Senior Manager, District Fellowship (CA)

Who we are

The News Literacy Project, founded in 2008, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building a national movement to ensure that all students are skilled in news literacy before high school graduation, giving them the knowledge and ability to participate in civic society as well-informed, critical thinkers. NLP is the country’s leading provider of news literacy education and works with educators in all 50 states.

NLP offers news literacy resources to students primarily through our signature e-learning platform, Checkology®, and to the public through our debunking website, RumorGuard®.

Where you fit in

The News Literacy Project empowers educators to teachmmiddle and high school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. Our signature product is the Checkology virtual classroom, a digital learning platform. Since its launch in 2016, almost 50,000 teachers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories have registered to use it. We are seeking a Senior Manager, District Fellowship who can support our California fellowships, with a primary focus on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). [MK1] This program, part of NLP’s “practitioner model creation” strategy, is a two-year partnership with district applicants who commit to designing, piloting and implementing a district-wide plan for news literacy instruction. To date, after only two years, this program has impacted the educational programming at 189 schools in eight states and the education of 89,000mstudents.

The ideal candidate will have most, if not all, of the following:·       

• Residency in Los Angeles County.
• A minimum of five years’ experience teaching in a middle or high school setting.   
• Experience with school- or district-level strategic planning and implementation processes.
•  Experience building deep, multifaceted curricular and teaching partnerships with schools and/or districts.
• Familiarity with digital curriculum and/or e-learning platforms is a plus.
• Must have experience working with LAUSD in some capacity. 
• Fluency in a language other than English is required. Spanish is strongly preferred. 

We’re looking for someone who can have an immediate and meaningful impact on our work, who is data driven and compelled to change tactics and strategy when results are not met. We want someone who expects the best from their colleagues and works to remove obstacles to their success.  And someone who has demonstrated an impatience with the status quo, believing systems change is vital to the improvement of public education and outcomes for students and can communicate that impatience to district leaders across the country.

This position reports to the Director, District Fellowship program.

About the position

The Senior Manager, District Fellowship will execute the program strategy for the California district fellows with a primary focus on LAUSD. This is a very specific and high-impact district engagement program, leading to the adoption of news literacy instruction and the use of NLP resources like Checkology by select districts (fellows) across the country, primarily in states where there is no current news literacy education mandate or guidance. There are four elements to our district fellowship strategy that the Senior Director is directly responsible for: recruitment and selection, support and guidance, implementation and learning, and data analysis and reporting. 

Specifically, in this job, you will:

• Collaborate, develop and execute the California fellowship district plan with manager.
• Maintain regular check-ins and coaching sessions with LAUSD and the other California fellows, ensuring key deliverables of the fellowship program.

o  80% managing LAUSD, coordinating with variousNLP teams, delivering professional development, community and family engagement presentations both virtually and in-person. 

o  20% supporting work of other California fellowships. 

• Attend and support the annual in-person gathering of current fellows.
• With manager, support the launch of the NLP District Fellowship Alumni program.
• Participate in professional development programs and promotional events as needed.

About you

This position will directly impact thousands of students in schools across the country and plays a pivotal role in shaping and achieving our organizational strategy. As the Senior Manager, District Fellowship (CA) you will partner with the Director, District Fellowship program, part of the Educator Engagement Team, to support replicable and scalable district-wide implementation models of news literacy instruction.  

In addition to the qualifications noted above, the successful candidate will have all or most of the following:

• A strong work ethic, while modeling a healthy work/life balance for colleagues.
• The ability to travel (local) 30-40% of the time.
• An exceptional presence, including strong writing, speaking and presentation skills.
• Ability to evaluate and provide critical feedback and support to other education professionals designing strategic plans.

This full-time position is virtual with local travel to LAUSD. Highly qualified candidates who live in Los Angeles County are encouraged to apply.

The News Literacy Project welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds. We offer equal opportunity in employment for all qualified persons and prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status, disability unrelated to job requirements, genetic information, military service or other protected status.

We deeply value diversity in the workplace and strongly believe that a diverse team enriches our organization and strengthens our ability to realize our mission (read/print NLP’s Organizational Values [PDF] and Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [PDF]).