Director of Special Projects

This regional role exists to ensure every student in the region experiences a consistent, rigorous, and joyful school environment — regardless of which classroom or building they walk into. Sitting at the intersection of culture, civics, and leadership development, the person in this role sets and upholds the Tier 1 culture standard across schools, owns the regional civics scope, sequence, and assessment system, and coaches Heads of Schools, School Leaders, and APs of Culture toward a rising performance bar. They monitor the data that matters most — culture, suspensions, HIB, and student academic outcomes — and turn it into targeted action, while ensuring schools meet every federal and state compliance obligation. Through regional PD, leader coaching, and cross-network collaboration, they build the capacity of current and emerging leaders and scale what’s working across KTAF.
 

What you'll be doing:

Key Regional Systems and Standards for Culture

• Implement and uphold a non-negotiable Tier 1 culture standard across every classroom — operationalize the KIPP Classroom Vision of Excellence and an aligned corrections-and-consequences ladder in FOCUS so no student’s experience depends on which classroom they land in.
• Work with School Leaders and APCs to build and execute regional Rites of Passage across grade bands — named events, named owners, named dates.
• Support pilot in  the MS Tier 3 menu (Roar & Restore: CICO, referrals, in-school reflection, family accountability toolkit) so it’s ready to scale in 27–28.
• Implement and uphold crisis response protocols and train school leaders to execute them with confidence and consistency, including Title IX coordination.
• Partner with the Regional Leadership Team on crisis intervention.
• Ensure responses from Student Threat Behavior Team meetings are high-quality and compliant.
• Audit for correct documentation, training, and management of student discipline issues.
• Monitor culture and suspension data across the region; surface trends and drive targeted action with APs of Culture.
• Hold schools accountable for documenting incidents and follow-up so teams resolve, support, and learn from each one.

Content Support

• Own the civics scope and sequence, unit-level module overviews, and intellectual prep protocols; modify based on implementation evidence; coach civics teachers and content leads directly as needed to get results.
• Develop rigorous civics assessments that align to grade-level expectations and progress with student reading-level proficiency.
• Coordinate regional assessment alignment — audit internal assessments against FAST and the Civics EOC, identify where they over- or under-predict, and close gaps before each school year begins.
• Analyze civics assessment data and student work with instructional leaders; recommend instructional next steps and deploy coaching support where needed.
• As the owner of the civics report card bucket, partner closely with the Teaching & Learning (T&L) team — attend T&L tactical and strategic meetings, participate in DKI, lead professional development on regional PD days, and join team walk-throughs.

School Support and Leadership Coaching

• Coach leaders and content leads toward a consistent student experience and a rising student academic performance across schools.
• Serve as a leadership coach to emerging and experienced leaders — including Heads of School, School Leaders, APs of Culture, — observe key leadership moves, provide ongoing feedback, and support a cohort of leaders through their development arc.
• Partner with the KTAF Talent & Leadership Development team to provide on the ground development support  of Principals in Residence (PiRs) and other emerging leaders.
•  Build leaders’ content knowledge and instructional leadership capacity through walk-throughs, student work protocols, O3 coaching, content meeting support, and PD execution.
• Participate in the Instructional Review process and teacher rubric calibration to norm scoring and generate feedback that moves schools forward.
• Pull in expertise from inside and outside the network to scale what works.

Professional Learning and Cross-Network Collaboration

• Design and facilitate regional PD aligned to the Culture VOE, civics priorities, and leadership development — AP Cohort Meetings, Regional and Network PD, Heartbeat Summit (groups may exceed 100).
• Develop and facilitate professional learning for novice and experienced managers, emerging KIPP leaders, and people/project leaders — spanning management, leadership, cultural competency, and broader talent development.
• Collaborate with DSE teams in other regions and potentially lead culture DKI meetings, partnering with the relevant Managing Director (MD) to align standards across the network.
• Thought partner with Achievement Directors across the KTAF network on civics curriculum, assessment design, and program modifications for school context.
• Engage in ongoing research and PD to deepen content expertise and coaching practice.

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above essential duties and responsibilities.