Student Support Coach

Background: Growing and dynamic organization seeks an experienced education professional to support 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 over 130 schools across five 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 Student Support Coach to support the direct implementation of City Connects and other Center offerings that empower school partners to implement integrated student support. The Coach will be a member of the Programs and Practice Team. The Coach will engage in collaborative coaching conversations with the City Connects Program Managers who supervise the Coordinators implementing the practice in schools). The coach will also be an active part of the Systemic Student Support (S3) Academy and will provide coaching to members of this network. S3 Academy is a district learning network created by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, and the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children. The S3 Academy is comprised of district and school teams from across Massachusetts that are working to transform their approaches to student support on behalf of the more than 85,000 students they serve.. The Coach will use discoveries from the systematic review of data to inform these conversations.

The Coach will contribute to the organization’s strategic goals and vision to support schools in effective whole-child approaches to student support. The responsibilities of the Student Support Coach include:

Coaching:  

• In collaboration with colleagues on the Programs and Practice team, provide coaching and support to members of the S3 Academy network
• Track and monitor practice data for specific schools, districts, and networks to inform coaching
• Drawing on clinical and school-based experience, develop a focus area of expertise in student support that informs practice, tools, and program-wide knowledge
• Contribute to data collection and reporting across sites, and for specific sites, monitor data entry in MyConnects to ensure timeliness, completeness, and quality
• Support introducing the model into new schools and the maintenance of the model in existing schools through meetings presentations, and other communication
• Contribute to identifying key areas of strength and areas for improvement in the practice across the network to inform a cycle of continuous improvement
• Serve as Program Manager in selected schools, as needed

Professional Development for Center Initiatives:

• Contribute knowledge from school-based and clinical experience to the design of professional development experiences for school practitioners
• Support development and facilitation of first and second year Coordinator in-service trainings
• Assist as needed with carrying out the development and delivery of online and in-person continuing education in the field of student support offerings

Programs and Practice Evolution:

• Serve as a thought partner in growing the Center’s work to create learning pathways that empower schools and districts to implement effective student support processes
• Help translate implementation and research-practice partnership learnings for development of Center offerings (e.g., policy briefs, practice briefs)
• Support the development and implementation of enhancements to MyConnects, the proprietary software used to support City Connects practice
• Support initiatives for expanding the footprint of City Connects in the U.S. and internationally

Required:

• Master’s degree in education, human services, or related field
• Experience working in schools
• Experience with peer coaching and/or mentoring of school-based professionals
• Experience 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.