Organization: ACE Charter School
Job Title: 5th Grade Teacher
Location: San Jose

Posted: 2/26/08

ACE Charter School, a 5th-8th grade middle school which propels low-achieving students to academic proficiency, is seeking a 5th Grade teachers to be a part of the founding team at the school, which will open in Summer 2008. The school will open with 120 5th graders in 2008, and grow to a capacity of 400 students by 2011.

The ACE Charter School will be located in East San Jose, California, in the Alum Rock School District. The school’s mission is to recruit students in this under-resourced area who are already two or more years below grade level by the 5th grade and provide them with the remediation and acceleration they need to go off to high school ready to succeed in college-prep courses.

ACE has been working in education reform in San Jose, California since 2004 through the successful incubation of four small, autonomous schools in the Alum Rock Union Elementary and the Franklin McKinley School Districts. ACE is looking to build on the success of those models to develop a charter school that can break the cycle of failure for low-achieving students and their families.

School Model Overview
ACE Charter School serves students who are in danger of falling so far behind their peers that they will have virtually no chance of succeeding in college-prep classes upon reaching high school. For these students, ACE has one central and measurable student outcome: the achievement of grade-level academic proficiency by the end of 8th grade.

The school, which will open in 2008 with 120 5th graders, is specifically designed for students who enter the school with a score of Below Basic or Far Below Basic on the English-Language Arts and/or Mathematics portion of the California Standards Test (CST). The school’s entire academic program and culture is designed to ensure that by the time these previously low-achieving students head off to high school, they are reading, writing, and computing at grade level or beyond. Equally importantly, these students and their families will have started the long process of getting ready—academically and emotionally—for college.

A crucial piece of the ACE Charter School model is a school culture that is tailored specifically to the needs of the school’s target students. Students who have repeatedly seen over their first years of schooling that they are somehow unable to keep pace with their peers need explicit support and training in building resilience, confidence and successful work habits.

The ACE Executive Director, Greg Lippman, was the founding Principal of Downtown College Prep, a nationally recognized charter high school in San Jose which helps previously low-achieving students become the first in their family to succeed in college. The ACE Charter program will be based in part on Downtown College Prep, as well as other successful “gap-closing” urban middle schools.

Job Description
ACE teachers will design and implement an academic program that will be a blend of standards-based, highly scaffolded core courses and intensive remediation. The school day is an extended 9:00-5:00 day which includes heterogeneously grouped English/Social Science and Math/Science core classes, literacy and numeracy intervention classes with skills-based grouping, and a mandatory Tutorial period for guided practice and homework.

ACE is looking for teachers who can teach all subjects as well as teachers who will focus on English/Social Science or Math/Science. All teachers will teach at least one of the intervention/remediation courses in literacy, Math and learning strategies. Teachers will also have a significant role in the mandatory Tutorial and Saturday Academy programs. In the early years of school development, all teachers will also be expected to work at the summer literacy program, the Ganas Summer School, which is mandatory for all students.

Much of the work in the school’s startup phase will be the design and implementation of curriculum, schoolwide instructional strategies, and assessment. Much of the work here will be to develop and refine curricular and instructional models to best fit the needs of the school’s target student. It is important to note here that one manifestation of ACE’s commitment to schoolwide best practices is that there will be a great deal of continuity from classroom to classroom.

This is the first year of the ACE Charter School; every teacher hired this year will truly be a school founder. As such, the job will include several important and interrelated elements above and beyond the work in the classroom, including creating a schoolwide culture of success for students who are far below grade level, building close and abiding connections with families and the school community, and a willingness to participate in all aspects of school life.

One additional feature of the job will be the opportunity to participate in a significant amount of professional development. Professional development time includes two weeks in the summer, a weekly half-day (students will have a minimum day), as well as in-service days throughout the school year. School staff will use this time to design the academic program, develop and learn schoolwide instructional strategies, and review student achievement data to assess and refine curricula and instruction.

Qualifications
The first criteria used in evaluating potential ACE Charter School staff members is whether or not they fully embrace the school’s vision of academic proficiency for all students, no matter how far behind grade level when they enter the school. For administrators, teachers, and all non-teaching staff, a commitment to the school’s mission and to the students and families we serve is of paramount importance. All decisions at the school will be based on the answer to one question: “Will this help very low-achieving students acquire the skills and habits to achieve true academic proficiency and self-confidence?”

There are other abilities and experience that we look for in teaching candidates, including:

• Experience working directly with students in an urban school
• Ability to prepare students academically and emotionally for the rigors of a college-prep high school curriculum and subsequently college
• Commitment to creating a school atmosphere where students learn to be active, disciplined learners
• Openness to critical feedback and the chance to collaborate with ambitious, dedicated colleagues

While not mandatory, the ability to speak Spanish is another important factor in building and maintaining a staff which can effectively serve our community.

ACE Charter School teachers at all levels shall meet or exceed all “highly qualified requirements” under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Accordingly, a teacher of core academic subjects must have:

• Bachelor’s degree
• State credential or Intern Certificate/Credential for no more than three years while actively working toward completion of their State credential
• Demonstrated core academic subject matter competence

The position comes with competitive salary and full benefits.

Application Process
To apply, please submit the following:

• Cover letter which explains why you are interested in ACE Charter School and why you believe you will have success with the school’s target student
• Resume
• Two references or letters of recommendation
• Proof of credential

Please email (preferred) or send all the above materials to ACE Executive Director Greg Lippman at:

glippman@acepublic.org

OR

ACE Charter School
1100 Shasta Avenue
San Jose, CA 95126

For more information, please contact ACE Executive Director Greg Lippman at (408) 677-1546 or glippman@acepublic.org.