What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Academic Readiness position at The Commit Partnership?
About The Commit Partnership
The Commit Partnership is a collective impact organization dedicated to making Texas a place where economic opportunity is shared and not determined by race, place, or socioeconomic status. We collaborate with education practitioners and community leaders to improve educational outcomes from early childhood through postsecondary education, aiming to increase living wage attainment across Dallas County and the state of Texas.
Our True North Goal is that by 2040, at least half of all 25-34-year-old residents of Dallas County, irrespective of race, will earn a living wage. The Commit Partnership drives this vision by improving student achievement, workforce readiness, and postsecondary completion rates, ensuring more individuals are prepared for economic mobility and long-term success.
Position Summary
Under the general supervision of the Managing Director of Academic Readiness, the Director of Academic Readiness will be responsible for systemic change management and implementation of innovative and high-impact strategies aimed at improving academic outcomes in grades 4-12 in Dallas County. The Director of Academic Readiness will lead Commit’s efforts to strengthen district capacity in curriculum and instruction, pedagogy, and data-informed instruction across grades 4-12. This role focuses on supporting the development and execution of strategies aligned with Commit’s rigorous curriculum and instruction priorities. The Director will work closely with district teams to support the build-out of sustainable instructional practices that drive improved student learning outcomes.
Additionally, the Director of Academic Readiness will be a co-facilitator of the Dallas County Math and RLA District Leader Working Group and Middle School Working Group, the collaborative, systems change community of practices for Commit’s local Dallas County district partners.
This role requires deep content expertise in teaching and learning, specifically secondary math and RLA, a strong understanding of curriculum, and experience with leadership development, including instructional coaching. The ideal candidate will support districts in developing cohesive instructional strategies and aligning supports to research-based best practices.
The salary range for this role is $110,000 - $126,000.
Key Responsibilities
Instructional Strategy & Pedagogy
Generally, works in an office environment but may occasionally be required to perform job duties outside of the typical office setting. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet to moderate. The employee is not exposed to any adverse environmental conditions.
Physical Activity & Requirements
While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee is required to talk and hear. The employee is often required to sit and use repetitive motions of the wrists, hands and/or fingers. This is a sedentary position, however, the employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands, grasp, climb or balance, and to stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl and lift up to 10 pounds. Hearing, talking and vision abilities required by this job include perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction, expressing or exchanging ideas be means of the spoken word and close visual acuity to perform an activity such as preparing and analyzing data and figures, transcribing, viewing a computer terminal and extensive reading.
About The Commit Partnership:
Our Mission
We believe that through our actions, Dallas County – which educates 10% of Texas and 1% of the nation– can be an inclusive and prosperous region where economic opportunity is shared equitably. That’s why our true north goal is that by 2040 at least half of all 25-34-year-old residents of Dallas County, irrespective of race, will be provided the opportunity to earn a living wage.
To increase living wage attainment, we must equitably increase educational success aligned with high-demand jobs, maximizing the cumulative impact from early education all the way to college, career, and/or military readiness and accessing and completing a strong postsecondary education. Our staff aligns community stakeholders around this shared future roadmap – analyzing data to lift up strategic initiatives that improve policies, practices, and funding that grow our community’s capacity to serve every student more effectively.
Our Story
Founded in 2012, this partnership is the nation’s largest educational collective impact organization, composed of backbone staff and over 200 partners across Dallas County and the state of Texas working collaboratively to solve systemic education challenges. Our staff aligns community stakeholders around a shared future roadmap – analyzing data to lift up strategic initiatives that improve policies, practices, and funding that grow our community’s capacity to serve every student more effectively.
Together, we work to advocate for excellent and equitable public education that ensures all students – regardless of race, place, or socio-economic status – have the power to determine their future and earn a living wage. We do this work through several ventures including Early Matters Dallas, North Texas Tutoring Corps, Dallas County Promise, Texas College Bridge, Dallas Thrives, Commit’s Policy Team, the Texas Impact Network, and several coalitions.
True North Traits
Our True North Traits creates a mission-driven environment and champions us to do our best work each day.
Systemic Impact: You understand the barriers and lived experiences that our students face and are skilled at delivering systemic solutions at scale that address these needs. You achieve significant, sustainable results that increase equitable outcomes through your work (including the reallocation or improvement in public funding), and you recognize the difference between activity and impact.
Judgment: You exhibit a relentless “students first” focus by thinking strategically about what data must be collected, analyzed, visualized, and activated (and what steps must be taken, in what order) to cause resources to be reallocated and actions to be taken to systemically overcome the root causes hindering achievement of the Partnership's mission.
Communication: By listening to understand before seeking to be understood, you’re able to build trust and facilitate collaboration across lines of difference, recognizing that both are essential to our success. You are also able to find common ground with diverse stakeholders and can tailor the organization's message to different audiences as needed to influence meaningful change.
Innovation: You can create or meaningfully contribute to the design and execution of a systemic and transformational strategic plan to solve complex problems, often at scale, that improves organizational effectiveness and/or closes equity gaps for our students and families.
Equity and Inclusion: You intentionally create spaces where relevant stakeholders have a seat or voice at the table, ensuring that each person at the table's thoughts and perspectives are shared, valued by all others at the table, and reflected in our work. You're excited to help build and/or contribute to teams where everyone feels welcomed, respected, valued, and highly supported.
Joy: You recognize that people are central to our work, striking a balance between people and process, and you inspire others with your optimism and thirst for substantive change in service to the mission.
Integrity: You admit mistakes openly, share learnings widely, and elevate bad news quickly, also capable of making difficult decisions in all situations to ensure the success of the organization.
The Commit Partnership is an Equal Opportunity Employer that seeks to hire individuals with backgrounds similar to that of the stakeholders they serve. As an organization that embraces equity and inclusion, all employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws.
Commit does not sponsor visas of any kind.
The Commit Partnership is a collective impact organization dedicated to making Texas a place where economic opportunity is shared and not determined by race, place, or socioeconomic status. We collaborate with education practitioners and community leaders to improve educational outcomes from early childhood through postsecondary education, aiming to increase living wage attainment across Dallas County and the state of Texas.
Our True North Goal is that by 2040, at least half of all 25-34-year-old residents of Dallas County, irrespective of race, will earn a living wage. The Commit Partnership drives this vision by improving student achievement, workforce readiness, and postsecondary completion rates, ensuring more individuals are prepared for economic mobility and long-term success.
Position Summary
Under the general supervision of the Managing Director of Academic Readiness, the Director of Academic Readiness will be responsible for systemic change management and implementation of innovative and high-impact strategies aimed at improving academic outcomes in grades 4-12 in Dallas County. The Director of Academic Readiness will lead Commit’s efforts to strengthen district capacity in curriculum and instruction, pedagogy, and data-informed instruction across grades 4-12. This role focuses on supporting the development and execution of strategies aligned with Commit’s rigorous curriculum and instruction priorities. The Director will work closely with district teams to support the build-out of sustainable instructional practices that drive improved student learning outcomes.
Additionally, the Director of Academic Readiness will be a co-facilitator of the Dallas County Math and RLA District Leader Working Group and Middle School Working Group, the collaborative, systems change community of practices for Commit’s local Dallas County district partners.
This role requires deep content expertise in teaching and learning, specifically secondary math and RLA, a strong understanding of curriculum, and experience with leadership development, including instructional coaching. The ideal candidate will support districts in developing cohesive instructional strategies and aligning supports to research-based best practices.
The salary range for this role is $110,000 - $126,000.
Key Responsibilities
Instructional Strategy & Pedagogy
- Support Influence and support districts in with implementing high-quality instructional and research-based instructional strategies at the systems level.
- Help districts build and scale systems that ensure aligned, rigorous instruction in math and RLA, focusing on deep content understanding and learning.
- Guide Build capacity of district leaders in designing and implementing effective pedagogy that supports all learners, including multilingual learners and students requiring intervention.
- Support districts in using data to inform instruction.
- Develop, manage, and execute department plans by providing strategic thought partnership, technical assistance, and capacity-building support for districts and other partners seeking to implement innovative, evidence-based strategies focused on increasing outcomes across grades 4-12.
- Provide strategic guidance to district leaders on high-impact instructional practices.
- Develop relationships to get meaningful time with systems leaders, share key data and best practices, and lead courageous conversations on systems change within education.
- Convene and facilitate external meetings with high levels of engagement of systems-leaders that activate and drive toward outcomes for key initiatives and strategies (examples outlined above).
- Design and facilitate content for district leaders focused on secondary math and RLA pedagogy.
- Lead learning series and collaborative convenings for Math/RLA and any future instruction-aligned convenings to strengthen instructional leadership across districts.
- Create tools, frameworks, and resources to help districts support instructional coherence and drive continuous improvement in teaching and learning.
- Manage a multi-staff team towards achieving individual strategic goals aligned to team and organizational outcomes and develop staff members towards professional development goals and expectations, ensuring efforts are executed in alignment with committed academic readiness priorities.
- Work alongside Commit’s EC-12 Early Learning and Educator Effectiveness team to ensure a cohesive approach to instructional improvement.
- Other duties as assigned.
- Bachelor’s Degree required.
- Five to eight years of experience in education or education-adjacent sectors at a systems-level
- Master’s Degree in business, education, policy or other related field preferred.
- Proven record of achieving ambitious results in previous role, including managing a team of direct reports to accomplish ambitious results
- Familiarity with PK-12 education system, particularly in secondary, in Texas.
- Previous experience as a campus principal and district-level leadership in Teaching and Learning
- Familiarity with the Texas A-F Accountability system
- Ability to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate.
- Ability to communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters.
- Ability to describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.
- Ability to read and write in Standard English.
- Ability to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with others.
- Ability to interact with people of various social, cultural, economic, and educational backgrounds.
- Ability to listen perceptively and convey awareness.
- Ability to interact diplomatically with the public in a continuous public contact setting.
- Ability to work as part of a team and in a team environment.
- Ability to maintain level-headedness in the face of resistance and contrary opinions.
Generally, works in an office environment but may occasionally be required to perform job duties outside of the typical office setting. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet to moderate. The employee is not exposed to any adverse environmental conditions.
Physical Activity & Requirements
While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee is required to talk and hear. The employee is often required to sit and use repetitive motions of the wrists, hands and/or fingers. This is a sedentary position, however, the employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands, grasp, climb or balance, and to stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl and lift up to 10 pounds. Hearing, talking and vision abilities required by this job include perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction, expressing or exchanging ideas be means of the spoken word and close visual acuity to perform an activity such as preparing and analyzing data and figures, transcribing, viewing a computer terminal and extensive reading.
About The Commit Partnership:
Our Mission
We believe that through our actions, Dallas County – which educates 10% of Texas and 1% of the nation– can be an inclusive and prosperous region where economic opportunity is shared equitably. That’s why our true north goal is that by 2040 at least half of all 25-34-year-old residents of Dallas County, irrespective of race, will be provided the opportunity to earn a living wage.
To increase living wage attainment, we must equitably increase educational success aligned with high-demand jobs, maximizing the cumulative impact from early education all the way to college, career, and/or military readiness and accessing and completing a strong postsecondary education. Our staff aligns community stakeholders around this shared future roadmap – analyzing data to lift up strategic initiatives that improve policies, practices, and funding that grow our community’s capacity to serve every student more effectively.
Our Story
Founded in 2012, this partnership is the nation’s largest educational collective impact organization, composed of backbone staff and over 200 partners across Dallas County and the state of Texas working collaboratively to solve systemic education challenges. Our staff aligns community stakeholders around a shared future roadmap – analyzing data to lift up strategic initiatives that improve policies, practices, and funding that grow our community’s capacity to serve every student more effectively.
Together, we work to advocate for excellent and equitable public education that ensures all students – regardless of race, place, or socio-economic status – have the power to determine their future and earn a living wage. We do this work through several ventures including Early Matters Dallas, North Texas Tutoring Corps, Dallas County Promise, Texas College Bridge, Dallas Thrives, Commit’s Policy Team, the Texas Impact Network, and several coalitions.
True North Traits
Our True North Traits creates a mission-driven environment and champions us to do our best work each day.
Systemic Impact: You understand the barriers and lived experiences that our students face and are skilled at delivering systemic solutions at scale that address these needs. You achieve significant, sustainable results that increase equitable outcomes through your work (including the reallocation or improvement in public funding), and you recognize the difference between activity and impact.
Judgment: You exhibit a relentless “students first” focus by thinking strategically about what data must be collected, analyzed, visualized, and activated (and what steps must be taken, in what order) to cause resources to be reallocated and actions to be taken to systemically overcome the root causes hindering achievement of the Partnership's mission.
Communication: By listening to understand before seeking to be understood, you’re able to build trust and facilitate collaboration across lines of difference, recognizing that both are essential to our success. You are also able to find common ground with diverse stakeholders and can tailor the organization's message to different audiences as needed to influence meaningful change.
Innovation: You can create or meaningfully contribute to the design and execution of a systemic and transformational strategic plan to solve complex problems, often at scale, that improves organizational effectiveness and/or closes equity gaps for our students and families.
Equity and Inclusion: You intentionally create spaces where relevant stakeholders have a seat or voice at the table, ensuring that each person at the table's thoughts and perspectives are shared, valued by all others at the table, and reflected in our work. You're excited to help build and/or contribute to teams where everyone feels welcomed, respected, valued, and highly supported.
Joy: You recognize that people are central to our work, striking a balance between people and process, and you inspire others with your optimism and thirst for substantive change in service to the mission.
Integrity: You admit mistakes openly, share learnings widely, and elevate bad news quickly, also capable of making difficult decisions in all situations to ensure the success of the organization.
The Commit Partnership is an Equal Opportunity Employer that seeks to hire individuals with backgrounds similar to that of the stakeholders they serve. As an organization that embraces equity and inclusion, all employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws.
Commit does not sponsor visas of any kind.
Salary : $110,000 - $126,000
