Executive Director of Multilingual Programs

School District of Philadelphia•Philadelphia, PA

About The Position

The School District of Philadelphia is seeking forward-thinking administrators and educators to join its team. The District is committed to transforming educational opportunities for its 200,000 school-aged children and seeks leaders passionate about working with schools, principals, and communities to ensure all students achieve. Serving a diverse population requires creativity, commitment, and vision. The Executive Director of Multilingual Programs is responsible for overseeing all aspects of instruction and compliance for English Language Learners (ELL). This role involves coordinating and monitoring projects with other offices, including the 440 Enrollment Center, and overseeing the Director, Multilingual Programs in matters of Title III Compliance and legal/statutory compliance. The position collaborates with school, network, and central-based staff to support the academic acceleration of ELLs across the District. Key objectives include ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations, implementing systemwide professional development for ELL needs, aligning ESOL and bilingual instruction to research-based methodologies for full curriculum access, and fostering parental and community engagement. The Executive Director supervises all aspects of ELL instruction, including policy, compliance, ESOL and bilingual instructional programs, Title III programs, and parent/community engagement for ELL programs.

Requirements

Master’s degree from an accredited college or university in ESOL/ESL or bilingual education.
Six years full-time, paid, professional experience in the field of multilingual education, five of which have been in an administrative or supervisory capacity and included responsibility for English language acquisition and dual language programming.
Possession of a valid Commonwealth of Pennsylvania certificate for ESL Program Specialist and Principal K-12 or Supervisor, Foreign Language certificate.
Demonstrated knowledge of second language acquisition, literacy development, and various models of research-based instructional programs and strategies that result in the educational attainment for ELLs.
Demonstrated knowledge of federal and state regulations governing ELL compliance and programs.
Demonstrated knowledge of national and state standards for ELLs in ESOL and bilingual programs.
Demonstrated knowledge of periodic assessments, on-going informal assessments and strategies to support ELLs based on the results.
Demonstrated knowledge of current research regarding communities of learners, instructional, differentiated instruction, mentoring, coaching and emergent technologies.
Demonstrated knowledge of cultural and linguistic diversity, challenges faced by immigrant and ELL families.
Demonstrated knowledge of successful strategies in addressing the achievement gap of ELLs.
Demonstrated knowledge of instructional practices for making content comprehensible for ELLs.
Demonstrated ability to create, implement, and evaluate K-12 instructional programs that result in the academic proficiency of ELLs in an urban setting.
Demonstrated ability to efficiently and effectively analyze data to develop school-wide and District-wide ELL instructional plans.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate with District staff, school administrators, teachers, parents, students and community members to develop and sustain ELL initiatives.
Demonstrated ability to effectively conduct professional development for ESOL and bilingual teachers, principals, and other District administrators in ELL instructional strategies and cultural competence.
Demonstrated ability to write, develop, implement, and monitor grants related to ELL programs.
Demonstrated ability to supervise staff and set performance goals.
Demonstrated ability to oversee, support, direct and coordinate staff members to meet programmatic goals and objectives.
Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships.
Demonstrated ability to analyze and make staffing, budgetary, and programmatic modifications if necessary.
Demonstrated ability to evaluate and coach staff to ensure effectiveness.

Responsibilities

Directs the operational functions of the Multilingual Department by supporting and monitoring subordinate employees in the implementation and management of ELL compliance, instructional programs and professional development.
Directs the implementation of procedures for identification, assessment, and placement of ELLs to appropriate programs; analyzes current language programs and practices and makes recommendations to further enhance the curriculum program.
Collaborates with all internal District departments to ensure that the public remains informed on all District ELL programs and activities.
Collaborates with the Office of Accountability to analyze ELL data to inform District-wide instructional strategies, data collection strategies and reporting activities for multilingual programs and initiatives; evaluates programmatic activities and measures results against defined objectives.
Leads and directs the development and implementation of a comprehensive staff development program for the instruction of ELLs; ensures that staff development workshops are effective in meeting assessed needs and achieving departmental and District objectives.
Collaborates with other District staff and community members to further develop native language programs such as dual language, heritage language, and transitional bilingual that are aligned to research-based strategies that result in the academic acceleration of all students, and ensures that linguistic and cultural needs of ELL students and families are accounted for.
Reviews and administers District policies and procedures designed to maximize the delivery of ELL services and initiatives to all schools for instruction which effectively impact student achievement and promotes family engagement.
Fosters and maintains cooperative working relationships with District administrators, government officials and community organizations.
Manages the budget, federal grants and compliance and school allocation for ESOL programs, bilingual programs, and other areas of ELL instructional support.
Ensures District compliance with court orders, such as the YS stipulation, LeGare and federal and state mandates.