Program Manager, City Year

Posted by on June 18, 2012

Program Manager, City Year

Posted on: June 5, 2012

Organization’s Mission and Goals

City Year is an education-focused, nonprofit organization that partners with public schools to help keep students in school and on track to graduate. In communities across the United States and through two international affiliates, City Year’s innovative public-private partnership brings together diverse teams of young AmeriCorps members who commit to a year of full-time service in schools. Corps members support students by focusing on attendance, behavior and course performance through in-class tutoring, mentoring and after school programs. This year, more than 2,000 City Year corps members are serving in schools and communities nationwide.

City Year was founded in 1988 with the ideal that young people are an untapped resource to help solve this country’s pressing problems and in the process become more engaged citizens. Since then, City Year has established programs in 23 U.S. cities, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbia, SC, Columbus, Denver, Detroit, Little Rock/North Little Rock, Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Miami, Milwaukee, New Hampshire, New York, Orlando, Greater Philadelphia, Rhode Island, Sacramento, San Antonio, San José/Silicon Valley, Seattle/King County, and Washington, D.C., and international affiliates in Johannesburg, South Africa and London, England. City Year is a proud member of AmeriCorps.

City Year Service

As one of the fastest growing nonprofit organizations in the country, City Year is laser-focused on reducing the dropout crisis in America. Corps members provide a continuum of care working in third through ninth grade in America’s highest-need schools. Over the next decade, City Year will focus its growth in the communities with the lowest graduation rates by scaling its impact in the 23 U.S. cities where City Year corps members already serve as well as expanding into carefully selected new markets. By tapping into the thousands of young people who are eager to serve, City Year can provide the extra people power in the classroom to help implement the right interventions for the right students at the right times.

City Year corps members accelerate whole school reform by helping schools implement research-based best practices by strengthening tiered students supports, improving coordination of teaching and learning, increasing teacher effectiveness by allowing more time for differentiated instruction, and expanding and optimizing learning time with before- and after-school tutoring. As near-peers, corps members are uniquely able to help improve student attendance, behavior and coursework – which research confirms are indicators of a student’s likelihood of graduating from high school. This school-based service is at the heart of City Year’s approach to helping students and schools succeed.

City Year Greater Philadelphia is one of the largest sites in the City Year network with 230 AmeriCorps members serving in over 20 schools.

Position Overview

The Program Manager (PM) is responsible for driving the successful implementation of the Whole School Whole Child service model by building and cultivating strong school partnerships and developing a team of committed, idealistic leaders and school practitioners. The Program Manager plays a crucial role in leading a team of Corps Members through a ten-month long journey of learning, reflection and service in schools (civic action) that builds Corps Members’ civic capacity and civic identity. The Program Manager reports to the Program Director and directly manages Team Leaders (TLs) and corps member (CM) Team(s).

Responsibilities

Service Delivery

Oversee the execution of City Year’s Whole School, Whole Child Tier 1 supports and Tier 2 interventions.

Oversee the implementation of whole school and class service using City Year culture and values as a foundation; includes instructional support, thematic events, culture and climate
Provide structure and common understanding of service model between HQ, the site, corps members, and service partners by using tools such as the Memo of Understanding, Service Partner Agreement, and team goal setting documentation.
Create clear, realistic and measurable monthly and weekly objectives for individual and team members to accomplish WSWC goals in partnership with and direction from the Program and service Leadership Team.
Drive results by ensuring effective and timely collection of data and implementation of quantitative and qualitative evaluation tools, effectively leveraging existing processes (e.g. data informed decision making, school assessment) and team member strengths to accomplish objectives.
Capture best practices and share with the larger City Year community of practitioners.
Understand and use data from teacher and Corps Member surveys, student, school and district level data and classroom observations to explain trends and identify opportunities to continually improve: interventions, whole school and class service and Corps Member performance.
Manage special projects and programs as assigned including WSWC roles.
Translate strategies into clear objectives, action plans and measurements

Corps Member Program Delivery

Guide corps members to meet their service performance requirement and leadership development potential.

Manage, lead and develop one –two Team Leader(s) and teams of 16-20 young people.
Inspire the team to embrace a culture of power and idealism using City Year leadership tools, team building exercises, rituals and best practices.
Use performance management tools to set performance expectations, identify strengths and development opportunities and partner with each CM on a development plan to maximize leadership potential. These include the performance management plan and reviews, weekly/bi-weekly one-one one meetings.
Link problems and symptoms to identify underlying issues and focus on addressing most critical, high impact issues; organize appropriate information, expertise and diverse perspectives for self and others to develop optimal solutions and manage decision making.
Ensure CMs are well equipped to meet Corps Practitioner Standards through coaching, observations and regular feedback.
Help CMs develop civic identity by guiding them through the Idealist Journey, a reflection tool developed to assist corps members in connecting key learning to their service experience.
Support the management of corps member human resources to meet graduation and post-graduation expectations.
Effectively translate information and messages from various stakeholders (the school, City Year, the Community) to CMs so they understand and are empowered but not overloaded.
Provide training and development opportunities to meet identified corps member needs.

http://www.idealist.org/view/job/ns6cf89fzSsP/