JOIN A TEAM THAT BELIEVES STUDENTS WILL MEET THE HIGHEST ACADEMIC BEHAVIORS AND ACHIEVEMENT EXPECTATIONS
EPIC Academy is a CPS neighborhood charter high school that opened fall of 2009 in the South Chicago community with the mission to inspire and equip every student to build a path to college and career success. We embrace the challenge of public education - to develop every student’s resolve to reach his or her full potential regardless of the odds. EPIC Academy serves one of the most challenged student demographics in Chicago: 96% Free/reduced lunch, 25% Students with IEPs, 15% English Language Learners, with the average 9th grader entering on the 4th-grade academic level. The prevailing area expectation is to graduate high school and get a job. 
We view these "obstacles" as opportunities to build on our students' assets. EPIC Academy has 3 Goals for every student:

1. Be prepared for college.
2. Develop college-bound beliefs & behaviors.
3. Graduate from college.

To achieve these goals, we inspire students to imagine their future, provide belief-altering experiences that broaden their vision of what is possible, and build students’ academic skill sets to attain their goals. Our results speak for themselves:​

• Top 10% CPS HS in ACT growth - out-performing nearly all CPS selective enrollment schools
• Top 25% CPS HS in College Enrollment - out-performing the average college enrollment of other area schools by 26 percentage points
• 33% of EPIC Seniors earn college credit before graduation
• $9.4M in college scholarships from the last graduating class

EPIC Philosophy
We believe post-secondary education is the equalizer for life options and long-term happiness. Our students are capable of graduating from their best value higher educational institution. It’s our work to ensure that we dare each student to imagine an ambitious future vision and then expect and coach the hard work and skills required to realize it.
 
Classroom Leaders Drive Our Success
A leader leads a group of people to greatness. Our Classroom Leaders are positively contagious. When students talk about why they can't succeed, we show them every reason why they can, transferring belief for students to own their own greatness.
Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree
• Preferred Illinois Teaching Certificate 
• Leaders who are relentless in teaching, creating buy-in, and holding every student to high expectations.
• Highly organized managers of time that are able to prioritize, focus, and deliver.
• Teammates who make everyone better by going above and beyond for the mission and the team.
• People that get results regardless of the obstacle.
• We are flexible on experience and can be flexible on certification in high needs areas (math, science, etc.).

Classroom Leader Responsibilities

• Responsibility #1 – Focus on Skills: We focus on skills first and wrap content around them to drive interest and additional rigor. This is SAT Standards for 9-11^th and College Study & Writing Skills for 12^th.
• Responsibility #2 – High Expectations: Create a learning environment that is safe and exudes high expectations for every student at every moment. 
• Responsibility #3 – Just Right Support: Lead a Crew (homeroom) of 20 students where you are the liaison to home, deliver a curriculum for high school success, and meet with students to set goals and review progress towards increasing GPA, academic behaviors, and attendance.
• Responsibility #4 – Be a Great Teammate: Fully invest in our professional development. Make every second count by displaying high levels of attendance, preparation, and participation in both the work and all meetings (grade level, co-teaching, and coaching). Deliver and use data and reports to drive improvement.
• Responsibility #5 - Make the Extras Count: Teach a reading intervention class or an elective club class. 12th-grade teachers lead a Senior Seminar class where students practice college study skills.

EPIC Daily Non-Negotiables

1. ​Know where 100% of students are toward mastery
2. Expect college-bound beliefs and behaviors.
3. Objective, activities, and assessment all aligned to the standard rigor.
4. Live our values.