PASSION FIND YOUR. Why Work at Achievement First?

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1 Build a Career at Achievement First

2 FIND YOUR PASSION I work here because I now that everyone does whatever it takes to give our students the love, care and top-quality instruction they need. Before I came to Achievement First, I had nightmares about what my kids would face when they moved to other classes and grades. Now I m surrounded by phenomenal teachers. Morgan Bath, Principal, Elm City College Preparatory Elementary (Mississippi Delta, 2002) Achievement First believes that all children, regardless of race or economic status, can succeed if they have access to a great education. Our 19 public charter schools in Connecticut and New York provide students with the academic and character skills they need to achieve at high levels, graduate from college, succeed in a competitive world and become leaders in their communities. Achievement First s theory of change is that by creating a highperforming urban public school district, we will prove that the achievement gap can be closed at scale and can thus inspire and inform broader district-wide reform efforts. We have three areas of focus: Quality: Our goal is gap-closing, college-preparatory success for all students Scale: We aim to be a proof point for most U.S. school districts that student success is possible at scale Sustainability: We will operate at the same cost as our host districts, eliminating another yes, but excuse and ensuring our long-term viability Why Work at Achievement First? Join a Team & Family of other great teachers who share your commitment to excellence and relentless focus on academic achievement and character development. Maximize your impact on students by being part of a K-12 network where your hard work is carried on and enhanced by others. Be treated as a professional in a collegial environment, with higher salaries, a strong network support of services, a Career Pathway Program and access to essential classroom resources. Continue your growth with inspiring colleagues, highquality professional development and a variety of leadership opportunities. Impact the broader education reform movement by helping realize the dream of equal educational opportunity for all students.

3 Commitment to Constant Growth We believe that investing in our people is the key to closing the achievement gap. Achievement First places a high value on excellent teaching since teacher and school leader effectiveness is the greatest driver of student achievement. Team members are constantly supported, challenged and inspired to take their skills to the next level and grow in their craft. We ensure that everyone is prepared for the work ahead. Teachers hold weekly meetings with an individual coach to achieve their professional learning goals and maximize student achievement, usually reflecting on instruction, debriefing lesson observations, and co-planning lessons and units School leaders train for an entire year before launching a new school New teachers and school leaders spend three weeks together learning the Achievement First Essentials of effective instruction Schools release students early on Fridays to provide teachers with two hours of learning time with their team In-house network-wide curriculum and subject-area experts find, create and share top-notch curricular resources for teachers, while allowing for flexibility and creativity in the classroom All AF teachers come together twice a year for a day of networkwide professional development to learn from master teachers and outside experts Teachers trade successful teaching strategies and materials, with hundreds of downloadable lesson plans and classroom and professional development resources posted on the networkwide shared server The AF Career Pathway Program defines, develops and motivates sustained excellence in teaching through increased financial compensation, as well as additional leadership and growth opportunities for master teachers The AF Leadership Fellows Program provides stellar teachers with the opportunity to develop leadership skills and knowledge All teachers are provided with a laptop, core supplies, unrestricted access to the school copier (with a fully stocked paper supply), a $150 classroom set-up fund and, for those who teach independent reading, a $500 fund for classroom libraries MIGHTILY PEOPLE MATTER Strategic Use of Data for Instructional Excellence We refuse to let any student fall through the cracks. Achievement First is committed to researching and developing innovative methods for analyzing student assessment data to inform our planning and instruction, thereby ensuring that each student receives the support he or she needs to be successful. Every six weeks, AF gives interim assessments (IAs) that measure the mastery of standards Results are uploaded to AF Athena, a custom-built assessment system, which allows teachers to connect data to instructional planning and improvement analysis A school-wide Data Day follows each IA to analyze data and reflect on our progress, giving teachers the information they need to edit unit plans, target instruction and design interventions so that every student succeeds As a new teacher, I know that I will continue to be supported in my professional development and will be recognized for this growth. It is an unbelievably motivating factor for staying in the classroom and continuing to close the achievement gap. Joe Pirro, AF Crown Heights Elementary, Second-Grade Teacher Achievement First was highlighted as a national model of data management in Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction by Paul Bambrick- Santoyo: XXX Achievement First has partnered with Wireless Generation to commercially distribute AF Athena for use by other Charter Management Organizations and districts

4 PEOPLE MATTER MIGHTILY EXCELLENCE IS A HABIT Core Values As a values-driven organization, we live by nine core principles, which inform and guide us in all aspects of what we do from the classroom to the Network Support office and help us create a positive, achievement-oriented school culture. A Team & Family Atmosphere At Achievement First, you can expect to be part of a community of hard working, smart and driven individuals who are all working together as a team to fulfill our mission. Our team members constantly support and hold the highest respect for each other. We want our students to love learning and to be excited to come to school every day. We want our teachers, leaders, operations and network team to feel the same way about coming to work. There are no islands of excellence at Achievement First all teachers share a high-standards, no-excuses approach and commitment to ensuring that all students succeed Teachers appreciate knowing that the progress they make with a student continues when he or she moves onto a new classroom or school in the network There is a constant joy of learning, where classrooms are rigorous and fun, challenging and engaging, structured and joyful All teachers and school leaders have a commitment to collaboration, with an evident sense of community throughout schools Schools thrive on a culture of reflection and continuous learning AF has designed a teacher evaluation tool that was rated in the top three in the country by The New Teacher Project Achievement First is committed to a work-life balance Saturday tutoring is performed by college students and others outside of the network, and a consultant was recently hired to develop sustainability practices F1RST THINGS F1RST MANY MINDS ONE MISSION EVERYTHING WITH INTEGRITY No Excuses Achievement First sets ambitious, clearly measurable goals to provide all students with an outstanding education. If we fall short of these goals, we are willing to change the way we do things in order to achieve excellence for our students. People Matter, Mightily The number one factor impacting student achievement is teacher quality. We aggressively recruit talent and heavily invest in our people so that they can make a real difference in the lives of our students. Excellence is a Habit We relentlessly pursue excellence and never settle for so-so from students or team members. Sweat the Small Stuff We believe that details are the difference between mediocre and magnificent. Team & Family This work is a team sport; everyone shares in Achievement First s successes while celebrating the unique strengths and differences of each person and school. First Things First The needs of our students always come first. Whatever It Takes Achievement First goes the extra mile to make a difference in the life of every student. Many Minds, One Mission Together with parents, partners and supporters, Achievement First works to improve the communities in which we work. Everything With Integrity The REACH values (Respect, Enthusiasm, Achievement, Citizenship and Hard Work) drive the words and actions of all members of the Achievement First team.

5 The Power of the Network We are much more than great individual schools we are an interconnected team and family of students, teachers, parents, school leaders, data specialists, operations and finance professionals, content experts, and more. Teachers learn effective classroom practices from peers at sister schools, innovative techniques and successful practices are spread and systematized from Hartford to East New York for the benefit of the entire network, and everyone benefits from efficiencies created by our operations teams and shared Network Support services. We call this The Power of the Network! Teachers appreciate that the progress they make with a student continues when he or she moves onto a new classroom or school in the network When the network comes together twice a year, there is extraordinary energy in school chants and cheers and in the structured sharing sessions All Achievement First school principals gather five times during the year for formal sessions focused on network-wide priorities I felt a strong desire to work at Achievement First because I saw how everyone was super supportive and working together toward closing the achievement gap. I saw that everyone was laser focused on the mission. Jabari Sims, Founding Principal, AF Apollo Elementary (Houston, 2001) Principals meet more often within their geographic areas to participate in inter-visitations to observe each others schools, borrow good ideas and provide meaningful peer feedback The Achievement First Network Support team takes the rocks off the road by providing full operations, board, facilities, finance, fundraising and information technology assistance so that schoolbased team members can focus almost exclusively on student achievement. Additionally, the Network Support team provides critical recruitment and professional development help and partners heavily with schools to recruit, select, train and evaluate their teams all while leaving critical decisions in the hands of school leaders

6 According to NewSchools Venture Fund, low-income students at eight Achievement First schools in New York outperformed district counterparts in both reading and math by 20 percentage points. CMO Achievement First 8 Aspire 7 Uncommon 6 Mastery 4 Noble 3 KIPP DC 2 Alliance 2 DC Prep 1 PUC 1 Success Charter Network 1 Leadership Public Schools 1 Total 36 Number of Schools When I walk into an Achievement First school, sometimes I just want to pause and hang out for a little while because it s so electric. The teachers and faculty are just so interested each and every one of them and so engaged in what they are doing. Christopher Champion, Parent, Amistad Academy ConnCAN Top 10 Rankings 2010 #1 African-American elementary school student performance (Elm City College Prep) #1 African-American middle school student performance (Amistad #3 Hispanic middle school student performance (AF Bridgeport #4 African-American middle school student performance (AF Bridgeport #5 African-American high school student performance (Amistad-Elm City) #5 Overall elementary school performance gains (Elm City College Prep) #6 Overall middle school performance gains (AF Hartford #7 African-American elementary school student performance (Amistad #7 Low-income middle school student performance (Amistad #7 African-American middle school student performance (Elm City College Prep) #8 Low-income elementary school student performance (Elm City College Prep) #8 Low-income middle school student performance (AF Bridgeport #9 Hispanic elementary school student performance (Amistad #9 Hispanic middle school student performance (Amistad #9 Overall middle school performance gains (Amistad *Compared to all CT schools EDUCATION = FREEDOM Success at Closing the Achievement Gap Achievement First is a winning team that is attaining gap-closing, life-changing results for all students. With a 12-year track record of some of the strongest student performance results in the field, including outstanding results at the elementary, middle and high school levels and at multiple sites, we have already proven that we can replicate success. Achievement First schools that have been open for at least three years dramatically outperform their local school districts, in some cases by 30 to 40 percentage points In Connecticut, Achievement First has closed the achievement gap at both the elementary and middle school levels, with our students consistently surpassing state-wide averages after four years at an AF school In New York, seventh graders at AF Bushwick Middle closed the achievement gap in math, scoring higher than affluent Scarsdale At the conclusion of its inaugural year, Achievement First Hartford Academy posted the greatest performance gains of any Hartford public school (the district had to change the scale once AF was added) Amistad Academy was highlighted by the U.S. Department of Education as one of seven schools in the country that are models for closing the achievement gap Achievement First is ranked #1 in Connecticut for African-American performance at both the elementary and middle school levels In June 2010, Achievement First graduated its first senior class, with 100 percent of its students accepted into four-year colleges and universities Achievement First is piloting Life Prep, an innovative character education curriculum designed to teach character values as explicitly as academics

7 Teacher Positions We have teaching positions open for all grades (K-12) and subject levels, including music, physical education, art, dance and foreign language. Leadership Positions Teacher Coach Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque a nibh metus. Aliquam in augue vel libero accumsan dapibus. Vestibulum eu semper arcu. Grade-Level Chair Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque a nibh metus. Aliquam in augue vel libero accumsan dapibus. Vestibulum eu semper arcu. Academic Dean The academic dean works to ensure that every child reaches ambitious achievement goals for school-wide levels of mastery, while also coaching a portfolio of teachers and frequently owning a particular subject or grade level. Dean of Students/Culture The dean of students leads school-wide work to build and maintain a strong, positive, achievement-oriented school culture where students grow in a warm and joyful environment, while also coaching a portfolio of teachers and frequently owning a particular subject or grade level. Principal-in-Residence Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque a nibh metus. Aliquam in augue vel libero accumsan dapibus. Vestibulum eu semper arcu. Principal The principal is responsible for the overall management of their school while leading academic initiatives, programs related to school culture and professional development of all instructional staff, while also coaching a portfolio of teachers and deans. Director of School Operations The director of school operations designs and maintains smooth and efficient school-based systems and is responsible for all noninstructional services required to run the school, such as financial operations, preparing the campus for its opening each year and administering critical data systems. Network Support Positions Our Network Support team aims to free our schools to focus on student achievement by centralizing and coordinating certain functions. This enables us to provide services more efficiently capturing, systematizing and sharing best practices across the network and at a lower cost than a single school would on its own. Achievement First is committed to constant growth and reflection for our teachers. Download hundreds of free classroom and professional development resources found in our 19 schools at insturctional-resources To learn more about Achievement First, please visit us at For more information, please contact our recruitment team at recruitment@achievementfirst.org