Senior Manager of Coaching

Background: Growing and dynamic organization seeks an experienced education professional to lead implementation and development of effective student support practice. Housed at Boston College within the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children, City Connects (cityconnects.org) is an innovative approach to addressing the out-of-school factors that can impact students’ achievement and thriving in schools. City Connects assesses the strengths and needs of each student and collaborates closely with districts, schools, and partnering community agencies to connect every student to a tailored set of supports and enrichments in the school and community. Currently City Connects is implemented in nearly 200 schools across four states and an international pilot in Dublin, Ireland. We seek to grow our direct service footprint by creating local proof points demonstrating improved student outcomes and creating conditions for statewide systemic change. 

The Center for Thriving Children is a national center for researchers, and practitioners to learn about evidence-based student support. We reach across multiple disciplines and approaches to share knowledge, promote best practices, test innovations in the field via City Connects’ research and development platform, study outcomes for students and schools, and provide professional development, technical assistance, and resources to support effective integration of school and community resources at scale. In addition to expanding the implementation of City Connects, the Center aims to empower districts that want to move in the direction of evidence-based student support by offering formal learning pathways designed to support their progress towards implementation of effective practices. 

Role Summary: The Center for Thriving Children seeks a full-time Senior Manager of Coaching to support the direct implementation of City Connects and other Center offerings that empower school partners to implement integrated student support. The Senior Manager will be a key member of the Programs and Practice Team. The Senior Manager will engage coaching and collaborative conversations with practitioners implementing City Connects directly, with a particular emphasis on helping them capture, monitor, and use data to inform goal-setting and practice decisions. The Senior Manager will use discoveries from the systematic review of data to inform, develop, and revise strong systems for enabling student support work in schools. In addition, the person in this role will contribute to the growth and expansion of learning communities of school practitioners and policy makers interested in implementing effective student support. The Senior Manager will lead key projects that are integral in the organization’s strategic goals and vision to support schools in employing effective whole-child approaches to student support. The responsibilities of the Senior Manager of Coaching include: 

Coaching and Continuous Improvement 

For the City Connects Network of schools:

• Lead weekly coaching sessions with Program Managers to ensure fidelity of the practice, adherence to the timeline prescribed in the Key Tasks & Benchmarks each year, data analysis and problem solving, and case consultations
• Track and monitor practice data for specific schools, districts, and networks to inform coaching
• Using practice and coaching data, analyze trends in successes and topics for discussion and problem-solving
• Generate systems and tools for continuous improvement in the use of data to inform practice 
• Collaborate on presentations and communications to introduce the model to new schools and provide ongoing support in existing schools (e.g., with principals, other school faculty and staff, and district personnel
• Advance the practice by contributing to cycle of continuous improvement of the practice

Professional Development for Center Initiatives:

• Collaborate to develop and facilitate Coordinator in-service trainings
• Identify ways data can inform professional development 
• Contribute to the development and delivery of online and in-person continuing education in the field of student support 
• Serve as a facilitator, content developer, and technical assistance provider for initiatives including the the Systemic Student Support (S3) Academy in Massachusetts 
• Interface with districts and schools who are interested in the center’s offerings 

Programs and Practice Leadership 

• Manage and support initiatives for expanding the footprint of City Connects in the U.S. and internationally 
• Serve as a thought leader in growing the Center’s work to create learning pathways that empower schools and districts to implement effective student support processes 
• Contribute to the translation of implementation and research-practice partnership learnings for development of Center offerings (e.g., policy briefs, practice briefs) 
• Mentor and support junior staff and student research assistants 

Required: 

• Master’s or doctoral degree in education, human services, management or related field 
• Experience working in schools 
• Experience coaching school-based professionals 
• Skilled in development and delivery of adult learning experiences online, in-person and hybrid e.g. group training, workshops and webinars 
• Skilled at documenting practice or program guidelines and progress towards benchmarks 
• Ability to prioritize goals and organize a team’s work in accordance with priorities
• Experience using data to inform project or practice-related decision-making 
• Experience designing and implementing structures/practices that foster inclusive and emotionally supportive school culture 

The Center for Thriving Children is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to build and sustain a diverse team and strongly encourage applications from candidates of color and from any minoritized or marginalized groups. Applicants should submit a cover letter and resume.