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Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is one of the largest school districts in the United States, serving over 320,000 students in 600+ schools and employing nearly 40,000 people, most of them teachers.  CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.  In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity.  Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning. 

Located within the Office of Teaching and Learning (TL), the Department of Student Voice Engagement (SVE) leads the district's inclusive and responsive education strategy that aims to ensure all aspects of schooling in CPS are inclusive of and responsive to the lived experiences of our students, and includes young people as key stakeholders in making decisions that impact them.  An important aspect of the Department of Student Voice and Engagement’s strategy is to improve learning by centering identity, relationships, and community. 

The Department of SVE also manages the Calumet Is My Back Yard (CIMBY) program, an environmental service learning and student leadership development program that has worked with high schools on the south side of Chicago for over 20 years. CIMBY connects youth to nature by facilitating authentic, place-based learning experiences with Chicago Public High School students and teachers, empowering students through extensive stewardship and leadership experiences, and supporting teachers to engage their students in rich experiential education and civic engagement strategies. CIMBY students play a pivotal role in the Calumet region and beyond - improving local communities and natural areas, and fostering a deeper civic responsibility on Chicago's south side. 

Job Summary:

The Place-Based Learning Specialist will develop and implement action plans to support “problem, project, and place-based” experiential learning in high school as a means of civic learning and engagement with Chicago Public Schools. In collaboration with SVE colleagues, this position will assist with making continued advancements in service learning across the district, supporting schools and educators in integrating projects into their science classrooms, supporting interested schools in a school-wide civic learning focus, and broadly advocating for our localized, culturally relevant civic learning approach. In addition, the Place-Based Learning Specialist will coordinate with community organizations and various CPS departments to increase opportunities for CPS students to experience high-quality community-based service learning. This position will report to the Inclusive, Responsive Education Manager.

The Place-Based Learning Specialist will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Collaborate with colleagues within SVE and across departments in the Office of Teaching Learning to advance place-based experiential learning in science classrooms, with a goal of expanding experiential, place-based learning opportunities to support learning in additional subjects
• Collaborate with subject-matter experts, content and curriculum teams and leaders across TL to ensure experiential learning opportunities support accurate, coherent, unified messaging in alignment with the mission and vision of the specified content area
• Develop, improve, and maintain environmental project-based, place-based curriculum and instructional resources designed for CPS Skyline curriculum, and support the integration of community and place-based projects as integrated enrichment learning for existing curriculum
• Oversee all aspects of CIMBY program administration - 
  • Lead the CIMBY program strategy, including developing of impact goals and capturing data to measure the success of program implementation
  • Collect, document, and analyze data from program implementation, student and teacher evaluations, and experiences.
  • Manage program budget and grant reporting
  • Maintain and manage relationships with community partners and key stakeholders
  • Organize and lead field experiences for CIMBY school groups that are anchored in the curriculum and focused on environmental issue areas, including but not limited to, environmental justice, environmental health, biodiversity, and climate change. 
  • Plan and facilitate engaging learning experiences for CIMBY students, working with local partners to provide critical inquiry-to-action connections to existing science curricula.
  • Work closely with students and teachers to support the development of inquiry-to-action projects, including organizing timelines, tools and resources to support teachers in coordinating inquiry-to-action projects with their students.
  • Provide support to participating teachings through leading a professional learning community to support place-based learning strategies and ensure the deliverables of this grant-funded program are met
• Connect community-based organizations, local advocates, and decision-makers to student groups through inquiry-to-action service learning project implementation - extending place-based explorations to the community to support students in understanding broader issues that directly impact students and their families.
• Build environmental literacy through place-based curriculum extensions, using the school grounds as spaces to explore resilience and adaptation as it relates to the content (ex: extreme weather and climate change).
• Connect sustainable infrastructure improvements to classroom learning experiences so that students in a single school build context throughout their multi-year high school career for real-world applications of adaptation and resilience strategies.
• Develop a system through which school groups can facilitate and participate in curriculum-based field experiences which:
  • Focus on environmental issue areas, including but not limited to environmental justice, environmental health, biodiversity, and climate change
  • Link students to local experts, community-based organizations, local advocates, and decision-makers to provide students with timely perspectives on issues they are studying
• Collaborate closely with the Project-Based Learning Manager to support SVE priorities such as:
  • Ensuring the articulation of project-based service learning programming in teaching and learning, especially at the high school level
  • Identifying experiential learning opportunities and projects that may meet service learning graduation requirements
  • Assisting with project-based and service-learning initiatives and projects
• Support the implementation of initiatives and priorities of the Department of Student Voice and Engagement, including but not limited to department conferences, professional learning, student engagement events and supporting projects.
• Other duties as assigned

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Place-Based Learning Specialist must possess the following qualifications:

Education Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study from an accredited college or university, required
• Valid teaching certificate issued by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) with High School Science endorsement, strongly preferred
• Master’s degree in a relevant field of study, preferred

Experience Required:

• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in program/project management or coordination, including the following, is required:
• • Minimum of three (3) years of instructional experience (such as classroom teaching, or other instruction in an informal learning environment) 
  • Experience developing and leading professional learning, training and workshops for educators
  • Experience developing and/or curating curriculum and instructional materials
  • Experience working with youth, specifically high school students 
• Experience working with science, environmental education and environmental justice organizations, preferred.
• Experience working with school-based educators and administrators in Chicago and/or within CPS, preferred

Other Requirements: 

• Access to reliable transportation in order to travel to and transport materials between various worksites across Chicago’s south side, required

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Capable of building and sustaining positive, productive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; comfortable collaborating and communicating with culturally and educationally diverse teams and audiences, including network teams, principals, teachers, support staff, and students
• Strong understanding of environmental education principles; familiarity with local environmental stewardship, environmental justice, and community-based conservation
• Capable of success both as a member of a collaborative team and while working independently with minimal supervision
• Capable of self-directing work and priorities, including independently seeking out and developing new partnerships and opportunities for students and teachers.
• Effective prioritization and time management capabilities, including the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, driving them to completion and achieving success with high-quality results
• Capable of adapting to quickly changing priorities while remaining highly responsive to multiple stakeholders
• Strong organizational and analytical skills; ability to define problems, analyze data, and outline valid conclusions and action steps
• Ability to motivate and engage youth; commitment to improving outcomes and ensuring access to high-quality project-based learning for all students 
• Familiarity with CPS, Chicago community organizations and/or non-profit organizations that support youth civic engagement, preferred

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

• Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency- Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.
• Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19- Unless approved for a medical or religious exemption, all employees are required to be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, and to submit proof of vaccination to the district within 30 days of hire. “Up-to-date” on vaccination is defined as being at least two weeks past all primary vaccine doses and any applicable boosters.