Salary Code: 4028

Job Summary

The School District of Philadelphia is committed to having schools staffed with great teachers and principals. Professional Learning Specialists are responsible for supporting the continuous development of teachers, principals, and support staff. Professional Learning Specialists design, align, and facilitate, professional learning opportunities for educators throughout the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Work involves formulating and implementing plans to meet the short-term and long-term needs of the District's teaching and administrative staff. Work additionally involves determining training and personnel development needs on a learning network, school and individual level. Professional Learning Specialists are tasked with providing high-quality professional growth opportunities that will enhance educators' leadership, cultural competency, organizational, communication, problem-solving, and outcomes-oriented skills. Their work also involves supporting the District's curriculum, assessment, and instructional goals.

All Specialties

Essential Functions

• Designs and facilitates professional learning and development sessions and courses on a variety of topics to support the designated programmatic framework.
• Conducts professional learning and development sessions by learning network, grade band, and school type to bolster educator effectiveness and student progress.
• Research new trends in education in an effort to keep staff aligned with the pedagogical shifts and SDP instructional practices.
• Thoughtfully creates customized professional learning modules for educators.
• Support District initiatives.

Office of Teaching and Learning Specialty

• Partners with the Office of Academic Support, the Office of Student Support Services, Assistant Superintendents, Principals, and other administrators to ensure the intentional, proactive, and responsive design of professional learning opportunities.
• Creates customized professional learning plans for educators and schools.
• Leads content programming, logistics, and communication for large-scale District-wide professional learning programming.
• Coaches leadership teams, teacher leaders, and teachers in the implementation of professional learning.
• Develops plans for measuring the impact of professional learning; creates tools for collecting data; analyzes that data to make in-year and end of year programmatic decisions.
• Hires and develops part-time employees who support facilitation and logistics in District-wide programming.

Minimum Requirements

• Master's degree program from an accredited college or university in education, teacher leadership, administration or a related field.
• Five years of full-time, paid, professional teaching experience which have included leading and designing professional learning for adults.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Demonstrated knowledge of:

• the Pennsylvania Core Standards, National Standards, National Association for the Education of Young Children Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards.
• Culturally responsive pedagogy and teaching.
• Adult learning theories, techniques, and coaching/mentoring models.
• Group processes, effective oral and written communications, adherence to deadlines and action plans, and organizational planning.
• Solid Teaching and Learning methods, principles and practices.
• Exemplary performance evaluations from rating officers.
• Asynchronous learning and various on-line platforms preferred.

Demonstrated ability to:

• Inform and design the scope and sequence of professional learning for educators.
• Align educational and training initiatives with the District's mission and action plan.
• Analyze issues, shift priorities, and cope with ambiguity in a fast-paced environment.
• Be open and direct without being intimidating.
• Support adult learning and professional development strategies.
• Plan, organize, and direct professional learning targets.
• Be punctual and follow through in work related projects and responsibility.
• Work collaboratively.
• Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships.

Disclaimer

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified.

Certificates/Licenses

• Possession of a valid Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Administrative certificate for K-12 or Elementary and Secondary Principal.\

Eligibility List

*Once you have successfully completed all portions of the interview process for the position of Professional Learning Specialist at the School District of Philadelphia – you will be added to the Professional Learning Specialist Eligibility List, which means if this position reopens or if an additional space for this position becomes available, your information will be shared with the principal hiring for that vacancy. This list expires 2 years from the date of notification. *