Middle School Learning Specialist and Support Coordinator

At Gordon School, a key component of our commitment to anti bias, multicultural and social justice education is honoring neurodiversity and all the strengths that all of our learners bring to school each day. We aim to build a school culture that celebrates our varied learning profiles, strengths and needs, and see the work of our learning support services as central to a student’s sense of self and belonging at school. The Middle School Learning Specialist and Support Coordinator will be an important member of our student support services team at Gordon School, whose primary responsibility is to support students, teachers, and families, with a particular focus on students whose learning needs require accommodations or interventions. Working alongside families, teachers, and the academic leadership team, the Middle School Learning Specialist and Support Coordinator ensures that students have access to the resources they need to thrive at Gordon. This position reports to the Middle School Director and works in close partnership with the Middle School faculty and other members of the learning support team at Gordon. The MS Learning Specialist and Support Coordinator leads instruction for our academic support courses in our Middle School. The academic support program provides targeted, small group instruction and offers students opportunities for individual guidance and focused, explicit instruction and practice in foundational skills. Instruction is based on the needs of the group and may include reading, writing, and/or math remediation, and executive functioning skills instruction and coaching. Teaching Responsibilities ● Teach and coordinate sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade academic support classes instructional group ● Use push-in or pull-out teaching strategies as needed to remediate student learning ● Lead a Middle School advisory group of seven to ten students and KLDC, our Middle School Affinity Group Assessments ● Conduct regular progress monitoring assessments (four to six weeks) with academic support students ● Use benchmark assessments and progress monitoring data to determine/adjust the composition of academic support class groups ● Use neuropsychological evaluations to construct learning plans for students and ensure that teachers have the resources and information they need to utilize those plans in their instruction ● Lead coordination of Middle School assessments (including i-Ready, ERBs, etc.) ● Collect, document, and analyze assessment data for students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade and share findings with division directors, the Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning, and the learning support team Communication with Families and Documentation ● Manage caseload of students who participate in the academic support class and/or have been identified as in need of a learning support plan at Gordon, offering timely and consistent communication with families and appropriately managing documentation and record-keeping ● Write notes for conferences and attend parent conferences for Academic Support students Professional Development Support for Teachers and Families ● Offer professional development to teachers through observation, co-teaching and presentations ● Along with the Assistant Head of School for Teaching and Learning and other learning support team members, oversee Neurodivergence Family Community and lead presentations for families around reading/student support ● Plan, coordinate, and present parent information workshops on tools and curriculum Coordination with Teachers and External Providers ● Schedule and facilitate meetings with families, teachers and/or evaluators once neuropsychological evaluations are completed and shared with the school ● Work with classroom teachers to find opportunities to provide push-in support for differentiation External Providers ● Create and maintain a system to organize, document, archive, and appropriately share assessments, evaluations, and notes on Google Drive and using our Blackbaud LMS ● Coordinate services with outside consultants with Gordon students ● Schedule and facilitate meetings with families, teachers and/or evaluators once neuropsychological evaluations are completed and shared with the school ● Oversee tutors by maintaining a curated list of tutors, regularly communicating with tutors that work with our students, connecting Gordon teachers with tutors that are working with their students, and ensuring that tutors understand Gordon’s culture when working with students, teachers, and families Admissions ● Assist the Admissions team with assessments for candidates and communicate with prospective families who may have questions about our Sixth to Eighth Grade Learning Support Program ● Participate in various admissions events and serve on and/or consult with admissions committees as needed Personal qualities for the successful Middle School Learning Support Coordinator: ● An enthusiastic commitment to Gordon’s multicultural curriculum and progressive pedagogical approach. ● High cultural competency and racial literacy, and a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. ● A genuine appreciation of and respect for children and an energy and enthusiasm for all aspects of school life. ● The ability to effectively collaborate with colleagues and the academic leadership team, while advocating for the needs of students and their families. ● Warmth and a good sense of humor; patience and persistence; sense of curiosity and a love of learning. ● The desire and ability to work collaboratively, to innovate, and to be part of a team. ● Deep appreciation for and the ability to speak passionately and knowledgeably about neurodiversity.