MATCH is growing. Join our Team.
*Founding Directors of Teacher Training Opportunity
Type of Person
Perfect for a No Excuses administrator (dean, principal, etc) type who doesn't want to get 10.30pm phone calls anymore from the kiddos, but still burns with the passion of driving student achievement through the roof.
OR a superstar urban teacher who wants a change of job, but doesn't necessarily want to become a principal.
Master practitioner, basically, and someone fascinated by the little things -- the nuance of how to run a silent Do-Now that really drives the first several minutes of a class, or why cold-calling generally beats hand-raising.
Also, pragmatic revolutionary. You get stuff DONE. You run (or have run) a REALLY tight classroom. But you're not constrained by the existing models of teacher training. You're open to pursuing a different way.
Where
MATCH Charter School in Boston. Existing high school; opening a middle school next year.
Two Jobs
One person needs to pull this whole enterprise together. Think "Dean." Another 1 or 2 need to actually train all these people. Think "Professor" meets drill sergeant.
Pay
Solid.
Background
Our program will prepare workaholic 22-year-olds to succeed in high-poverty middle and high schools. Some will end up at No Excuses charter schools; others will seek to be solo Jaime Escalante types in (possibly chaotic) traditional schools. Probably 20 trainees in first year, which starts this fall.
Not much theory (education history, adolescent psych, etc). Instead, gigantic amounts of coaching and relentless practice/mastery of the key skills needed for a successful first year (discipline, parent communication, student relationship building, managing the 60 hour week wisely).
This approach suggests the right type of candidate. There are many great teachers who would be terrific to help, say, a 4-year-veteran take it to the next level. But that's not what we're trying to do.
Our program mission is to deploy unusually effective first year urban teachers. The Director is someone assertive; who will want it done "my way" (ie, using the best practices of No Excuses teachers). The right candidate will be comfortable that our program is not for everyone; we're not trying to replicate existing training programs, we're going to create something totally different or go down trying.
You should know that we've tested the idea of a HIGHLY prescriptive training program that focuses on the key situations which will arise, and there is a group of super-smart people who DESPERATELY want it.
The trainees will come from the MATCH Corps program. Based on selectivity and GRE scores, it's a more elite group than the Ed Schools at Harvard or Stanford. Smart, really nice, hard-working, achievement-obsessed folks.
Key Collaborators
MATCH has a number of stellar teachers and administrators; you'll get to know them all, as well as all the kids. Mike Goldstein is founder of MATCH School and its built-in program called MATCH Corps. He writes overly long emails. He's a former journalist who's been interviewing and observing No Excuses teachers for years, and has developed crazy ideas on how to change training such that first-year teachers do a lot less raw trial and error (and therefore their students learn a lot more). And while we want to go our own way, we have friendly relations with other folks in this business, and hope to learn from them, too: national organizations like TFA, Teacher YOU, High Tech High, and local outfits like Newton Teaching Fellows, Boston Teacher Residency, City On A Hill.
Interested?
Email Michael Goldstein
*Teachers (Science, Math, English)
We seek teachers with a "No Excuses" approach (think Rafe Esquith, Jaime Escalante, KIPP, etc.), teachers who relish the challenge of "turning around" kids who tend to arrive with both low academic skills and low effort in their previous schools.
We look for 2+ years of full-time teaching experience (Candidates with only student teaching experience thus far: we are sorry but we don't have the mentoring capacity to support you at the level you deserve early in your career).
We'll have a new middle school in September 2008 (Grade 6 math, Grade 6 English x 2, Grade 6 Science) as well as openings in our high school.
Read this for a sense of how we try to put teachers in a position to succeed.
We like phrases like "relentless work ethic." We buy one another lots of coffee. We think we collectively have a good sense of humor (admittedly on the dorky side), so we covet that in others. We seek a commitment of 3 years.
EOE. We seek a diverse workforce. Please email a resume and cover letter to Alan Safran.
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