulting student outcomes.   

Responsibilities 

KIPP Forward Strategy 

• In collaboration with the Schools team, ensure that students have the academic results, networks, mindsets, and resources needed to be “college and career ready” 

• Develop and continually refine the vision for the KIPP Forward model, i.e. all of the inputs needed for KIPP adults (families, school principals and teams, KIPP Forward practitioners, regional leaders) to propel and support students to college-and-career readiness and through the postsecondary-education access and success 

• In collaboration with the Foundation data and analytics team, lead ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the KIPP Forward model, including quality of program implementation by school, region and nationally and student outputs and outcomes 

Implementation Leadership 

Serve as executive sponsor of excellent, equitable implementation of the KIPP Forward program in regions, including: 

• Asserting and reinforcing the “why” of the One KIPP – KIPP Forward “play” with KIPP Forward regional leads 
• Co-leading meetings, trainings, and PDs with KIPP Forward directors, counselors, advisors and career-preparation leads 
• Liaising with KIPP Forward – KF coaches and School teams to navigate specific regional dynamics in program implementation 

Lead continuous improvement of the KIPP Forward program, including: 

• Conducting school visits and on-the-ground observations to gauge implementation fidelity and integrity 
• Analyzing formative data on practitioner praxis to recommend process and practice refinements 
• Reflecting on implementation and results through the lenses of diversity, equity, inclusion, access and power 
• Initiating and supporting program and process innovation towards better and better student outcomes 

Team Leadership/Management 

Ensure strategic alignment between KIPP Forward and the Schools team:  

• Model decision-making, action and reflection through the lens of agreed-upon team agreements 
• Lead effective team meetings, training and professional development to learn from program results, Foundation colleagues, the voice of network practitioners and students, and one another 
• Lead regular step-backs and retreats to reflect on and continually evolve the processes, products and relationships that the team enacts with one another, with Foundation cross-team members and with the community  
• Support the team in applying an equity lens in work within and across teams and with the network community  

• Manage the leaders of each KIPP Forward function: Counseling and Match, College-and-Career Success, Scholarships, Professional Development and Training 

• Ensure effective management of each KIPP Forward team member by coaching and supporting team managers 

• Build and execute the annual team budget, delivering the KIPP Forward program to effective results within budget allocation  

Organization Leadership 

• Contribute to the continued evolution of the KIPP theory of change and theory of action as a college-and-career preparatory, high-performing pre-K-12 public school network 

• Lead onboarding and training for school and regional leaders on the KIPP Forward program 

• Develop and implement knowledge-sharing process to regularly share out inputs, outputs, outcomes and learnings with the Schools team, KIPP Foundation senior leadership and regional leaders 

• Partner with Foundation Regional Superintendents to support regional leaders in building and running excellent KIPP Forward programs in each of their schools

Qualifications

Skills  

• Mission & Student Focus: Demonstrated commitment to education equity; a passion for KIPP’s mission; desire and ability to uphold KIPP’s values (Focus on Excellent Results, Courageous Action, and Resilient Solutions Focus) 

• Cultural Competence and Commitment to Equity: A proactive cultural leader and team player who thrives on collaboration and learning; can effectively collaborate with teammates across lines of difference 

• Achievement Orientation: Ensures clarity in goals and accountabilities while working with agility and creativity to drive toward deadlines and outcomes-focused metrics  

• Vision-setting: Employs systems-level critical thinking about internal dynamics and external trends to devise and continuously improve a set of approaches to achieve agreed-upon goals 

• Continuous Improvement: Engages others in data conversations to push programmatic decision-making and implements short-cycle program improvements using formative and summative data to systematically improve results 

• Team Leadership: Fosters a climate of openness, trust and solidarity by optimizing diversity among team members and coaching, challenging and providing opportunities for growth 

Experience and Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree required 

• At least ten years of experience leading and managing teams through layers in a matrixed organization or institution 

• Proven expertise in developing and implementing high-impact programs that measurably improved under their leadership 

• Comprehensive background in implementing programs within the public-school context 

• Experience with high school counseling, postsecondary advising, career preparation, progressive pathways, or related field Experience as a high school principal highly preferred 

• Experience managing the education products function, including collaborating with technical teams to select off-the-shelf education products, as well as customize platforms like Salesforce and Tableau, to meet practitioner and student needs 

• Experience with and passion for working with black and brown students and families from under-resourced communities who may be achieving higher-education success for the first time

Additional Information

Work Conditions 

• Travel requirements: 25%

• Full time, Exempt role 

Location 

It is preferred, but not mandatory for this role to be based out of a KIPP Foundation office. This role also has the option of working from a remote office full-time. KIPP Foundation offices are in NYC and Chicago. 

Compensation and Benefits 

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, and relevant experience.  The salary range for this position is $190,000 to $227,000. In addition, KIPP Foundation provides a variety of benefits to employees, including:  

• 26 holidays for + 18 days additional flexible PTO days (flexible PTO increases to 23 days for years 3 and 4 and to 28 days for years 5+). 

• 100% paid parental leave 

• 100% coverage of the premium for employee and 75% for employee + family’s medical/dental/vision plans. 

• Wellness benefits such as fitness reimbursements, discounted tickets to theme parks/attractions, backup care support for children and adults/elders, and our employee assistance program 

• Finance Security benefits include such as a 401K retirement plan with 4% match, employer-sponsored legal plans, life/disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts 

KIPP Foundation embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the students and communities with whom we work and the world that around them. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.