Cajal Academy seeks an experienced educational leader to serve as our first Director of Academic Programs

Cajal Academy is looking for an educator with leadership experience to join our team as our first inter-disciplinary, Director of Academic Programs. This is a unique opportunity to take a leadership role within a small, visionary non-profit project-based learning school. Our model updates educational and therapeutic practices to match current neuroscientific research, with transformational effects for our cohort of bright and gifted kids with learning, social-emotional and neurophysiological differences.

You will join a tight-knit team of experienced general education teachers and expert licensed therapists, including an internationally-recognized neuropsychologist, providing leadership and accountability for the development and delivery of our academic curriculum. Our tight-knit team develops bespoke project-based learning units to deliver standards-based instruction through an analytical lens to our mixed age cohort; you will spearhead this multi-disciplinary collaboration, coordinate its on-time delivery by our team of general ed instructors and provide accountability for both the level of excellence with which academic instruction is delivered and adherence, in collaboration with our clinical team, to Cajal’s instructional strategies and pedagogy. At the same time, you will also be in the classroom yourself, working with kids in a whole new way that brings movement into the classroom and applies data-driven differentiation to help students access their strengths. As such, we are looking for an educator who is experienced providing rigorous, standards-based instruction through to the high school level in a core academic disciplines, with proven leadership abilities and a strong commitment to collaboration.

About our School:

Cajal Academy is a non-profit organization dedicated to modernizing education by leveraging modern advances in neuroscientific understandings about how children learn, socialize and grow. Our novel educational model empowers kids to optimize their own outcomes through a comprehensive, problem-solving approach to reducing–not just accommodating–areas of relative learning, social-emotional and physio weaknesses with coaching in how to self-monitor, self-manage and self-advocate for their needs.  

Academic instruction is aligned with CT standards and presented through multi-disciplinary project-based learning; these units become the social glue that brings our diverse cohort together and provides a sense of common purpose. Students attend a traditional schedule of ability-grouped classes with small class sizes (1:6 or fewer); there, curriculum is sequenced to align to the current project. Time is allocated for students to integrate this information across subject matters and to collaborate with peers on developing a solution to the problem presented; these are core therapeutic processes for developing executive function and social collaboration skills that will be essential for our unique thinkers’ success in college and professional endeavors. On the job training is provided to all staff in how to implement these protocols and approaches, with daily access to our therapeutic staff to further refine the approaches.

Ours is a small school with a mixed-age cohort of students in grades 2-12, growing towards a full K-12 school. Instruction is provided in small groups of 6 students or fewer; total enrollment for fall, 2023 is not expected to exceed 15 students. Over time we hope to grow the school to a total of approximately 50 students. All staff members form close and nurturing relationships with each of our students, using a trauma-informed approach. Cajal Academy is not a "behavior management" or ABA school and does not implement ABA approaches. We do not accept students who display physical aggression towards staff or peers at the time of consideration.

Cajal Academy received Candidacy status from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) in June, 2023 and will pursue full accreditation.

Responsibilities of the Position:

Our Director of Academic Programs will lead our team of academic instructors and will have primary responsibility for ensuring that academic instruction is delivered at a level of rigor appropriate to the abilities of students having very high to superior analytical reasoning and/or creative thinking skills, and while utilizing Cajal Academy’s unique pedagogy, instructional strategies and data-driven differentiation. This will include responsibility for spearheading the inter-disciplinary process through which we develop and implement standards-aligned project-based learning, differentiated for a mixed age cohort of bright, gifted and twice exceptional students in grades K-12; fostering academic rigor appropriate for our cohort of bright and gifted students; and furthering professional development across our academic team.

Cajal Academy’s project-based learning approach is based on the work of the Buck Institute for Education (www.pblworks.org). We have adapted this to provide a fully integrative, wall-to-wall project-based learning experience for bright and gifted (including profoundly gifted) students with complex profiles and special education needs. Each project is developed by our team to integrate language arts, math, science, engineering and visual arts standards together with content enriching students’ understanding of their social-emotional, occupational and physical therapeutic needs. All staff members collaborate together to identify the key standards to be taught and to develop a “driving question” requiring mastery of those standards. Students collaborate with one another to solve these problems, with explicit instruction in the social-emotional skills required to do so. Students attend a traditional schedule of ability-grouped, small group or 1:1 classes, wherein curriculum is sequenced to align to these multi-disciplinary projects. Competency-based assessments are provided at the end of each project, challenging the students to closely examine their own levels of mastery.

Responsibilities of the position will include:

• Collaborating with academic instructors, therapists and our Head of School to identify the relevant curricular standards and “next step” skills to be targeted for each student, utilizing the data in each child’s profile as well as their demonstrated competency levels;

• Leading team efforts to brainstorm and develop potential projects integrating relevant curricular and therapeutic skills and standards across the curriculum, with a commitment to inter-disciplinary collaboration, allowing students to access instruction through their analytical reasoning skills, and fostering creative expression in the ways that students manifest their learning;

• Developing and delivering assessment rubrics and tools for evaluating student academic progress and ensuring staff accountability for delivery of quality, standards-aligned instruction, in collaboration with academic and therapeutic staff;

• Developing and maintaining an integrated project description, road map and milestones for implementation of each project;

• Collaborating with all academic instructors to ensure on-time development of lesson plans within their areas of domain expertise, differentiated for individual learners’ ability levels and special needs, and monitoring those plans for appropriate levels of rigor and adherence to Cajal Academy pedagogies and standards;

• Ensuring that academic instructors utilize a mix of learning modalities, including traditional instructional techniques, our OT- and PT-designed “Body-Informed Learning,” technology/web-based resources, live “fieldwork” trips within the community, hands-on experiments and other experiences making learning accessible to students having a wide range of learning modalities and needs;

• Identifying and developing relationships with potential community-based mentors, experts and organizations who can provide in-depth learning, mentorship and/or field work opportunities, and scheduling learning opportunities with these providers as appropriate for a given project;

• Within your field of instruction, delivering instruction in language arts to small, ability-based classes, implementing and analyzing assessments and monitoring student progress;

• Documenting cross-cutting principles and individual project curricula, to support the accreditation process and development of new projects;

• Preparing parent communications and materials that can be distributed on our website and through our newsletter, explaining the project-based learning process and key curriculum standards to be addressed through each project-based learning unit;

• Participating in weekly team meetings with all academic and therapeutic staff, in which student needs and profiles are discussed in depth, and implementing the team’s evolving findings and recommendations in your classroom;

• Keeping parents and team members informed through written and oral communications, and expanding teacher and parent understanding of each child’s development

• Drafting in-depth, narrative-style progress reports assessing students’ mastery of both curricular and growth mindset competencies, aligned to Cajal Academy inter-disciplinary competency-based grading standards, and coordinating the on-time production and delivery of our inter-disciplinary progress reports;

• Capturing and documenting “lessons-learned” during and at the conclusion of each project, to continue institutional growth and improvement in our delivery of project-based learning and academic curriculum;

• Participating in our admissions process, including by providing reading and writing assessments to incoming candidates or other screening activities and speaking with parents at our information sessions;

• Supporting our accreditation process by providing documentation of our current policies and procedures, participating in and contributing to our school’s ‘self study’ and identifying areas of ongoing professional development needs and opportunities;

• Contributing to the growth and development of our school by looking for opportunities to help our skeletal administrative team move us forward, in a true startup environment.
  
  

In view of our small size and in order to fully understand our unique academic pedagogy and model, you will also have responsibility for classroom instruction in a core academic discipline (reading, writing, math, social studies and/or science). In that capacity, your responsibilities will include:

• Developing and delivering standards-based lesson plans, differentiated in collaboration with our clinical team for each student in accordance with Cajal Academy’s data-driven protocols;

• Implementing Cajal Academy protocols for growth mindset and social-emotional coaching, and supporting children’s growth by prompting students to utilize personalized self-regulation strategies provided by our clinical team;

• Implementing Cajal Academy’s physio-based standards for classroom management, including prompting students on “safe body” usage and integrating movement into instruction through “Body-Informed Learning,” following guidelines and training provided by our OT and PT team;

• Identifying areas of evolving challenges for individual students and raising them to our therapeutic team and in our team meetings;

• Designing, implementing and analyzing assessments for each child’s current knowledge, strengths and weaknesses, and monitoring their progress; and

• Keeping parents and team members informed through written and oral communications, and expanding teacher and parent understanding of each child’s development.

Requirements

We are looking for creative problem solvers who are strong analytical and cross-disciplinary thinkers, and are passionate about making a difference for bright and gifted children who have learning, social, emotional or neurophysiological challenges. All Cajal Academy team members must be flexible thinkers with strong attention to detail and an eagerness to embrace new educational practices that have been developed by our team. They must also have deep subject matter expertise within their field of instruction, so that they can challenge and develop the thinking of students having very high to superior levels analytical abilities, including at the high school level.

Our ideal candidate will be an educator who has experience developing and implementing high quality project-based learning providing demonstrated academic success, including at the high school level, or a professional having managerial and subject matter experience in a relevant field and a passion for teaching as a second career. Teacher certification is desirable but not required, and training or experience as a special education teacher is not required.

The successful applicant will have a strong grasp of inquiry-based instructional strategies in language art or another relevant academic discipline, although candidates from non-traditional backgrounds will also be considered. A master’s degree or higher level of education in a relevant field is required; teacher certification and/or credentials for special education are desirable but not required. Regardless of background, (s)he must be able to flexibly adapt educational strategies and/or develop new ones to respond to the needs of this cohort or of a particular child.

The successful candidate must also be a team player comfortable working independently and collaboratively in a fluid environment. (S)he will be intellectually curious, and eager to learn from expert colleagues about the science of how children learn, develop, and grow and to apply the new pedagogical and social-emotional approaches that the team has developed. (S)he must be comfortable with the fluidity that is required to provide highly responsive, quality education to children with complex needs.

The successful applicant must also be passionate about empowering and inspiring bright and gifted children to develop into future thought leaders. (S)he must be prepared to support children struggling with anxieties and prior school-based traumas, which may display as “behavioral differences,” with collaborative problem-solving and unconditional support, applying Cajal Academy’s Neuro- and Trauma-Informed Approach, for which training will be provided. All staff must be prepared to approach these challenges with an analytical and problem-solving mindset, applying the scientifically-grounded therapeutic understandings and protocols developed by our team.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should complete the Employment Application available on the Cajal Academy website, including a resume and 3 references. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.