School Empowerment Network

Program Director/Principal Coach

This role supports principals in traditional Texas school districts who are launching new or redesigned district-managed schools to replace or reenergize previously struggling schools. This role is ideal for a former principal who is deeply passionate about educational equity and excited to roll up their sleeves and help new or redesigned innovative district schools launch effectively. Successful candidates will love the feeling of empowering others to develop a meaningful vision and strong leadership skills and be satisfied to work through others to get results for students. Our ideal candidate will have:

  • experience both as a principal and a principal coach,
  • strong elementary leadership experience,
  • turnaround experience,
  • and have led or engaged with STEM education in the K-8 space.

In 25-26, the schools SEN supports through this project will either use a Career and College Prep model or a STEM model. The schools that join the program in 26-27 will all be Advanced STEM models. To learn more about the School Action Fund click here, to learn more about the Career and College Prep model click here, to learn more about the Advanced STEM model click here.

Responsibilities

  • Coach and develop the principal and instructional leadership team of up to five new/redesigned schools in Texas traditional districts including
    • Training instructional leaders to execute on instructional leadership “power moves” including Curriculum Leadership, Observation and Feedback, Data Driven Instruction, and Adult Professional Learning
    • Providing 1:1 coaching and development to instructional leaders ensuring that their mastery of each “power move” increases rapidly
    • Visiting schools and conducting structured co-observations/rounds to develop leaders’ instructional lenses and drive continuous improvement of instruction and culture at the school
    • Developing the leadership skills of the principal including the ability to work through others, set and maintain a vision, and engage in continuous improvement cycles
    • Providing direct professional development to teachers on high leverage teaching practices (eg. Teach Like a Champion strategies) and teaching and insisting that the instructional leadership team follow up and further develop teachers in these practices
    • Progress monitoring student learning data and ensuring the school has a viable action plan to deliver strong student outcomes
    • Project managing the implementation of the new/redesign school model over the course of two years ensuring that the School Design Plan created by the school comes to life
  • Collaborate with the rest of the SEN Texas coaching team to plan and deliver best-in-class professional learning for all SEN-supported principals and their teams through regular leadership convenings including
    • Planning and delivering professional development on the instructional power moves, continuous improvement, talent strategy, and other tenets of high quality school leadership
  • Serve as a member of the highly collaborative and nimble “Continuation Team” including
    • Actively participating in team meetings and professional development
    • Problem-solving, resource sharing, and partnering with teammates

Competencies

  • Superior coaching skills including the ability to hold a high bar for excellence while motivating and supporting coachees to achieve progress and results
  • Intentional pacing of school and principal development over time - able to look at a variety of growth areas for a leader and a new/redesigned school and determine how to break down the gains over time into manageable goals
  • Highly effective professional development planner and facilitator - breaks down nuanced topics into clear concepts and/or steps. Focuses on achieving the objective over delivering the planned content.
  • Strong task and time management skills - able to work highly independently to achieve expected outcomes
  • Excellent relationship building skills - intentionally and actively develops trusting and productive relationships with teammates, coachees, and other stakeholders
  • Systems-thinking - ability to see the forest for the trees, step back and analyze program impact and gaps and take initiative to improve work and programming that is still developing
  • Ability to navigate complex stakeholder relationships
  • Strong communication skills - ability to create communication and planning tools and documents, speak and write with clarity and conviction
  • High self-awareness regarding working styles and personal identity markers. Comfort in discussing lines of difference in personal identity with others, working across multiple lines of difference, and reflecting on and adjusting style.


Experience/Background Knowledge

  • Experience with Leverage Leadership’s seven levers (aka “instructional power moves”) and/or Relay Graduate School of Education’s protocols for teacher and leader development and school improvement
  • Experience leading or coaching others to implement Texas’ High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) products especially Amplify, Eureka, STEMscopes Math, or HMH
  • Experience leading with and coaching others through the analysis of common Texas assessments including mClass, MAP, STAAR, and curriculum-based assessments from the HQIM listed above
  • Experience leading STEM/Advanced STEM programming
  • Experience with turnaround leadership - knowledge of the choices, priorities, and moves necessary for leaders in turnaround situations to drive short-term improvement and long-term sustainability


Mindsets

  • Deeply held belief that all children deserve and can receive an excellent equitable education and the passion to work toward that belief despite obstacles and setbacks
  • A recognition of, and patience for, the ongoing development of innovative and flexible approaches within traditional schools, districts, and state agencies
  • Well-balanced locus of control - takes significant accountability for results while also recognizing locus of control

Required Experience

  • Must have experience as a school principal with demonstrated results
  • We will also prioritize candidates with the following:
    • Experience as a Texas school principal
    • Experience a principal coach
    • Strong elementary leadership experience
    • Turnaround experience,
    • Experience with STEM education in the K-8 space.

Important to Know

  • This job requires monthly travel to locations throughout Texas such as Victoria, Houston, San Antonio, and Texarkana - anticipate a full-day school visit per school per month not including travel time which could require overnight stays
  • In addition, we come together for three School Convenings (major Texas cities), two team retreats (Austin), and one organizational retreat (east coast/Texas rotation) each year.
  • This person must be Texas-based. All SEN teammates work remotely except when visiting school campuses.
  • Ideally, this individual will work full-time but we are open to discussions about partial time roles.
  • The start date is June 2025 with the potential for some contract work in May
  • Reports to the Executive Director of Texas Programming
  • The salary for this position is $153,000 for the 25-26 school year and will be eligible for cost-of-living raises each year after that. SEN uses standard salaries for all roles.
  • SEN offers a comprehensive benefit package including health benefits, 401k matching, and professional development funds. Learn more here (link).

School Empowerment Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law.

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