*Position contingent upon availability of funding/ programming

Title:  Founding Middle School ESL Teacher (SEZP SLIFE Program)

Grade Level: 6-8

Start Date: August 2020 

Teaching in SEZP:

SEZP is seeking educators who are excited and ready to make an impact in a collaborative, engaging, diverse, and high energy environment. We are seeking educators who believe teachers are activists - promising instructional access, rigor, advocacy, and a tenacious commitment to anti-racism for all students. SEZP teachers are expected to:

• Create a safe, purposeful classroom environment that prioritizes learning for all students
• Collaborate with other teachers, instructional leaders, and partners to ensure instruction is meeting the needs of all students
• Assess students regularly, analyze data, and determine appropriate next steps for instruction
• Ensure that instruction meets the needs of all students, including students with special needs, English Language Learners, and students performing below grade level
• Build relationships and communicate regularly with students and their families to solicit input and share academic progress
• Engage in learning about issues of racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion in education to examine your own biases; reflect on how those biases affect you, your students, and their families; and plan and deliver instruction in a culturally responsive way
• Participate in and learn from regular professional development opportunities before and during the school year

2020-2021 SEZP SLIFE Program:

The Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership (“SEZP”) will be founding an English Language Learner program to target the language development of Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE). The SLIFE Program will support SLIFE students to build critical language skills, focusing on improving their reading and writing abilities through leveled guided reading, phonics, writing curriculum, as well as through hands-on Science instruction. Math skills will also be targeted through instruction rooted in middle grades Common Core standards as well as through math fluency remediation to target key foundational math skills. By supporting teachers to develop high-quality curriculum, develop active monitoring plans, collect meaningful data, and plan targeted weekly remediation, we will support accelerated student language development by individualizing our responses to student needs. Additionally, by partnering with students and families we will support students to meet high expectations and build the habits necessary for accelerated academic growth and future academic success in high school and college. 

The Role:

Founding ESL teachers may teach any of the following core classes to help accelerate language development and build key content skill for success in middle school - Shared Reading/Reading Conferences, Phonics, ELL Science, or Math. Additionally, all teachers will be asked to teach targeted intervention classes including Math Fluency, Leveled Literacy Intervention (“LLI”), and Writing Intervention. Teachers may also be asked to run a club, including Art, Physical Education, Board Games, or any elective they may be passionate about running. Given the nature of founding work, teachers must demonstrate a past history of team commitment, innovation, and a desire for continuous improvement in the face of unforeseen challenges. 

Qualifications:

• Experience teaching ESL at the elementary, middle, and/or high school level preferred
• Experience teaching English, Math, or Science at the elementary, middle, and/or high school level preferred
• Appropriate content/program area (ESL or ESL + content area) and grade level (6-8) licensure from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education preferred
• Experience teaching reading, writing, or phonics at the elementary level preferred
• Experience as an active anti-racist or advocate for equity preferred
• Bilingual in English and Spanish or English and Arabic preferred
• Bachelor’s degree required

If you meet some of the qualifications above, we encourage you to apply or to reach out for more information. We know that historically marginalized groups – including people of color, women, people from working class backgrounds, and people who identify as LGBTQ – are less likely to apply unless and until they meet every requirement for a job. Therefore, we strongly

encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.

We encourage you to reach out to SEZP@springfieldempowerment.org if you have questions about the role or your qualifications. We are happy to help you feel ready to apply!

Benefits:

SEZP offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience; salaries for new teachers start at $50,500. Teachers in SEZP qualify for benefits (personal/sick days, retirement, health nsurance, etc.) offered to other teachers in the Springfield Public Schools.

In addition, there are several opportunities unique to SEZP schools to increase earnings above base salary. While not guaranteed, those opportunities currently include, but are not limited to:

• Advanced and Master Teacher positions: These are awarded following an applicationprocess that typically takes place each winter, and come with salaries of up to $87,000;
• Expanded Learning Time stipends at some schools, based on the yearly schedule;
• Annual stipends for Capstone Projects associated with national-level professionaldevelopment opportunities, following an application and selection process; and
• Empowerment Academies: Intervention and instruction opportunities we implementduring February, April, and summer breaks, following an application and selection process

Positions will be filled on a rolling basis; applicants are encouraged to apply immediately. Please contact sezp@springfieldempowerment.org with any questions.

About the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership:

While Massachusetts is consistently ranked as one of the top states for education results in the country, we have one of the highest and most persistent opportunity gaps. The Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership (SEZP) - established in 2015 as a collaboration between Springfield Public Schools (SPS), the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary

Education (DESE), and the Springfield Education Association (SEA) – seeks to improve the longitudinal life outcomes of the more than 5,000 students in our eleven middle and high schools.

As a “zone” of schools within the city of Springfield, SEZP’s approach draws on a deep and embedded partnership with the school district and local teachers’ union, while harnessing the flexibility and innovation found in autonomous school models. As a result, each school within SEZP is accorded significant school-based autonomies - in curriculum, talent, calendar, schedule, and budget – while being held accountable for realizing achievement gains for historically marginalized students. In all of our work, SEZP is in pursuit of equity and anti-racism acknowledging the systemic oppression our students and families encounter daily and working to disrupt these provision gaps urgently and courageously.

Nondiscrimination Statement:

The Springfield Public Schools does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, age, disability or military service or marital status. The Springfield Public Schools does not discriminate in admission to, access or treatment in its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation, disability or homelessness.

Title IX Notice of Nondiscrimination

Springfield Public Schools does not discriminate on the basis of sex in admission, administration of its educational programs or activities or employment. Springfield Public Schools is required by Title IX and its implementing regulations at 34 C.F.R. Part 106 not to discrimination on the basis of sex in admission, administration of its educational programs or activities or employment. The Senior Administrator of Human Resources, Kathleen O’Sullivan, Springfield Public Schools, 1550

Main St. Springfield MA, 011103, 413-787-7100, ext. 55428, has been designated as the employee responsible for coordinating Springfield Public Schools efforts to comply with and carry out its responsibilities under Title IX. Inquiries concerning the application of Title IX and its implementing regulations at 34 C.F.R. Part 106 to Springfield Public Schools may be referred to Kathleen O’Sullivan or to U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 400 Maryland Ave., SW Washington, DC 20202-1100, telephone 800-421-3481.