Teach For America

Coordinator, District Strategy

Position Summary

We are seeking a Coordinator for our District Strategy and Community Relations team to provide back-end support on the testing, certification, and placement of our over 300 corps members and to provide some support to our Development (fundraising) team. This individual will report directly to our Director of District and Community Strategy but will collaborate with both our District Strategy and Development teams. While we intend to invest significant energy over the next year in strengthening our relationships with school districts, principals, and community groups throughout our region, we recognize that mistakes in how our corps members are certified and placed would serve to undermine those efforts. Furthermore, we believe that an efficient and positive placement experience lays the foundation for a strong culture over a corps member’s two years. Therefore we are looking for someone who is comfortable working with large quantities of paperwork, documents, forms, rules from up to three different states, etc. and is exceptionally well organized and personally responsible. This individual must be able to create order out of chaos, to deal calmly and effectively with a constantly changing environment, to maintain a customer service orientation in the face of stressed and upset constituents, and who is constantly obsessed with what others might perceive to be minor details. We also intend to have this person spend a portion of their time working with our development team in supporting back end processes.

Founded in 2003, Teach For America – Greater Philadelphia-Camden has more than 300 corps members reaching more than 25,000 students in Philadelphia and Camden public schools. Additionally, over 500 alumni are working from all sectors to close the achievement gap in the area. The region is supported by a funding base of over $3.2 million, and approximately 25 regional staff members work to train and support corps members, continually strengthen relationships with local schools and districts, foster the leadership of local alumni, and continue to grow the regional funding base to ensure that Teach For America – Greater Philadelphia-Camden can have an even greater impact. By 2010, the region aims to support a corps of nearly 350 teachers, allowing the region to affect the educational outcomes of nearly 30,000 students every year.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:
• Managing logistics for the certification and placement of 300+ corps members across region, including: collection, retention, and distribution of proper documentation; trouble shooting and interpretation of requirements at the state and local level and relating to university partnerships; communication with corps members, principals, university partners around matters pertaining to placement and certification; management of data tracking system to evaluate corps member qualifications, documentation, and other pertinent information.
• Coordinating logistics for the corps member matriculation campaign including researching, creating, and assembling materials; coordinating mailings
• Serving as the first line of contact for distressed corps members with problems and questions surrounding placement
• Supporting the Director of District Strategy in reaching out to and tracking relationships with principals, district personnel, and other stakeholders
• Providing administrative support during the corps member placement process including planning and execution of hiring fairs (including some Saturdays), coordinating invitation and attendance at hiring fairs, managing pre and post work including distribution and collection of hiring preference forms and other materials
• Overseeing testing support and execution for corps members
• Logistical and administrative support to our development (fundraising) team including data entry, donor database maintenance, event planning, and production of materials and documents.
• Assuming responsibility for special projects as they arise

Candidate Profile and Experience Prerequisites

• Bachelor’s degree required
• 0-3 years experience
• Corps experience preferred
• Experience creating and managing systems
• Exceptional organization skills and detail orientation
• Strong personal responsibility
• Strong communication skills with an emphasis on customer service orientation
• Ability to manage many different projects at once
• Flexibility and optimistic approach; commitment to overcoming obstacles
• Basic proficiency in MS Outlook, MS word, Excel, Power Point and the Internet

Benefits and Salary

Salary for this position is competitive and depends on prior experience. In addition, a comprehensive benefits package is included.

Anti-Discrimination Policy and Commitment to Diversity

Teach For America seeks individuals of all ethnic and racial backgrounds to apply for this position. We are committed to maximizing the diversity of our organization, as we want to engage all those who can contribute to this effort.

Additional Requirments / Information

Job Capacity:	Employee (full-time)
Minimum Education Level:	See Job Description
Visa Sponsorship:	No
Related Industries:	Business

Become part of a force for change.

Teach For America is the national corps that calls upon outstanding and diverse recent college graduates to commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in ensuring that all our nation’s children have an equal chance in life. Since 1989, 7000 corps members in 16 geographic areas have positively impacted students and communities while gaining the insight, network, skills and credibility to effect change after their two-year commitment.

THE CHALLENGE
Children growing up in urban areas and remote rural regions often face tremendous socio-economic challenges. Public schools are generally not set up to compensate for these challenges. The result is that children growing up in low-income communities are seven times less likely to graduate from college than children in high-income areas.

With fewer educational prospects come fewer life prospects.

IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Teach For America selects a committed, outstanding corps of diverse college graduates who will set ambitious goals for their students and work proactively and relentlessly to meet these goals. Corps members are trained to develop the leadership skills they have demonstrated and to apply them in the classroom, resulting in better educational and life prospects for the students they teach.

The 2001 corps has an average GPA of 3.5 and 35% of the corps are people of color. 86% of corps members held at least one leadership position as undergraduates.

Corps members receive intensive training in the approaches used by successful teachers in under-resourced communities and are supported at the regional and national levels throughout their commitment

96% of principals surveyed rated corps members as "advantageous" to their schools, with the majority rating them "strongly advantageous" (Kane, Parsons, and Associates, 1999).

LONG TERM CHANGE
Teach For America alumni form a network of successful, informed leaders who have insight into the changes needed to improve life prospects in under-resourced areas, and who work towards these changes through all sectors of society.

Approximately 60 % of alumni remain in the field of education, as teachers, school and district administrators, or founders of innovative new schools and programs.

Another 40% of alumni work in fields such as medicine, business, politics, journalism, and law, using their status as leaders and the insight and credibility they gained in the corps to effect change.

All alumni come out of their Teach For America experience positioned for success. Graduate schools and employers value the concrete, transferable skills gained by corps members.

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