High School Teacher: AP Research (2020-2021) – Valor Collegiate Academies – Nashville, TN

OVERVIEW
Valor Collegiate Academies is seeking an exceptional High School AP Research teacher who is excited to share our mission of academic excellence and empowering scholars to live inspired and purposeful lives.

A teaching career at Valor is multifaceted and our teachers grow to become extraordinary educators, mentors, and leaders. As a lead teacher, you will deliver high-quality instruction by implementing a rigorous curriculum and data-driven preparation. You will collaborate weekly with teachers and instructional leaders to examine student data and lesson plans to ensure high academic rigor. As a mentor, you will guide a diverse group of scholars through positive character development using Valor’s Compass model, support scholars in achieving academic goals, and build close relationships with your mentees’ families. As a leader, you will play an integral role in shaping our high school’s growth and performance, leaving a lasting impact on our scholars’ experiences, and on a larger scale, the Valor community.

ABOUT THE COURSE
AP Research, the second course in the AP Capstone experience, allows students to deeply explore an academic topic, problem, issue, or idea of individual interest. Students design, plan, and implement a yearlong investigation to address a research question. Through this inquiry, they further the skills they acquired in the AP Seminar course by learning research methodology, employing ethical research practices, and accessing, analyzing, and synthesizing information. Students reflect on their skill development, document their processes, and curate the artifacts of their scholarly work through a process and reflection portfolio.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Launching a new AP course is a great deal of work and a large commitment – especially one that we hope will be a pillar for our high school program and that will provide core argumentation foundations for other advanced coursework in the humanities. Below, we have outlined what we anticipate will be requirements (and ideal but optional engagements) of year one of the course.

Summer Commitments

• 
  Required: AP Institute (Valor pays fees+flights, room, and board) – 5 days in summer outside of Base Camp. AP Research teacher must submit application to College Board for Institute (coordinating submission materials with Valor).
• 
  Optional but highly suggested – by far the best professional development: AP Reader (paid by College Board) – June 3-9 in Salt Lake City, UT. AP Research teacher must submit application to College Board to be a reader (coordinating submission materials with Valor).
• 
  Optional but highly suggested: Summer Curriculum Work (paid by Valor): ~30 hours ($26 per hour). May include finishing or refining benchmarks, syllabus, unit plans, lesson plan and materials prep.

School-Year Commitments

• Since this is our first year, this is just an estimate and is subject to change.

• Typical intellectual preparation & coaching engagements
• 4 blocks: 28 students per block (115 Total – regular daily/weekly grading; est: grading 1 summative research product per unit/2x per quarter; est: grading 1 presentation per semester)
• 2-3 Half-Day Saturdays for student presentations

Professional Commitments

• Rely heavily on Achievement First curriculum, at least in year one, so we can build on their intensive R&D efforts around this course from the past several years.
• Enthusiasm for working collaboratively with Valor instructional leadership (both school and network level team) to learn how to prepare students for success in this and other core and advanced placement high school courses.

Core Content & Academic Lab

• Modify, prepare, and internalize rigorous, standards-aligned lessons in accordance with Valor’s academic curriculum, working closely with planning partner and instructional leaders
• Use assessment data to refine curriculum and inform instructional practices
• Participate in weekly coaching meetings to internalize content, analyze student data, and improve your practice
• Maintain and update scholar gradebook
• Lead daily Academic Lab to effectively provide scholars with structured academic support

Student Mentorship & Family Communication

• Lead student Circles once a week and implement our comprehensive human development curriculum (Compass) in your mentor group to guide students’ social-emotional growth and development
• Monitor your mentor group’s academic and behavior progress and support students in setting and reaching ambitious academic goals
• Respond to students’ behavior progress in real-time with recommended interventions
• Provide guidance and coaching on students’ self-discovery work
• Serve as a main point-of-contact for families to communicate school-wide information
• Consistently share students’ academic and behavioral progress with families
• Track and input daily student behavior feedback to share with families and Student Support Team

School-Based Duties

• Enforce, uphold, and exhibit school’s values, student management policies and culture
• Own arrival duty, recess or lunch duty, and dismissal duty
• Attend parent teacher conferences, orientation, and other school events
• Attend school-wide professional development programming, including 3 weeks of faculty training over the summer and weekly PD sessions throughout the academic year
• Participate in faculty Circle once a week (Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00p.m.)

CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

• Candidates applying to teach this course must either: (a) have a valid Tennessee teaching license with the appropriate content endorsements, or (b) have a valid out-of-state teaching license that will be successfully transferred to Tennessee by July 2020, or (c) demonstrate they are enrolled in a teacher’s preparation program and will be licensed by July 2020 (deadline strongly enforced).
• Candidates with any secondary endorsement are eligible to teach this course.

CRITICAL EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

• You have the ability to execute a rigorous, standards-aligned curriculum and adopt a data driven approach in assessing students’ progress
• You possess a strong literacy and composition background or have extensive experience with research design and methodology
• You have a relentless drive to develop your own instructional practice to sharpen your skills as an educator
• You are self-aware and reflective with a strong desire to continuously growth professionally and personally
• You have a growth mindset and are quick to incorporate feedback into your daily practice
• You have the ability to set and reach ambitious goals, and can handle the intensity required to thrive in a high-performing, fast-paced school environment
• You thrive on data. You can analyze qualitative and quantitative data to inform instructional decisions
• You have the passion and commitment to serve an ethnically & economically diverse student body
• You have the ability to model, live, and reinforce the school’s core values, norms, and policies
• You enjoy cultivating deep relationships with students, families, and staff to create a positive school environment

WHO WE ARE
Valor Collegiate Academies is the top-performing charter school network with a mission to empower our diverse community to live inspired and purposeful lives. Our scholars will graduate with academic skills, social-emotional skills, and positive character strengths that rival the outcomes of the best schools in the world.

At Valor, we believe that we can have the greatest impact on our community by committing to 4 key organizational anchors:

• 
  Top 1% Academics: We are passionate about meeting every scholar where they are – whether that is behind or above grade level – and supporting them to grow and excel. We define Top 1% Academics to mean that we are in the Top 5% in the State of TN for both Achievement and Growth. For the 2018-2019 school year, Valor College Prep ranked the #1 open enrollment high school in MNPS, with our founding 9th graders achieving the highest composite growth of all high schools in the state of Tennessee.

• 
  Powered by Compass: We believe that in order to live inspired and purposeful lives we must focus on comprehensive human development. The Valor Compass, our nationally recognized comprehensive human development program, is designed to help scholars develop their sharp minds as they strengthen their big hearts.

• 
  Thrive in a Diverse World: Valor was founded upon the belief that having a truly diverse community of families and learners in a thoughtfully designed model allows for everyone to have a higher quality and more meaningful experience. It’s important for our students to be served by exceptional teachers who are as diverse as they are, and we are deeply committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community of educators.

• 
  Built to Last: We believe that being built-to-last means to have strong, long-term operational infrastructure. This is largely driven in part by having talented people, and keeping that talent at Valor. We believe in making the work we do sustainable, by providing our faculty high quality coaching, development, and support.

COMPENSATION

• Valor offers a competitive salary that is determined based on prior teaching experience.
• Valor participates in Metro Nashville Public Schools’ retirement and benefits plan.

Valor Collegiate Academies is an equal opportunity employer. We seek applicants of diverse background and hire without regard to color, gender, religion, national origin, citizenship, disability, age, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law.