TN Director of Schools

Who We Are

Serving more than 3,100 scholars in seven schools across two cities, RePublic Schools is the only school network solely dedicated to reimagining public education in the South.

Part of reimagining education in the South means that we confront the historic inequities that work against our scholars and actively work to dismantle those inequities. We are doing this by intentionally creating environments that embrace, honor, and celebrate our scholars’ identities and experiences, as well as the identities and experiences of every member of our community.

RePublic Schools is seeking a results driven TN Director of Schools to manage, support and develop our TN principals as well as serve as the TN regional lead for literacy and humanities instructional support. Consonant with our vision and values, the TN Director of Schools will work alongside our principals, developing them into strong instructional leaders and people managers to drive excellent academic outcomes in their schools. Reporting to the Managing Director of Academics and serving on the Academics Team, the TN Director of Schools will champion our core values.

This position is based out of our Nashville, TN CMO office but will require occasional travel (approx 1-2 times per quarter) to Mississippi for cross regional collaboration, professional development, and knowledge sharing.

What You’ll Do

The TN Director of Schools serves as a vitally important leader in our organization, and helps drive the success of our TN schools and principals. The TN Director of Schools oversees instructional and academic programs for our three campuses in Nashville and is accountable for student success and achievement within their schools as well as developing and managing principals.

As TN Director Of Schools, You Will

Support on and Execute the Academic Vision for RePublic Schools

• In partnership with the Academics Team, lead the development and implementation of a rigorous and culturally responsive academic program aligned to RePublic’s mission and our vision of excellent teaching as defined by our RePublic Teacher Rubric.
• Define key academic priorities and strategies to improve scholar outcomes in our TN schools.
• Ensure coherence in instructional vision across all grades and subjects, integrating best practices in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
• Serve as the network literacy and humanities curriculum and instructional lead for TN schools.
  
  

Develop and Coach Instructional Leaders

• Directly manage all TN principals as well as a Director on the network Academic Team.
• Support other school-based instructional leaders, including Principals and Assistant Principals in strengthening their instructional leadership skills and impact on scholar learning with a specific focus on literacy and humanities curriculum and instruction.
• Design and lead professional development with school based instructional leaders to ensure they know how to lead all aspects of the coaching cycle with their teachers to get them better faster.
• Create structures to ensure instructional leaders effectively analyze data, develop action plans, and drive continuous improvement in scholar achievement.
  
  

Drive High-Quality Instruction and Professional Development

• Support on the development and execution of network-wide professional development summits for teachers and leaders as well as any TN region specific instructional development .
• Ensure that instructional practices across our TN schools reflect a high bar for rigor, engagement, and inclusivity.
• Support our TN schools in implementing data-driven instruction, curriculum planning, and responsive teaching practices.
  
  

Monitor and Improve Scholar Performance

• Support the network’s approach to academic data analysis and accountability, ensuring scholar progress is monitored effectively within our TN schools.
• Partner with TN school leaders to identify gaps in instruction and implement targeted interventions.
• Collaborate with external partners and internal teams to ensure scholars meet and exceed academic benchmarks in our TN schools.
  
  

Foster a Culture of Scholar Belonging and Joy

• Ensure our learning environments across our TN region reflect RePublic’s values of love, achievement, and antiracism.
• Support TN schools in designing engaging, affirming, and rigorous learning experiences that celebrate scholar identities and aspirations.
• Lead efforts to integrate social-emotional learning and culturally responsive practices into the academic experience.
  
  

Who You Are

Our ideal Director of Schools will have an unwavering belief that our students can achieve at an exceptionally high level. Beyond that, a successful candidate is:

• Deeply committed to serving our kids. You have elected to work with historically underserved students, and do this work because you believe that all students, regardless of background, are capable of excellence and that it’s on us as adults to get our kids there. You can speak knowledgeably about our mission, and demonstrate a commitment to our educational model.
• A proven school leader, instructional nerd, and a driver of results. You've demonstrated ability to drive results in the pursuit of an ambitious vision and strategy, and you combine your exceptional strategic, analytical, and critical thinking skills with your penchant to use data to drive decision making to achieve impressive outcomes. You’ve got a background in instructional excellence, and leadership, and have both achieved your own impressive results in the classroom and have moved other teachers and leaders to do the same.
• A people developer. You’ve led, directly managed, and coached teams and individuals to achieve wildly impressive results for scholars. You love and actively seek opportunities to develop others through ongoing coaching, clear expectations and accountability, strong inspirational and motivational skills, high leverage feedback, and targeted professional development.
• ...and a people leader. Let’s be real, managing people is hard. You’ve coached, directly managed, and demonstrably moved the effectiveness of other adults before taking this job. You build relationships across lines of difference, inspire and motivate others to buy into your vision, navigate challenging conversations with finesse, make tough calls, communicate effectively in all formats, give and receive feedback fluidly, and model/hold a high bar for adult excellence and exuberance.
• A systems builder. You're comfortable with ambiguity, and thrive in situations where you get to build something out of nothing, or create order out of chaos. You choose start up over bureaucracy any day.
• Deeply knowledgeable about literacy curriculum and instruction. To develop and coach our school based instructional leaders, you must have a deep understanding of literacy 5 to 12 curriculum and instruction and at least three years of instructional leadership experience in literacy at an assistant principal level or above with a demonstrated track record of exceptional student outcomes.
• A masterful executor. You appreciate the big picture, but you know it's all in the details. Your organizational systems ensure you get things done. You manage projects fluidly, fiercely prioritize, and track timelines, data, and information in an organized and systematic fashion. When you say you’ll follow up with someone, you do it – and you are known as someone who doesn’t drop balls.
• A growth minded thinker. You are self aware and humble enough to understand where you rock, where you need to pick up your game, and how this impacts the people you lead. You seek feedback constantly because you’re hungry to get better, and you take extreme initiative and ownership of the outcomes of the people you coach and manage.
• A strong communicator. You’ve got a knack for speaking and writing clearly, succinctly and persuasively such that expectations are clear, timelines are delineated, and excellence is defined. People would describe you as someone who is able to build relationships across lines of difference that allow you to motivate and inspire from a place of authenticity.
• A gritty problem solver. You keep it cool when things are crazy, approach problems with viable solutions, and know when you need to roll up your sleeves to support your team.
• Other qualifications:
• Must have at least 2 to 3 years of experience as a Principal
• Demonstrated significant student achievement results as a school leader, and in depth experience in school leadership and leading Principals and/or other school based leaders
• Strong pedagogy and practice in literacy curriculum and instruction at the middle and/or high school level.
• A bachelor’s degree with a preference for a graduate degree in a related field.
• Valid teaching certification in TN or in states with reciprocity not required, but strongly preferred.
  

Salary is competitive and commensurate based on experience. Compensation at RePublic includes a comprehensive benefits package.