Academic Affairs Director
Position Overview
Under the supervision of the Site Director, the Academic Affairs Director role is to ensure the high academic achievement of all College Track students so they matriculate to and graduate with a bachelor’s degree within six years. Additionally, this position is responsible for implementing a high-quality Academic Affairs program, managing the Academic Affairs budget, partnering with school staff to best serve students, and effectively managing full time and part-time staff members to achieve site goals.
Additionally, this position is responsible for planning and managing an academic program focused on improving skill gaps that leads to significant gains in GPA, ACT/SAT and credit accumulation for targeted students that include executive functioning and noncognitive skills. This individual has direct accountability for meeting the organization’s bottom line goals in the following areas: academic readiness, GPA, college eligibility, attendance, and student retention.
Primary Responsibilities Include:
- Ensure College Eligibility and Readiness of Students:
- Cultivate a strong college-going culture for all students
- Lead and support students who are not on track for college eligibility
- Create individualized intervention plans for each student, as needed, and continuously monitor progress
- Lead and support the collection and reporting of student data i.e. GPA, test scores, student goals, progress towards goals, etc.
- Support in managing external partnerships with curriculum providers, high school teachers and counselors, parents, and more
- Work as project manager for 9th, 10th and 11th grade diagnostic testing
- Execute and manage a comprehensive coaching plan and strategies in compliance with National pilot expectations to ensure students have the resources to direct their college success journey
- High Quality Programming:
- Plan, manage, and continuously improve an academic program designed to enhance student skills and drive significant gains in all academic areas: GPA, ACT/SAT, math acceleration, course rigor and credit accumulation
- Providing data-based consultation to students to determine college competitiveness and eligibility next-steps
- Stay up to date regarding best practices by participating in professional development, including those provided by the National Program Design team
- Implement year-round programming, ensuring students earn a 3.0 or higher GPA and reach math and composite college readiness goals
- Use data to lead decision making processes
- Partner with the Academic Affairs Manager to plan academic support for students
- Collaborate with the site team to implement academic programs and evaluate potential resources to ensure alignment with student needs
- Individual Student Planning and Monitoring: Collect & assess student data continuously and provide meaningful interventions to ensure that students are on track to graduate from high school and thrive in a four-year college.
- Staff Management: Hire, manage and develop a team of full-time (eg. Academic Affairs Manager) and part-time employees who are highly effective in achieving site goals by providing routine professional development; perform continuous evaluations to ensure expectations of a highly effective program staff are met.
- High School and Community Engagement: Under the direction of the Site Director, support the development of strong and formalized partnerships with schools, district, families and community partners that result in additional resources for our students and improvements to our program model. Keep abreast of emerging trends and practices within the education landscape and community, and understand the impact on our students.
- Financial and Resource Management: Manage the Academic Affairs program budget. Develop and oversee academic resources, including content support, college admission tests preparation, workshop instruction, academic advising, student case management, and support for the college admission process.
- Community of Practice Engagement: Participate consistently and actively with the community of Academic Affairs Directors across College Track sites, sharing best practices and supporting the ongoing professional development of self and teammates.
- Projects as assigned by the Site Director.
Skills & Experience Required
First and foremost, the Academic Affairs Director (AAD) must embrace the College Track vision of transforming low-income communities into places where college readiness and college graduation are the norms. The AAD must be committed to the mission of College Track and committed to anti-racist and pro-Black pedagogy as evident in their responsibilities and role. Additionally, candidates must possess the following qualifications:
- Minimum 3-5 years of teaching and/or assisting students to excel academically; history of driving significant gains in student achievement.
- Holds the highest expectations for students and the team. Identifies manageable goals and key performance indicators; can create, monitor and adjust plans based on data.
- Demonstrated success in motivating, influencing and managing students. Strong interpersonal skills and has an empathetic approach to challenging conversations.
- Experience navigating and achieving strong student results in urban public education systems.
- Experience in hiring, developing and supporting talent. Creates the conditions for staff to learn, grow and do their work with ever increasing excellence.
- Skilled at relationship building with students, families and schools. Builds relationships and communicates in ways that foster trust, value differences and further College Track’s mission.
- Focuses on delivering outcomes despite obstacles, seeks out challenges as opportunities to grow, takes unexpected setbacks in stride, and is able to galvanize self towards goals and impact.
- Manages people, projects and oneself to achieve excellent results and expand organizational impact.
- Skilled at analyzing student data and developing targeted interventions.
- Passion for and experience with Self-Directed Learning strongly preferred.
- Minimum 4-year college degree (Master’s Degree preferred).
- Able to work 11:00am – 7pm (in-person) Monday through Friday and occasionally on weekends, if/as program necessity requires
Additional Requirements
College Track requires that the holder of this position be fully vaccinated, and boosted (if eligible), against COVID-19, as defined by the CDC. College Track will require proof of vaccination and a booster shot from all future employees. New hires who are booster eligible but have not yet received the booster shot will have 60 days from their date of hire to do so.
Compensation & Benefits
College Track offers a competitive, region-specific, salary based on the organization’s compensation philosophy, grounded in market data. We also offer comprehensive health & welfare benefits and top-of-the-market paid time off. A complete look at the benefits College Track offers full time benefits eligible employees can be viewed here.
To Apply
Please upload a PDF resume and thoughtful cover letter with your application. We will only contact candidates chosen for further consideration. No phone inquiries please. To apply, click here.
College Track works to remove barriers for first generation college students on their journey to college completion. Our commitment to removing barriers for first generation college students doesn't stop when college ends. While we hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, we especially encourage applicants who identify as first-generation college graduates to apply for open opportunities on staff.
College Track is an equal opportunity employer fully committed to achieving a diverse workforce. College Track does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, gender, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.