About the organization

The Primary School (TPS) is a new organization that will serve as the keystone of a collaborative model dedicated to improving health and educational outcomes for children. Fueled by the belief that the current model of school is too limited to close the achievement gap for our nation’s most at risk children, the new school will design a new model of primary education and primary care which braids together education, health, and family support services starting at birth. In doing so, the school will expand the traditional definition of “school” in order to prepare all children to succeed in college, career, and life.

TPS will open in the fall of 2016; academic year 2015-16 will be a planning year. Positioned as a tuition-free independent school, it will begin with three cohorts of early childhood students and grow to serve grades K-5 and beyond. The school has three defining characteristics:

Provide integrated and comprehensive services: The new school will partner with an existing health care organization. Educators and health care professionals will provide integrated academic and health (physical, mental, and socio-emotional) services to students and families.
Begin serving children at birth: The school will admit students at or before birth, and will provide early childhood supports alongside medical care during the critical years of child development, ensuring that students are school-ready by the time they enter the elementary school grades.
Offer two-generation supports: A parent is the most important person in a child’s life. Families will receive services, including primary care and intensive parenting education, to help them better support their children and become healthier themselves.

In addition to our core focus on serving the children and families of East Palo Alto and Belle Haven, TPS is committed to designing a model that is replicable in other communities. We are investing in design, research, evaluation, and dissemination that will allow us to replicate our model and/or transfer our learnings to others.

About the role

We believe deeply in the power of all parents to drive positive academic and health outcomes for their children, and as such, the parent program is a cornerstone of the model. We seek to develop a bold new approach to working with parents the complements our health and education elements and leverages parent strengths to drive the highest possible return on investment for adults and children.

TPS is searching for an exceptional individual to lead the design and implementation of our parent program. This program, which will support parents from pregnancy to adolescence, is core to the success of the model and offers one of the greatest opportunities for TPS to innovate and contribute to the national landscape. The ideal candidate will be able to balance theory and practice to develop programs, products, and services that integrate research from a broad range of fields, including psychology, economics, neuroscience, and anthropology but are also grounded in the practical realities of our parents’ lives. The ultimate goal is to develop a set of programs and services that can serve as a national model for supporting parents.

Responsibilities

Program design

Lead the development of programs, services, and products that meet the needs of our parents, furthering their outcomes and those of their children. Initially, this work will focus on supporting parents from pregnancy to age two.
Program design activities will include:
Leverage design thinking methods to identify needs, barriers, and strengths of parents and develop pathways to address them.
Investigate and account for the practical constraints of the environment, including the scarcity of parent time, availability of sustainable sources of funding, and provider talent and expertise.
Work closely with other practitioners, including educators and health professionals, to ensure parent program complements and reinforces child-based programs.
Understand and incorporate key policies and regulations that are critical to developing a sustainable model, including around funding and privacy.

Research

Perform practical research to inform the initial and ongoing design of the model. Activities will include:
Perform human-centered design research, collaborating closely with parents to understand parent motivation and behavior and to develop programs.
Explore lessons from a variety of fields, potentially including behavioral economics, cognitive neuroscience, and psychology.
Examine existing programs nationally and determine opportunities to learn from other successes and failures.
Synthesize findings into practical insights to inform design.
Develop and launch pilots to test various aspects of the program before full implementation.

Program implementation

Oversee and manage implementation of parent program. Activities will include:
Develop and manage all elements of an implementation plan and ensure program is implemented to fidelity.
Develop materials, curriculum, and other content as necessary.
Manage relationships with all stakeholders to ensure buy-in for work.
Train parent coaches and/or other practitioners who will work with directly parents.
Manage operations and administration related to the program.
Work directly with parents and other practitioners to directly implement aspects of program.

Evaluation and measurement

Develop an outcomes framework to understand how to measure progress for parents and children.
Develop a system to measure ongoing program effectiveness on both process and outcome metrics.
Run rapid cycle trials to test innovations and use results to refine programs on an ongoing basis.
Manage partnerships with key research institutions to launch more extensive evaluations of the work.
Codify program elements for internal and external uses.

Other

Engage with national experts to stay up-to-date on developments in the field.
Support design, research, and evaluation in other areas of the organization.

Qualifications

Project management: Exceptional project management skills; able to plan for and drive forward complex, cross- functional projects.
Team work: Strong relationship building skills; able to engage and positively influence parents, team members, and partner organizations.
Design and innovation: Ability to design and continue to iterate an innovative, high-impact program. Creativity and willingness to redefine problems and seek new solutions to them.
Critical thinking: Exceptional reasoning, problem solving and strategic thinking skills.
Implementation effectiveness: Ability to translate plans into work on the ground.
Research and synthesis: Ability to translate research from a variety of field into practice.
Experience with families: Experience working with parents, particularly those living in poverty or other conditions of scarcity.

We are open to individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, including but not limited to social work, medicine, public health, education, community development, and international development.

Personal characteristics

Collaborative and team-oriented approach to work.
Comfort with ambiguity and ability to rapidly adapt as next priorities arise.
Proactive and resourceful, sense of urgency in all activities.
Humility.
Entrepreneurial energy with a desire to be part of an innovative new model and organization.
Unwavering belief that all children and adults can accomplish extraordinary things.
Spanish speaking a plus.

How to apply

To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to jobs@theprimaryschool.org.