Instructional Specialist - Teaching & Learning
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1400 1st Street , NW, Northwest Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, United States, 20001
We are excited to consider your application for anticipated vacancies in the 2026-2027 school year. We are thrilled that you’re considering applying for openings expected in the 2026-2027 school year at Friendship Public Charter School.
Friendship Public Charter School operates a network of college-preparatory public charter schools, serving students from preschool through 12th grade. Our mission is to provide a world-class education that equips students with the knowledge and skills necessary for academic achievement and success beyond high school.
We are seeking dedicated professionals to join our team for the 2026/2027 school year. If you are committed to helping students achieve academic success and preparing them for college and career opportunities, we encourage you to apply.
An educator in the Instructional Specialist - Teaching & Learning (ISTL) role leads a small team of teachers, paraprofessionals, and teaching residents in the same grade or subject to meet the ISTL’s standards of excellence. ISTLs establish each team member’s roles and goals, determine how students spend time, and organize teaching roles to fit each teacher’s strengths, content knowledge, and professional development goals. The team uses the ISTL’s methods and tools. The ISTL co-plans, co-teaches, models, coaches and gives feedback, and leads and supports the team in building a tutoring culture. The ISTL may also be partially or fully released, depending on the campus model. The ISTL organizes the team to analyze student learning data and change instruction to ensure high-growth learning for every child, with a focus on small-group teaching and tutoring. The ISTL collaborates with the team, using the team’s ideas and innovations that the ISTL agrees may improve learning. The ISTL is fully accountable for the learning and development of all students taught by the team members. The ISTL earns a substantial stipend based on outcomes and other tasks.
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Please see the available salary scales: FPCS Compensation + Stipend
Responsibilities
Instructional Delivery
- Consistently creates a classroom culture of high achievement and student ownership of their learning that helps foster students’ intellectual, social and emotional development.
- Provide daily instruction, including clear learning outcomes, well-designed lessons and high-quality assessments that align to Friendship’s curriculum and standards.
- Incorporate into lessons creative, hands-on learning experiences that broaden students’ exposure and interests, help foster student ingenuity and require application of knowledge and skills acquired through daily instruction.
- Maintain a classroom environment that is visually appealing, rich with resources aligned to curriculum and standards and honors student’s achievement with current and accurate displays of exemplary student work.
- Communicate to students to understand their talents, interests and needs and to convey learning expectations and their progress toward meeting those expectations.
- Communicate regularly with families to identify students’ talents, interests and needs and update parents regarding students’ achievements and progress.
- Collaborate with school-based staff and throughout the Friendship network in staff meetings, regular analysis sessions and professional learning designed to enhance students’ learning experience and increase student achievement.
Planning and Preparation
- Set high expectations of achievement that are ambitious and measurable for all students taught by team
- Establish methods and create instructional tools and materials that team teachers use in all classrooms
- Set direction, verbally and with tools and materials, that clarify content and teaching process
- Lead team to:
- backward planning to align all lessons, activities, and assessments using a high-standards curriculum
- design and lead instruction that is enriched (developing higher-order thinking skills) and personalized (reflecting learning levels and interests of individual students), prioritizing small-group teaching and tutoring and offering accelerated learning
- design assessments that accurately assess student growth
- prepare to deliver small-group teaching and tutoring
Classroom Environment
- Lead team to:
- hold students accountable for high expectations of behavior and engagement that are ambitious and measurable
- create physical classroom environments conducive to collaborative and individual learning
- establish a culture of respect, enthusiasm, and rapport
Instruction
- Lead team to:
- hold students accountable for ambitious, measurable standards of academic achievement
- maximize student learning by incorporating small-group teaching and tutoring
- identify and address individual students’ social, emotional, and behavioral learning needs and barriers
- identify and address individual students’ development of organizational and time-management skills
- invest students in their learning using a variety of influence techniques
- incorporate questioning and discussion in teaching
- monitor and analyze student assessment data to inform engaging instruction and small-group teaching and tutoring
- communicate with students and keep them informed of their progress
- directly responsible for teaching a group of students
Professional Responsibilities
- Actively seek and apply feedback from supervisors and team members to continuously improve professional practice.
- Lead the team in maintaining strong, consistent communication with families and partnering with them to support student learning at school and at home.
- Organize and facilitate team planning time to align instructional priorities, address student learning needs, and promote effective small-group instruction and tutoring.
- Structure how students spend instructional time by leveraging the strengths of all adults on the team.
- Distribute instructional responsibilities (e.g., lesson planning, small-group instruction, interventions, grading, and data analysis) based on team members’ strengths, expertise, and development goals.
- Coordinate non-instructional responsibilities across the team to ensure efficient operations.
- Model effective instructional practices to support team development and instructional consistency.
- Clarify team roles and provide ongoing feedback, coaching, and support to strengthen team effectiveness.
- Participate in school-based professional learning and contribute to the development of instructional practice across the team.
Qualifications
- Knowledge of subject matter being taught
- Bachelor’s degree
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in the role preferred
- Ideally, experience successfully leading a team of adults to accomplish goals, though not necessarily as a formal leader
- Master’s degree
- Prior evidence of high-growth student learning in the relevant subjects (in the top 25% compared to other teachers in a state or on national tests)
- Evidence of ongoing professional development and/or continuing education
Praxis Information:
Curriculum Information
To learn more about our curriculum, consider the following links:
FPCS’s policy is to provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified applicants and employees regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, status as a special disabled veteran, or any other protected criteria as established by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to recruitment and hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, transfer, layoff, termination and all other terms and conditions of employment. Employment decisions at FPCS are based solely upon relevant criteria, including an individual’s capabilities, qualifications, training, experience and suitability.