What are the responsibilities and job description for the Arts Content Specialist (Music) position at Chicago Public Schools?
Job Number:
260002HCPosting Date
: Oct 1, 2026, 9:25:23 AMPrimary Location
: Central-42 W Madison St (42 W Madison)Estimated Annual Salary Range
: 90,000.00 - 106,000.00Overtime Status
: ExemptFinal salary offers are dependent upon candidate qualifications.
JOB DESCRIPTION -
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is a district on the rise, serving over 325,000 students in 500 schools and employing over 45,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. Aligned with our transformed philosophy, we are steadfastly focused on ensuring that the District provides resources equitably to support every student, every school, and every community. Six core values guide the work we do every day for our students – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning. Each role in the district supports our vision that every student deserves a rigorous, joyful, and equitable learning experience.
The Department of Arts Education (DAE) integrates rigorous arts instruction into the district’s core educational infrastructure to drive student engagement, academic achievement, and postsecondary readiness across every Chicago Public School. The Goal of the DAE is to establish the arts as a universal instructional lever that empowers every CPS student to become a critical thinker, an inventive problem-solver, and a high-performing citizen in a global economy.
The Arts Content Specialist will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:
- Create, deliver and facilitate live, asynchronous, and on-demand professional learning experiences for arts educators, teaching artists, general education teachers, school leaders, art partners, and other stakeholders as needed to implement high-quality curriculum, instruction, and assessments, aligned with district best practices and priorities.
- Provide feedback and act as a regular consultant to inform the development of comprehensive, standards-aligned, and culturally responsive PreK-12 arts curriculum, vertically aligned learning progressions, and assessment tools. Design the arts instructional vision and materials for curriculum development and implementation aligned with district best practices and priorities.
- Coordinate, design, implement and monitor the annual review of existing professional learning offerings citywide to identify gaps and ensure district-led and partner-led experiences are coherent and high-quality.
- Build, organize, and maintain content within a centralized, searchable online hub, ensuring synchronous and asynchronous learning modules by CPS and other collaborators are readily accessible to all district stakeholders.
- Draft and distribute centralized communications, online engagement and support through multiple modalities including artlook® to ensure all arts educators and citywide art partners understand available professional learning opportunities, how to access them.
- Facilitate and support cohorts of Arts Teacher Leaders, coaching them to design and execute peer-led professional learning opportunities across the sector. Build capacity among Teacher Leaders, school teams, and local administrators to support content-specific arts learning, peer reflection, and Instructional Leadership Teams
- Develop materials and provide direct guidance to teachers and school administrators on utilizing the Arts Addendum to the Framework for Teaching to authentically evaluate arts practices. Provide targeted content guidance and alignment for network teams, school leaders, and central office stakeholders to support network professional learning plans and district-wide arts priorities
- Provide hands-on operational, content, and logistical design, facilitation and support for professional learning and other departmental events, leveraging disciplinary expertise and knowledge. Collaborate with other CPS departments to ensure cross-disciplinary alignment.
- Other duties as assigned
In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Arts Content Specialist must possess the following qualifications:
Education Required:
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study from an accredited college or university, required
- Master’s degree in a relevant field of study, preferred
- Valid teaching certificate issued by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) with appropriate grade level and content level endorsement is required
LBSI, ESL, or Bilingual Endorsement, preferred
Experience Required:
- Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in education, including the following, is required:
- Minimum of five (5) years of classroom teaching experience, including Arts instruction. Three (3) years of relevant teaching experience will be considered in combination with two (2) years of experience in a comparable content specialist-level role.
- Minimum of three (3) years of teacher leadership experience, such as leading school teams in the development of curriculum and assessments, analyzing student performance data, etc.
Minimum of three (3) years working with adult learners, including creating, organizing, and facilitating professional learning experiences to meet the needs of participants.
Other Requirements:
Occasional evening and weekends
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- Expertise in planning, designing, facilitating, and evaluating professional learning
- Deep knowledge of Arts teaching and learning instructional best practices
- Exceptional organizational skills; ability to effectively manage several work streams simultaneously
- Capable of building and sustaining positive, productive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; comfortable collaborating and communicating across a diverse range of audiences, including network teams, principals, teachers, and support staff
- Commitment to CPS Instructional Core Vision
- Ability to build consensus and leverage expertise with educators across the district
- Excellent technology skills (Google Suite)
Benefits:
Financial Security: Planning for Today and Tomorrow
Work-Life Balance: Supporting Your Personal and Professional Life
Reference the Chicago Public Schools: A Comprehensive Benefits Overview or the benefits handbook for comprehensive details.
- Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency - Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.
Salary : $90,000 - $106,000