KIPP
[2025 - 2026] KIPP Durham Middle Refounding Exceptional Children Teacher Grades
KIPP, Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27701
KIPP Durham Middle Refounding Exceptional Children Teacher Grades 6 - 8
Teaching is the absolute hardest profession in the world. Full stop. No contest. Next question. Turnaround teaching is a whole other level of hard. The reality of too many of our country's schoolsespecially those serving low-income and other marginalized communities coming out of a global health crisis and with a century of systemic under-investmentis that the academic achievement of their students doesn't match their students' brilliance, and their student culture does not create an environment where each and every student is seen, valued, and loved. KIPP Durham Middle School on the east side of Durham, North Carolina, has been one such school. Every 6-8-Grade student in our classrooms today is brilliant, but our efforts over the past decade have not successfully harnessed that collective brainpower to get exceptional results on North Carolina's state middle school exams in reading, math, and science, the benchmarks that ensure they are on track towards being academically prepared to lead the choice-filled lives they envision for themselves. KIPP North Carolina, in partnership with the leaders and national resources of the KIPP Foundation, is seeking to change that reality. For the 2024-25 school year (and for the next two school years after that), we are assembling a dream team of 18 exceptional professionalsmaster teachers, instructional leaders, operational leaders, special education experts, and other supporters of learningwho are eager to "re-found" our Durham middle school to create a dynamic and engaging middle school learning environment that maximizes our 160 students' limitless potentials. The Exceptional Children (EC) Lead Teacher we are looking to join the KIPP Durham Middle School team will be a master educator who has a track record of affecting rapid, dramatic student learning improvements for their students. While we founded the school in 2015, we are treating 2024-25 as a re-founding school year, an endeavor that requires a staff with a founder's mentality around doing what it takes, making it happen, sweating the small stuff, and creating a reimagined reality for our students. Crucial Competencies
Our one "re-founding" EC Lead Teacher will blow the following four crucial competencies* out of the water: Driving for Results
: Our EC Lead Teacher will have a strong desire to achieve outstanding student learning results and the task-oriented actions required for success. Our EC Lead Teacher will set high goals for themselves and their students, making persistent, well-planned efforts to achieve these goals despite barriers and resistance; holding others accountable for doing their part to achieve results; and putting in all the extra effort necessary to ensure success. Influencing for Results
: Our EC Lead Teacher will motivate othersstudents, staff colleagues, and familiesand influence their thinking and behavior to obtain outstanding student learning results. Our EC Lead Teacher will understand that they cannot accomplish change alone, but instead must influence the work of others. They will use a variety of influencing movesinspiring students, nurturing ridiculously joyful AND rigorous classroom and schoolwide cultures, grasping and responding to unspoken student needs and motivations, and simultaneously supporting and prodding colleagues to collaborate on the path to schoolwide successas the situation requires. The relationships they will form are for the purpose of influencing others to enhance student learning, not just for the purpose of personal bonding. Problem-Solving
: Our EC Lead Teacher will be LASER FOCUSED on planning, organizing, and delivering high quality, differentiated instruction, AND they will continually analyze data to determine student learning needs and next steps for intervention blocks during the day, on select weekend academies, and during summers (while running summer academies during select weeks and participating in summer teacher professional development sessions during other select weeks). Personal Effectiveness
: Our EC Lead Teacher will exhibit flexibility and optimism when faced with stressful, uncomfortable, and unfamiliar situations; maintain confidence in themselves and a willingness to keep improving despite the many challenges of their role; actively embrace the constant changes needed to ensure student learning in high-challenge situations; and hold and maintain a strong belief in the human potential for learning and improvement, despite significant societal pressures to settle for less. Essential Duties
Preparing and Delivering Instruction Teach pull-out, push-in, small group, and one-on-one instruction and implement strategies to differentiate instruction for all learners in your classroom Modify, differentiate, and teach an inclusive curriculum to students in their care Collaborate with families and regional EC colleagues to develop 504 and Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that offer appropriate accommodations and modifications Create an inclusive and safe environment where students feel empowered to become self-guided learners Collaborate with general education teachers, school leaders, and families to analyze and respond to trends in student work samples and assessments and ensure compliance with IEPs Gather academic growth data and write goals to prepare for annual IEP meetings Practiceand then practice some morelesson delivery to execute curricula at an exceptionally high level Use assessment data (i-Ready data, IA data, EOG data, DIBELS data, curricular data, exit tickets, student quizzes and work) to drive instruction, make hard pivots when necessary, and make individualized learning plans for every student in their care Set clear, high expectations, and hold students accountable for performanceall of which requires taking personal responsibility and doing everything required to reach challenging goals Embrace and incorporate the gift of feedback from wherever it comescolleagues, principal, assistant principal, regional coaches, students, whereverin the spirit of Pursuing Excellence, one of KIPP NC core values Do all the operational things that support great instruction, like maintaining an accurate and timely gradebook, keeping records, and completing tasks for data tracking systems Building Positive Classroom and Schoolwide Cultures Develop positive relationships with students, families, teachers, and staff through regular positive phone calls to families, routine curbside check-ins with families at arrival and dismissal, and attendance at all school events, including Back-to-School Night, family conferences, report card conferences, and all other school celebrations Leverage those relationships to induce behaviors and instructional habits from students that are significantly different from those previously exhibited; pinpoint and tap the needs, wants, and underlying motivations of students Participate fully in the daily routines of a school that form the foundation of culture, like arrival/dismissal, advisory/circle time, lunch, hallway transitions, and the 1,000 other moments that make up a day Embody, nurture, and build KIPP NC's core values (Pursuing Excellence, Building Knowledge, Fighting Injustice, Sparking Joy, and Rising Together) and the school's student and staff cultures Assume personal responsibility for student achievement, all the students in the school, and the success of staff colleagues Create and maintain a joyful classroom space that exudes love, builds a sense of belonging, and celebrates learning, which includes displaying current student work and grade level/content- appropriate and identity-affirming decorations Exemplifying a Growth Mindset Collaborate with leaders and coaches to identify areas of strength and areas of growth for professional development throughout the year, some of which will be leader-led, and some of which will happen in the quiet after-school moments in classrooms with colleagues in the routine preparation for the next day Attend practice clinics to hone and sharpen pedagogical skills and lesson delivery Participate in Teacher Work Days, Regional Data Days, and Professional Development meetings after school; satiate their hunger to learn and grow as a professional Taking Care of Yourself Use the many benefits the organization offers employees (health benefits, generous school holidays, etc.) to relieve stress after the workday is done or over school breaks and holidays, as the job of turning a school around is toughteachers will experience stress and emotional challenges associated with all the essential duties enumerated above, and self-care will be a priority Qualifications
Qualifications The following are required of the KIPP Durham Middle EC Lead Teacher: A deep commitment to the mission of KIPP NC and an unwavering belief in the potential of all our students
Teaching is the absolute hardest profession in the world. Full stop. No contest. Next question. Turnaround teaching is a whole other level of hard. The reality of too many of our country's schoolsespecially those serving low-income and other marginalized communities coming out of a global health crisis and with a century of systemic under-investmentis that the academic achievement of their students doesn't match their students' brilliance, and their student culture does not create an environment where each and every student is seen, valued, and loved. KIPP Durham Middle School on the east side of Durham, North Carolina, has been one such school. Every 6-8-Grade student in our classrooms today is brilliant, but our efforts over the past decade have not successfully harnessed that collective brainpower to get exceptional results on North Carolina's state middle school exams in reading, math, and science, the benchmarks that ensure they are on track towards being academically prepared to lead the choice-filled lives they envision for themselves. KIPP North Carolina, in partnership with the leaders and national resources of the KIPP Foundation, is seeking to change that reality. For the 2024-25 school year (and for the next two school years after that), we are assembling a dream team of 18 exceptional professionalsmaster teachers, instructional leaders, operational leaders, special education experts, and other supporters of learningwho are eager to "re-found" our Durham middle school to create a dynamic and engaging middle school learning environment that maximizes our 160 students' limitless potentials. The Exceptional Children (EC) Lead Teacher we are looking to join the KIPP Durham Middle School team will be a master educator who has a track record of affecting rapid, dramatic student learning improvements for their students. While we founded the school in 2015, we are treating 2024-25 as a re-founding school year, an endeavor that requires a staff with a founder's mentality around doing what it takes, making it happen, sweating the small stuff, and creating a reimagined reality for our students. Crucial Competencies
Our one "re-founding" EC Lead Teacher will blow the following four crucial competencies* out of the water: Driving for Results
: Our EC Lead Teacher will have a strong desire to achieve outstanding student learning results and the task-oriented actions required for success. Our EC Lead Teacher will set high goals for themselves and their students, making persistent, well-planned efforts to achieve these goals despite barriers and resistance; holding others accountable for doing their part to achieve results; and putting in all the extra effort necessary to ensure success. Influencing for Results
: Our EC Lead Teacher will motivate othersstudents, staff colleagues, and familiesand influence their thinking and behavior to obtain outstanding student learning results. Our EC Lead Teacher will understand that they cannot accomplish change alone, but instead must influence the work of others. They will use a variety of influencing movesinspiring students, nurturing ridiculously joyful AND rigorous classroom and schoolwide cultures, grasping and responding to unspoken student needs and motivations, and simultaneously supporting and prodding colleagues to collaborate on the path to schoolwide successas the situation requires. The relationships they will form are for the purpose of influencing others to enhance student learning, not just for the purpose of personal bonding. Problem-Solving
: Our EC Lead Teacher will be LASER FOCUSED on planning, organizing, and delivering high quality, differentiated instruction, AND they will continually analyze data to determine student learning needs and next steps for intervention blocks during the day, on select weekend academies, and during summers (while running summer academies during select weeks and participating in summer teacher professional development sessions during other select weeks). Personal Effectiveness
: Our EC Lead Teacher will exhibit flexibility and optimism when faced with stressful, uncomfortable, and unfamiliar situations; maintain confidence in themselves and a willingness to keep improving despite the many challenges of their role; actively embrace the constant changes needed to ensure student learning in high-challenge situations; and hold and maintain a strong belief in the human potential for learning and improvement, despite significant societal pressures to settle for less. Essential Duties
Preparing and Delivering Instruction Teach pull-out, push-in, small group, and one-on-one instruction and implement strategies to differentiate instruction for all learners in your classroom Modify, differentiate, and teach an inclusive curriculum to students in their care Collaborate with families and regional EC colleagues to develop 504 and Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that offer appropriate accommodations and modifications Create an inclusive and safe environment where students feel empowered to become self-guided learners Collaborate with general education teachers, school leaders, and families to analyze and respond to trends in student work samples and assessments and ensure compliance with IEPs Gather academic growth data and write goals to prepare for annual IEP meetings Practiceand then practice some morelesson delivery to execute curricula at an exceptionally high level Use assessment data (i-Ready data, IA data, EOG data, DIBELS data, curricular data, exit tickets, student quizzes and work) to drive instruction, make hard pivots when necessary, and make individualized learning plans for every student in their care Set clear, high expectations, and hold students accountable for performanceall of which requires taking personal responsibility and doing everything required to reach challenging goals Embrace and incorporate the gift of feedback from wherever it comescolleagues, principal, assistant principal, regional coaches, students, whereverin the spirit of Pursuing Excellence, one of KIPP NC core values Do all the operational things that support great instruction, like maintaining an accurate and timely gradebook, keeping records, and completing tasks for data tracking systems Building Positive Classroom and Schoolwide Cultures Develop positive relationships with students, families, teachers, and staff through regular positive phone calls to families, routine curbside check-ins with families at arrival and dismissal, and attendance at all school events, including Back-to-School Night, family conferences, report card conferences, and all other school celebrations Leverage those relationships to induce behaviors and instructional habits from students that are significantly different from those previously exhibited; pinpoint and tap the needs, wants, and underlying motivations of students Participate fully in the daily routines of a school that form the foundation of culture, like arrival/dismissal, advisory/circle time, lunch, hallway transitions, and the 1,000 other moments that make up a day Embody, nurture, and build KIPP NC's core values (Pursuing Excellence, Building Knowledge, Fighting Injustice, Sparking Joy, and Rising Together) and the school's student and staff cultures Assume personal responsibility for student achievement, all the students in the school, and the success of staff colleagues Create and maintain a joyful classroom space that exudes love, builds a sense of belonging, and celebrates learning, which includes displaying current student work and grade level/content- appropriate and identity-affirming decorations Exemplifying a Growth Mindset Collaborate with leaders and coaches to identify areas of strength and areas of growth for professional development throughout the year, some of which will be leader-led, and some of which will happen in the quiet after-school moments in classrooms with colleagues in the routine preparation for the next day Attend practice clinics to hone and sharpen pedagogical skills and lesson delivery Participate in Teacher Work Days, Regional Data Days, and Professional Development meetings after school; satiate their hunger to learn and grow as a professional Taking Care of Yourself Use the many benefits the organization offers employees (health benefits, generous school holidays, etc.) to relieve stress after the workday is done or over school breaks and holidays, as the job of turning a school around is toughteachers will experience stress and emotional challenges associated with all the essential duties enumerated above, and self-care will be a priority Qualifications
Qualifications The following are required of the KIPP Durham Middle EC Lead Teacher: A deep commitment to the mission of KIPP NC and an unwavering belief in the potential of all our students