Head of Public Policy

Head of Public Policy

Head of Public Policy



Location: US-NY-New York
Category: Network Operations

Start Date: Immediately
Position Type: Regular Full-Time
More information about this job:
Overview:

Success Charter Network (SCN) is a not-for-profit charter management organization that operates public charter schools in economically-disadvantaged communities with high concentrations of minority students.

In August 2006, SCN opened its first elementary school in Harlem, serving 165 kindergarten and first graders. After seeing dramatic gains in student achievement, and in response to high parent demand, SCN opened three more elementary schools in Harlem in August 2008. Encouraged by their continued success and buttressed by groundbreaking research that proves the efficacy of its approach, SCN opened three additional elementary schools (two in the Bronx and one in Harlem) and its first middle school in August 2010. In 2011, SCN added two elementary schools: one in Brooklyn and one on the Upper West Side. Currently, Success Charter Network operates ten schools and serves 3,500 scholars. Over the next ten years, SCN will grow to 40 schools serving more than 20,000 scholars.

Success Charter Network’s mission is two-fold:
* To offer children in New York City an exceptional public education that prepares them to graduate from college
* To forever alter the educational prospects for ALL public school children by creating a “tipping point”—moving a nation where educational failure is the norm to a nation that expects and offers high quality public school options for all children.
SCN does this by creating a world class education for its scholars and through active advocacy work throughout New York City, the state and nationally. To SCN, advocacy and education are intertwined—victory on one front advances the other and success at either is not possible without the other. To that end, founder Eva Moskowitz has been front and center pushing to create equal access for all children. She and SCN have received national attention and have been featured in the acclaimed documentaries: Waiting for Superman and The Lottery.

Success Approach
Success Charter Network is a charter management organization. Like its peers, SCN operates no-excuses college preparatory schools. However, there are a number of unique attributes that set SCN apart from other operators.

First, SCN’s explicit dual commitment to education and advocacy is one-of-a-kind. Employees at all levels of the organization know that they are part of something bigger than just closing the achievement gap for their own students.

Second, SCN has made a commitment to being an employer of choice for teachers and school leaders, offering bonuses based on world class performance and freeing school leaders to have a singular focus on instruction by removing business and operation functions from their purview.

Third, as an organization, SCN’s focus on detail and execution is pervasive across its network and is felt immediately upon walking into an SCN classroom or wing in their co-located academies in New York City Public School buildings. Seemingly small decisions about things such as placing sight words on the floors of the hallways, the professional look of their upper grade and middle school classrooms, and the uniforms of the scholars are approached with the same weight as large decisions about instructional approach and the intensive summer leader and teacher training.

Finally, SCN prides itself on innovation and educational productivity, incorporating data and technology into their educational approach. Taking advantage of technological advancements, SCN scholars are equipped with Kindles or iPads loaded with textbooks and level-reading. This provides them an opportunity to learn from and interact with cutting-edge technology, while literally lessening the load of book-heavy backpacks for the upper elementary and middle school students. SCN moves quickly, taking calculated and thoughtful risks to improve the efficiency of education for their students. While SCN is heavily grounded in data, they also embrace thoughtful, coordinated change and improvement based on a gut feeling of “something’s not right here, let’s make a change and see if we can do it better.”

Results
Success Charter Network (SCN) operates the academies with a simple premise: every student can succeed. SCN’s commitment to success demands that all scholars not only meet but also exceed New York State and Common Core standards in all subjects. The laser-like focus that the principals and the teachers have on this goal has paid off—by all standards, Success Academy scholars are reading, writing, and calculating ahead of both their neighbors and their more affluent peers. SCN’s results on Fountas and Pinnell (F&P) assessments consistently top the charts, student performance on the nationally-normed tests demonstrate that SCN scholars are reading and calculating at a level higher than their peers, the writing samples consistently rival the work seen by affluent school districts. According to the 2010-2011 state testing data, Harlem Success Academy 1, 2, 3, and 4 are at the top the charts.
Responsibilities:

The External Affairs team at Success Charter Network (SCN) is a critical component in the drive to achieve the organization’s dual mission, by building coalitions, influencing the press, battling opponents of reform and redistributing resources. SCN creates new public policies, speaks out and up on what is good for teaching and learning.

Jenny Sedlis, Director External Affairs, is the fearless, nimble, press and policy savvy leader who heads this critical effort. Her team is focused both on the survival of the New York City charter movement post-Bloomberg, and on ending the monopoly of public education by introducing innovation and competition into an area long hostile to any disruption.

As we head into Bloomberg’s last 700 days in office, SCN is reinforcing and growing the External Affairs team and is therefore seeking an experienced, highly competent individual as Head of Public Policy, who will build a team that focuses on public policy, press, and production.

Reporting to Jenny Sedlis, this individual will be responsible for shaping and generating public policy and administrative/regulatory practices in order to support great teaching and learning at both the local and state level, as well as with counterparts at the federal level.

They will operate in a coordinated fashion with the incoming Head of Advocacy as s/he moves the meter from through a coordinated ground swell, while this position moves the meter from the top down.

In SCN’s policy work, press interaction often plays a critical role. Getting coverage and working with the PR team to move the reform needle is essential. Additionally, SCN does a lot of production work to support the organization’s press and policy goals.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that will end the monopoly of public education through the introduction of innovation and competition into public education.

Key Responsibilities:
* Further develop SCN’s policy, press, and production strategy ensuring that it is based on SCN’s operational needs and that all policy and advocacy work is coordinated, maintained and deployed at the right times.
* Promote SCN’s key policy goals including the “3 Fs”: Freedom, Finances, and Facilities.
* Success Academies are successful because SCN has the freedom to develop independent, rigorous and creative curriculum; hire the best teachers and leaders in the field; and, operate their schools in the way they need to in order to achieve top results.
* SCN must be at the forefront of the public funding debate and consistently in the media in order to maximize public funding and ensure non-interference with public funding per charter school student.
* Create policy that ensures that the current policy of providing free space for public schools for charters is institutionalized.
* Manage external PR teams ensuring that all SCN messaging is on target and presented appropriately to various audiences for optimal impact.
* Manage all production underlying SCN’s press and policy goals, including video, websites, and social media so that policy and advocacy efforts are coordinated and achieve ultimate objectives.
Qualifications:

Professional Experience:
* 7+ years of progressively responsible experience leading and developing policy, press and production strategies in fast-paced, entrepreneurial, game-changing environments.
* A strong understanding of the public policy lifecycle and significant cross-functional achievement working at the intersection of policy, advocacy and the press.
* Ability to expertly leverage the Founder/CEO and the Director of External Affairs in matters relating to the press, public forums, and all relevant stakeholder meetings.
* Demonstrated success leveraging key networks and relationships to reach influencers.
* A proven track record of success in media relations; effectively communicating key messages (written and verbal), especially to outside partners, influencers and elected officials.
* Savvy about the New York City/State, as well as national political climate, including collaborating with Council Members, legislators and agencies.
* Understands political constituencies, able to connect Success Charter Network’s mission with the priorities of elected officials.
* Proven experience leading and managing initiatives without hands-on supervision.
Personal Characteristics:
* Ability to thrive in a high-stakes, constantly changing environment.
* A relentless “push the envelope” attitude in changing education policy and the ability to face constant hurdles and roadblocks in an unflappable manner
* Prior experience operating and communicating at the local, state and federal policy level.
* Excellent time and project-management skills, with a meticulous attention to detail and a clear ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
* Must be able to listen and understand issues from a number of perspectives so that external communications are clearly and thoughtfully articulated.
* Ability to handle high-volume, high-velocity press and making sound decisions in fluid, high-pressure environments.
* A strategic and creative thinker but a real willingness to roll up sleeves to get things done.
* Superior writing and presentation skills, with an ability to communicate to various internal and external constituencies as well as staff at all levels within the organization.
* Highly mission-driven with a genuine interest in finding ways to improve public education and support all public schools.
Education:
* A bachelor’s degree with a preference for a graduate degree in a related field or equivalent work experience required.
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