Learning Specialist, Grades 5-8, 2021-22

The Nueva School

Learning Specialist, Grades 5-8

Full Time, 2021-2022

Learning Support at Nueva

Our Learning Support Program at Nueva aims to provide a strengths-based program wherein our gifted students with learning differences are supported and nurtured (in both their gifts and differences) to ensure they thrive socially, emotionally, and academically. We support our students in developing a positive self-concept (with attention to the ways in which race, class, culture, and other aspects of identity may further impact students’ self-perception) and help them to better understand their own strengths and own learning profile. In doing so, we help students celebrate and embrace who they are and empower them to self-advocate for their needs by creating a culture where students with learning differences aren’t stigmatized. We aim to robustly educate our teachers and parents to support their understanding of the complexity of learning by equipping students, families and faculty with knowledge about all our learners with strategies that help them thrive.

The Position

The 5-8 Learning Specialist will bring a strengths-based approach to serving learners who are gifted and demonstrate potential or identified learning differences. Working closely with the division head and school student support team, the Learning Specialist will design and lead programming to serve students in partnership with faculty and parents in our school community. The ideal candidate will have expertise in both giftedness and learning differences and the development of instructional strategies and learning accommodations for middle and high school students with learning differences. Additionally, the ideal candidate will bring excellent social and emotional learning skills, have a strong understanding of project based learning approaches, and stay current on the latest research in special and gifted education. Finally, the ideal candidate will bring a compassionate and holistic approach to collaborating with students, families, providers and colleagues to nurture our strengths-based program.

Primary Responsibilities

• Co-designs and iterates systems and structures of learning support for the division and the school in alignment with the mission and vision of supporting gifted learners
• Communicates and facilitates across stakeholders (students, teachers, staff, families, administrators, outside providers) an integrated approach to our strengths-based learning support
• Develops collaborative and transformative relationships with families of students receiving accommodations and provides education about learning profiles and neurodiversity.
• Meets with and coaches teachers to co-develop robust classroom pedagogy and individual interventions to support both the individual needs of students on accommodation plans and differentiation for all students
• Incorporates an anti-racist and anti-oppressive lens into approach and practice
• Provides direct support for students, individually or in groups, to help them understand their strengths and strategies, partnering with them in goal setting and advocacy
• Reviews educational evaluations, writing and tracking related accommodation and intervention plans.
• Maintains a robust professional network of outside providers to assist in referral processes and actively works with these providers as they support and assess our students.
• Attends and helps lead student wellness meetings and collaborates with wellness team including administration, teachers, school counselors, school psychologist, and outside providers
• Collaborates with colleagues in all divisions to align learning support across Lower, Middle, and Upper School
• Robustly uses data to assess the current and long-term needs of our population
• Designs both proactive and responsive regular professional development programs for faculty to better understand learning differences and support implementation of classroom accommodations
• Designs and leads both proactive and responsive parent education workshops regarding neurodiversity
• Collaborates with our Social Justice and Equity team to support students and foster a sense of belonging.

Qualifications

• Master's degree required in a related field
• A minimum of three years successful learning specialist teaching experience
• Experience reviewing psychoeducational testing, developing related student accommodation plans, and tracking progress over time
• Experience working with middle and high school age students and parents preferred
• Excellent listening, speaking and written communication skills
• Flexibility and creativity in working in a dynamic environment where new ideas, mistakes, and iteration are embraced
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively
• Openness to feedback and improvement, modeling lifelong learning
• Experience with the gifted population or desire to learn about giftedness
• Commitment to ensuring that recommended student supports/accommodations are accessible and equitable for all students
• Commitment to supporting and furthering developing a compassionate, strengths-based approach to learning support at Nueva

To Apply

Please send a cover letter, resume, and the names and contact information three references at http://nuevaschool.applytojob.com/apply . To address specific questions, please email Scott Bowers, at [email protected] .

Applications will be screened on a rolling basis beginning early-March.  Nueva’s goal is to hire for the position by the end of March/early April.

The Nueva School is an Equal Opportunity Employer – we do not discriminate against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability or sex. We welcome applications from people of color and those with experience outside the education field. 

About The Nueva School

The Nueva School, an internationally-recognized, nonprofit, independent day school, has served gifted and talented students since 1967. Today, Nueva serves nearly 1000 students PK-12.  Nueva is located in the neighboring towns of Hillsborough and San Mateo, equidistant between San Francisco and Silicon Valley, serving six different counties throughout the Bay Area of Northern California.

A constructivist school, Nueva is known for its distinctive inquiry-based interdisciplinary studies, project-based learning, and pioneering work in social-emotional learning and design thinking. The Nueva community instills a passion for lifelong learning, fosters social and emotional acuity, and develops the imaginative mind. Our school has received the US Department of Education National Blue Ribbon Award and the American Institute of Architects Award for School Design and Sustainability, has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished Program and appointed an Ashoka Changemaker School, co-founded the Common Ground Speaker Series, hosts the biennial Innovative Learning Conference, the annual Equity and Inclusion Institute, and was highlighted by the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times best-selling author Thomas Friedman in his book That Used to Be Us in the chapter “Average Is Over.”