STEM Learning Specialist (Special Education Teacher) - Unity Preparatory Charter School of Brooklyn

Overview of Position:A strong and dedicated faculty is paramount to best serving our students and families and to establishing Unity as an exemplary school. Most critically, our faculty equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to experience secondary and postsecondary success, including the desire and capacity to learn independently, think critically, and communicate proficiently. Our STEM Learning Specialists (Special Education teachers) are essential to our success as a faculty and school. They use their expertise in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and effective methods for differentiation to make sure the curriculum and instruction reflect the unique talents, needs, and multiple intelligences of our students with disabilities. In addition, Unity's Learning Specialists develop strong partnerships with students and families to ensure that students are empowered and engaged members of our school, our community, and the world at large.

Brief Overview of our School:Unity's Core Purpose is to provide all students with an exceptional educational experience that empowers them to lead fulfilling lives.

As a small, open-enrollment, community-based charter school that proudly serves the families of central Brooklyn in grades 6-12, a Unity education is best described as personalized, inclusive, well-rounded, and keenly focused on each child's long-term growth and development as skillful learners and whole-hearted human beings.

Given these qualities, Unity's most important resource as a school is the talent and dedication of our faculty and staff. At its core, a school is only as good as the learning experience of students over the course of each day. We invest significant time and resources to ensure that we, as a team, are providing all of our students with daily learning experiences that are healthy, safe, engaging, supportive, and appropriately challenging.

We aim for each and every one of our students, upon graduating from Unity, to be empowered with the skills, knowledge, experiences, and disposition to succeed in their postsecondary endeavors, lead fulfilling lives, and positively impact their communities.

Our Recent Accomplishments:Regardless of where students are academically or otherwise as they enter our school, our focus is on accelerating growth and on cultivating long-term academic and non-academic success. This focus has reaped impressive results for our students and families in recent years. Among our accomplishments:

• 94% of our first three graduating classes earned their high school diploma in four years.
• 100% of our graduates had formal college and career plans with a college matriculation rate of 76%. This compares favorably to a 58% college matriculation rate for students in NYC.
• 95% of our graduates complete at least one Advanced Placement (AP) course in high school. This compares favorably with the 33% of NYC graduates who enroll in AP courses during their high school tenure.
• Our students who comprise subgroups that traditionally have been least effectively served by our education system, including students classified as economically disadvantaged, Black, Latino, and students with disabilities, have consistently outperformed their district and state peers in our high school graduation rates.
• In holding true to our belief in providing a truly empowering education, a vast majority of our students experience the following over their seven years at Unity:
  • After-school extra-curricular activities, including athletics and clubs;
  • Formal community service initiatives;
  • End-of-year middle school Roundtable presentation - a 45-minute oral presentation given to families, Unity faculty, and community members, and;
  • Intensive counseling in College & Career Readiness beginning in 9th grade.

Key Design Elements: Collectively, these elements reflect our beliefs on what makes for an exceptional secondary education in today's world:

• A culturally relevant and rigorous college-ready curriculum that is rooted in the liberal arts and sciences, including high-school level Regents courses in middle school and 11 Advanced Placement courses available in high school
• A skillful team of devoted educators who inspire students to be their best selves, coupling high expectations with high support, and serving as role models for students. Unity's educators are lifelong learners who take the utmost pride in perfecting their craft:
  • Over 50% of our teachers coach athletic teams, lead enrichment clubs, or teach summer courses
  • Our students have benefitted from a teacher retention rate of 80% over the past two years
• Expanded time for learning, including a 12-month calendar year for select students that allows for differentiation, universal growth, enrichment, and acceleration:
  • 25% of our students experience academic and extracurricular programming over a full calendar year; this subpopulation represents students who most benefit from more intensive support in order that they may meet NYS learning standards, earn a high school Regents diploma, and succeed in their postsecondary pursuits
• Highly customized support and specialized counseling throughout students' time at Unity and beyond - this includes a staff-to-student ratio of 5:1 with a majority of courses as co-taught, along with intensive counseling from our five full-time academic counselors and four full-time social workers
• A positive and supportive discipline system & school culture built on a framework of Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS) in which sound character traits, healthy habits, and strong socio-emotional skills are explicitly taught and cultivated by compassionate adults:
  • 100% of students having designated advisors that they meet with weekly
  • Best practices in restorative justice are commonly utilized, including circles and mediation
• A wide range of extracurricular offerings, enrichment courses, and community service opportunities that expose students to potential passions and pursuits, including:
  • One of the largest athletic programs among public schools in Brooklyn, with 18 athletic teams that span grades 6-12
  • Performing and visual arts courses in theatre, art & design, dance, as well as world languages and speech & debate
  • Over 20 elective clubs offered to students after school and over the summer, including but not limited to student government, culinary arts, personal fitness, film-making, peer mediation, blogging, climbing, and gaming

Core Responsibilities: Key responsibilities of Unity's Learning Specialists include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Collaboratively plan a rigorous, differentiated, engaging, and culturally responsive curriculum that caters to the unique talents, needs, and multiple intelligences of students with disabilities
• Implement Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) in integrated co-teaching (ICT) and/or special education teacher support services (SETSS) settings with a focus on teaching to mastery and/or conceptual understanding
• Utilize data from formative assessments in the classroom and school-wide interim assessments to adjust instruction on a regular basis
• Provide additional remediation and acceleration based on formative assessments so that individual students are appropriately challenged according to their zones of proximal development
• Ensure that classroom time is well-utilized through sound classroom management practices and by developing strong and trusting relationships with students
• Develop, implement, and/or manage individualized behavioral intervention plans to support students meeting established academic and non-academic goals
• Actively participate in opportunities to strengthen their own pedagogical skills as well as contribute to the learning of colleagues
• Serve as the advisor to a group of students to support their academic and non-academic growth and development
• Contribute to the school's smooth and efficient operation by fulfilling required administrative duties and responsibilities and maintaining open and proactive communication with colleagues
• Build strong relationships with families through consistent communication and in following through on commitments

As professionals, all Unity Learning Specialists may participate in the school's innovative teacher-career ladder, which provides a formal and transparent pathway for teachers to:

• develop their craft and improve as educators through multiple forms of support and training
• assume titles with commensurate responsibilities while remaining classroom practitioners
• be generously compensated and formally recognized for their positive contributions to the school

Core Qualifications:An ideal candidate for this position is equipped with:

• At least two years of formal teaching experience in New York
• A proven track record in accelerating student growth and mastery
• A demonstrated capacity to plan rigorous, engaging, and culturally responsive curricula that align to Common Core standards
• A balance of high expectations and high support, a growth mindset, and an innate joy in working with adolescents
• Strong interpersonal and classroom management skills with a focus on building strong relationships with students and families
• An openness and responsiveness to constructive feedback and a strong commitment to continuous improvement and professional growth
• A strong work ethic that features organization, multi-tasking, flexibility, an orientation toward solutions, and a pride in meeting deadlines
• Expertise in working with diverse populations of students and families, and in differentiating instruction to fully support the needs of diverse learners
• Strong written and oral communication skills and experience working collaboratively in team settings
• Approaches the profession with maturity, humility, versatility and, of course, a sense of humor
• A Master's Degree and certified as a teacher in New York