Director, Career Readiness

Cleveland Metropolitan School District

1d•$86,417 - $116,663

About The Position

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) serves approximately 37,000 students in 100+ schools. Over the past several years, the Greater Cleveland community has united behind the collective goal of ensuring every child in Cleveland attends a high-quality school and every neighborhood has a multitude of great schools from which families can choose. The Cleveland Plan defines CMSD’s approach to the reinvention of public education and holds our community accountable for the success of Cleveland’s schoolchildren. The Cleveland Plan is supported by Ohio House Bill 525, which provides much-needed flexibility and autonomy for the district and its schools. Our schools have autonomy over human and financial resources in exchange for accountability for performance. The principal has primary responsibility and accountability for establishing his or her school as a high-quality, high-expectations academic center with a focus on personalized instruction, professional support for teachers, and school-wide practices that lead to measurable results. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District has developed standards of excellence that the district applies to all parts of the organization inclusive of schools, principals, school leadership teams, networks, and central office. Alignment between Standards of Excellence (SoE) and the district’s Theory of Action helps ensure that principals are able to focus on scholar achievement and that central office supports are timely and effective. Our Vision for Learning in a Post-Pandemic World: In our pursuit of a more fair, just, and good system of education, we want each of our learners, both each of our scholars and each of their educators, to be individually and collectively presented with academically / intellectually complex tasks that are worthy of their productive struggle and allow them authentic opportunities to demonstrate their work and their learning of academic content and transferable skills in a joyful and adventurous environment. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District is in the midst of the most far-reaching transformation plan in its history to dramatically improve educational outcomes for Cleveland’s public-school scholars. We are seeking a Director of Career Readiness to systematize support strategies that assist school leaders and teachers in developing, planning, managing, organizing, and implementing all career and technical education (CTE) programming and career readiness initiatives for CMSD scholars. This Director of Career Readiness position requires an individual with superior leadership, analytical, executional, and change-management skills. This position will serve as a key contributor to the postsecondary success of Cleveland’s teachers, leaders, and scholars.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required. Master’s degree preferred.
Minimum of 5 years teaching at the high school level required.
Experience as a high school administrator/counselor preferred.
Must have a strong understanding of Career Pathways
Ability to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate program goals and initiatives
Possess a strong understanding of data, formative/summative assessment, and a familiarity with the interpretation and delivery of data acquisition of data to support principal and teacher understanding of class/school level data in support of learning (e.g., ODE Assessments)
Ability to successfully manage multiple tasks, projects, and responsibilities
Strong written and verbal communication/presentation skills
Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with faculty, staff, students, and the public

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred.
Experience as a high school administrator/counselor preferred.

Responsibilities

Provides direction and leadership in the development of a coherent career readiness program that includes career exploration, integration of academic and technical skills, hands-on learning to develop technical skills, work-based learning opportunities, and internships and/or apprenticeships
Works with school leaders, counselors, and teachers to ensure that students complete all of the courses in a career pathway and to ensure that career pathways are aligned to workforce and industry needs in order for students to earn recognized credentials
Provides professional development for and/or coaching in the area of career and technical education, specific to the courses outlined for each pathway, to ensure that students demonstrate competency and readiness upon course completion
Collaborates with school leaders and teachers to monitor student attainment of career experience and technical skills (through WebXams, industry-recognized credentials, pre-apprenticeship programs, work-based learning, readiness score on WorkKeys, Ohio Means Jobs Readiness Seal, etc.) and diploma seals that incorporate components of career pathways
Assists in reviewing and revising department work systems and procedures as necessary to improve the efficiency and productivity of the department
Monitors and supports the implementation of the PACE program
Develops and sustains systems for accountability at the District level regarding resource support provided by the department to schools for career and technical education
Conducts partner outreach on behalf of the District in alignment with collaborative outreach plans and with the District’s core measures for academic achievement and college and career readiness in mind
Develops and sustains strong relationships with school principals, counselors, teachers, and other stakeholders in order to ensure equitable access to career and technical education programming
Collaborates with various departments to create an annual course catalog for the upcoming school year to provide scholars, families, and the community with a clear and concise depiction of the career pathways offered at each school
Develops, monitors, and reviews the process through which school leaders apply and are approved for revisions to the career pathways in individual schools
Provides leadership and support in achieving the District’s core measures for college and career readiness and academic achievement
Creates and sustains systems for compliance and accountability for all career pathways for CMSD schools
Promotes CTE programs to all students, staff, families, members of industry, and local postsecondary partners, and actively recruits students and teachers for the program
Fosters ongoing, meaningful partnerships with a variety of stakeholders, including those from small, medium, and large businesses, industry representatives, community members, as well as workforce and economic agencies
Develops strong, positive relationships with other department managers to ensure alignment of career and technical education for CMSD scholars
Monitors and supports CTAE youth organizations in all high schools
Performs other duties as assigned