Director of Early Childhood Education, Mayor’s Office of Education

Posted by City of Philadelphia on October 29, 2019

The Mayors Office of Education sits within a nexus of work that requires intentional collaboration with a myriad of organizations and individuals from City Council, the School District of Philadelphia, City departments and others. The Office works to support and advocate for the broader educational system to support system-wide improvements. The Office directly manages two signature initiatives of Philadelphia Mayor Kenney: PHLPreK and Community Schools. PHLPrek is the largest piece of this portfolio with a budget of $40M and a current staff of five. PHLPrek offers free, quality pre-K to children ages 3-4 across Philadelphia. PHLPreK currently offers 2,250 seats with plans to expand to 5,500 seats by Fall 2023.

Job Description

This is a new position that will report to the Chief Education Officer and work collaboratively with the Mayors Policy Office to guide and manage the strategic development and implementation of a system of Early Childhood Education (ECE) for Philadelphia. This includes: supporting policies and programs that ensure an ample and accessible supply of high-quality early learning opportunities, a well-trained (and compensated) workforce, easy access for parents and providers, and an infrastructure that supports coordination across systems and funding sources.

This individual will play a leadership role in all aspects of the development, implementation, and maintenance of a highly successful municipal effort to ensure that all children under the age of 5 have access to high quality early learning opportunities. This will entail leveraging the lessons of, and investments in, the PHLpreK program along with many other recent local ECE investments from federal, state, and local government as well as philanthropic sources. Building on a robust existing base of work by non-profit, labor, government, and higher education organizations to strengthen the ECE sector, this position will connect with all stakeholders to use data and expertise to generate and manage a strategic plan that ensures that all of the essential pillars of an effective ECE system are advancing.

This person will also be a primary advocate within government advancing the cause of young children. The position will require cogent, confident, fact-based internal advocacy for investment, policy-change, and system modification that will allow for development of an ECE system that successfully serves a population inclusive of a large number of families with low incomes.

As a result of this persons leadership, Philadelphia will become the nations leading city exemplifying and implementing the attributes of an evidence-based system to support effective early childhood education.

This position will report to the Chief Education Officer and will oversee the operational staff managing the implementation of PHLPrek as well as policy staff who together work with a cross-sector of stakeholders (state agencies, philanthropy, advisory boards, city departments, etc.), providers and advocates in building a high quality, more seamless ECE system for Philadelphia.

Learn more and apply: https://www.smartrecruiters.com/CityofPhiladelphia/743999692861861-director-of-early-childhood-education