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Outstanding Teachers and Leaders

Teachers and leaders in Rocketship schools are superstars who put forth an incredible amount of energy and work on a daily, monthly, and annual basis to ensure that each Rocketeer achieves significant academic and personal growth.  These heroic efforts have resulted in exceptional student achievement and parent engagement at a rapid pace.

As reflected in our theory of change, eliminating the achievement gap in our lifetimes depends on improving our schools' operating model, which, for teachers and school leaders, primarily means creating a school model that does not require long hours and super-human efforts, which often leads to professional 'burn-out'.  In order to ensure that the achievement gap is eliminated, the 'teacher as super hero model must be re-envisioned.  Teacher and leader sustainability is key to our success so that we can ensure that the achievement gap is truly eliminated for the 14,000,000 children currently suffering under this blight.

Since teachers and school leaders (principals, assistant principals, and academic deans) are the pillars of any successful school model, our vision for how teachers and school leaders lead and innovate at Rocketship is critical to achieving our mission in the following ways:

  • To serve as a model for the education community, we elevate the teaching and school leader professions to be attractive and sustainable as long-term careers for passionate leaders of all backgrounds.
  • To best serve our current students and communities, we attract and retain diverse talent and expertise within Rocketship.
  • To fuel our impact, we develop a diverse set of leaders who assume greater responsibilities in order to impact more students and communities.

Specifically, we have the following aspirations for our teachers and school leaders:

  • Professional Satisfaction
    • Rocketship teachers and school leaders feel a deep connection to the mission of closing the achievement gap, through the Rocketship theory of change;
    • Experience success with students and parents, connect those wins to the hard and innovative work that made it possible, and feel valued and appreciated by colleagues and the Rocketship community for these successes; and
    • Contribute to a sense of joy and partnership with colleagues and the entire Rocketship community.
  • Personal Alignment
    • Rocketship teachers and school leaders achieve alignment between professional work and personal aspirations, and have optimism that personal aspirations will be met over time even as professional and personal roles evolve; and
    • Succeed in an environment where one feels welcome and valued for one’s personal identity, values, and perspective
  • Career Growth
    • Rocketship teachers and school leaders learn and develop by performing responsibilities at a high level with the support of their manager's coaching and feedback and formal training; and
    • Strive for growth within roles and between roles over time and feeling motivated by long-term career paths at Rocketship.

We know and expect that the experience of working at a Rocketship school will evolve over time as we grow, improve our model and systems, and develop best practices.  Our aspirations for staff—professional satisfaction, personal alignment and career growth—remain fixed but how those aspirations are fulfilled will change over time.  In other words, the value proposition for a teacher in our schools today will be different than the value proposition for a teacher a decade from now. In the early stages of Rocketship, our teachers and school leaders will be inspired by and develop through the ambiguity and excitement of building something new, of breaking ground on an entirely new school model.  In later stages, our teachers and school leaders will be inspired by and develop through the experience of replicating a proven model and rapidly extending our impact.

Over the arc of our organizational growth, we will collectively work to ensure that staff experience high levels of satisfaction, personal alignment, and career growth.  Furthermore, teaching and leading schools in under-served communities will become sustainable, well-respected and coveted professions; our mission depends on it.

Rocketship provides our teachers with extensive training and professional development. Many of our tools are being featured by  the The New Teacher Project (TNTP) for their Teacher Talent Toolbox, which highlights the work of many teams at Rocketship Education.  We are proud to be partnering with them in developing tools for teachers nationally.

Join a group of talented, dedicated and high energy colleagues who are committed to eliminating the achievement gap in our lifetimes. Teaching at Rocketship offers exciting job growth, a supportive team environment, significant professional rewards and deep satisfaction from helping children achieve their well-deserved dreams.

 

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