Overview

Overview

We seek middle school deans of culture and community (DCC) who are passionate about building and leading a school culture that serves every student and the whole student. Our DCCs are the champions of our Responsive Classroom and restorative practices approach at our middle schools. They ensure our staff provide a rich, joyful learning experience where every student learns and grows. The dean will provide cultural leadership to the teaching staff and oversee the implementation of school-wide systems and procedures. In addition, the dean of culture and community will drive the impact of critical partnerships: with the leadership team to ensure that all students, including those with exceptionalities, have the access and support needed to achieve; with families to ensure a true partnership is built and results in positive outcomes for the student; and with grade-level leaders to ensure each grade level achieves culture goals and establishes a positive, joyful learning community.

Join us as we foster our students’ innate curiosities, encourage discussion and debate, and guide students to think, imagine, debate, and create.

Why extraordinary leaders lead at Ascend

Ascend is a network of K-12 public charter schools serving 5,800 students in 15 schools across Brooklyn—New York’s most populous borough. Our undertaking is to lead our students on a great intellectual adventure, provide them with an exceptional college-preparatory education, and place them firmly on the path to success in college and beyond.

We guide our students to think critically and independently and to enjoy education as an end in itself. We teach a rich and rigorous liberal arts curriculum that nurtures students’ natural curiosity about the world. We foster a positive, non-punitive school culture where students feel connected, empowered, and safe to take academic risks. Even our school buildings are designed to reflect our high aspirations for teaching and learning and the notable accomplishments that occur within our walls.

To create this kind of vibrant learning community, we invest heavily in our faculty by providing ongoing professional training and support and encourage our educators to collaborate closely and push each other to achieve great outcomes. Leading at Ascend means growing deeply in your career, expressing your voice, and playing a defining role in the future of your students, your school, and the Ascend network.

Ascend is committed to building a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist community through our hiring practices and our focus on creating a culture and environment where diverse perspectives, ideas, and identities are valued and integrated into our way of working and educating students. Ascend staff represent a wide diversity of racial, socio-economic, gender, religious, and national identities—opening a window to the entire Ascend community on the richness of humanity. We welcome all applicants who share our mission and vision to join us in our deeply consequential work.

Learn more about the Ascend approach by visiting our website.

Responsibilities

School culture

  • Leads and drives the school’s family partnership vision and strategic plans, including establishing partnership guidelines and support that results in reciprocity amongst our schools, our families, and our communities, and drives learning from and with each other
  • Co-leads the planning and execution of Tier 1 interventions, including serving as a model and delivering feedback to strengthen interventions
  • Leads and manages culture data systems (i.e. attendance, referrals, and logical consequences), related communication structures, and data-driven action plans that ensures data is used to strengthen school and classroom culture
  • Partners with the leadership team in leading school-wide morning meeting, advisory, and community meeting planning and execution
  • Partners with the student service team to implement systems that continuously provide the highest leverage support for vulnerable students
  • Supports and partners with grade-level leaders and culture associates to ensure grade levels achieve culture goals
  • Coaches and manages staff to achieve family communication vision and expectations, including providing effective family communication that benefits student learning
  • Plan, leads, and oversees family and community events that reflect our vision and values

Curriculum and instruction

  • Develops teachers’ ability to foster a culturally responsive classroom and culturally relevant pedagogy that results in a love of learning, student agency, and a full range of student learning and growth
  • Partners with student service team and leadership team to ensure that all students, including those with exceptionalities, have the access and support needed to achieve and demonstrate readiness for the next grade

Fostering a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist community

  • Models and supports a race equity culture, including skill-building and leading self and others through awareness, growth, and development
  • Partners to plan and execute individual or team activities with systems that support continuous improvement with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and excellence
  • Serve as DASA liaison (Dignity for All Students Act)

Effective teaming

  • Serves as the manager and coach for culture associates
  • Coaches and develops staff, including planning and leading professional development, on behavior management, responsive classroom, and social-emotional learning
  • Promotes and develops strong teams that collaborate, communicate, and work together for Ascend students and the community
  • Observes and supports grade-level leaders in their planning and facilitation of grade-level meetings
  • Works collaboratively, leverages data, and thinks flexibly to continuously improve school culture systems and decision-making processes that strengthen outcomes

Staff and reporting relationships

The dean of culture and community reports to the principal and supervises all culture associates.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree, with an advanced degree, preferred
  • At least three years teaching experience with a proven track record of elevating student achievement and classroom culture metrics
  • At least one year of experience leading, managing, and coaching a team of adults that demonstrates an ability to drive results through others
  • A passion, commitment, and expertise in responsive classroom and restorative practices
  • A hunger for feedback and self-improvement
  • A high level of ownership over the overall outcomes of the scholars they lead
  • A hunger for feedback and self-important
  • Self-awareness, with an ability to treat all members of the school’s community with respect and an accurate idea of one’s strengths and areas of growth
  • Strong collaboration, interpersonal and communication skills, including working effectively with people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse perspectives
  • Strong organizational, self-management, and problem-solving skills with the ability to handle many responsibilities simultaneously
  • Alignment with the educational philosophy and core beliefs of Ascend Learning

Diversity at Ascend

Ascend is committed to building a diverse and inclusive community, both through our hiring practices and our focus on creating a culture and environment where diverse perspectives, ideas, and identities are valued and integrated into our way of working and educating students. Ascend staff represent a wide diversity of racial, socio-economic, gender, religious, and national identities—opening a window to the entire Ascend community on the richness of humanity. We welcome all applicants who share our mission and vision to join us in our deeply consequential work.

Compensation

Ascend offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package. Please visit www.ascendschools.org/careers to learn more about the benefits of working at Ascend.

Ascend’s Vaccination Policy Statement

To prevent the infection and spread of COVID-19, and protect the health and safety of staff, students, family members, interns, volunteers, and visitors to Ascend’s premises from COVID-19 infection, Ascend requires all staff to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated for the coronavirus. This policy is mandatory except for staff with a documented medical or religious reason for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

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