Director of Humanities

Director, Humanities

Role Type: Full-Time

Location: Washington, DC

FLSA Status: Exempt

WHO WE ARE

DC Prep is a high performing network of public charter schools serving over 2,100 preschool through 8th-grade students across six campuses in Wards 5, 7, and 8. We’re proud of  the high bar we set for ourselves to achieve results–our students deserve our best! We recognize that how we support our students to be successful is just as important as the results we achieve, which pushes us to reflect on questions such as: 

• How can we facilitate our students’ academic, social, and emotional development?  
• How can we support our team members’ professional growth and personal ability to do this work long-term? 
• How can we engage our students’ families as our own? 

While this work is hard, it’s worth it – we believe in the transformative power of education, the can-do-itness of our students and staff, and the joy that comes from engaging in meaningful work with people we care about and trust!  

Here’s how we drive results: 

• Rigorous academic focus.  Our Preppies receive the highest level of academic preparation through standards-based instruction, daily targeted interventions, and meaningful assessments.

• Social-emotional learning. We have always had a dual mission of academic and social-emotional skill development.  Our research-based SEL curriculum is integrated into daily instruction, helping students leverage their personal values to strengthen their self-awareness, social awareness, and responsible decision-making skills and create a school-wide culture of empathy and reflection.  

• Commitment to reflection and refinement.  Our results tell us that we are moving in the right direction, but there’s further to go to ensure that every student receives a transformative education. As a team, we regularly reflect on our programmatic model to see what’s working and where we can get better.  

Are you interested in learning more about the DC Prep Way? If so, check out our website to find out more about what we’re working towards and how we’re doing it.

THE OPPORTUNITY

As the Director of Humanities, you will serve as a key member of the Home Office Academic Program Team, ensuring that English Language Arts (ELA) and Social Studies programming are implemented with fidelity and evaluated for impact across the network. You will be responsible for maintaining high-quality programming across all tiers and ensuring alignment to DC Prep’s academic vision. You will be accountable for the growth and achievement of our students across all six schools as readers and writers.  The primary goals you are working towards are high numbers of students achieving 4+ on the annual end of year CAPE assessment and high levels of growth on NWEA-ELA and CAPE.  

As DC Prep launches a new K–8 ELA curriculum in the 2026–27 school year, you will design and implement the systems and structures necessary to support a strong first year of adoption. This work will require close collaboration and coordination with multiple teams, including Schools, Data, Operations, and Principal teams.

In addition, you will curate and organize curriculum resources, materials, and assessments to ensure accessibility and coherence. You will coordinate directly with our Data Team to design and plan the human systems for using student data to drive growth. You will also develop deep expertise in ELA and Social Studies, staying current with research, best practices, and updates related to the Common Core State Standards and DC assessments. In our second year of implementation of the new Social Studies action civics standards and curriculum, you will be responsible for managing the implementation and quality of programming as well as associated projects and field experiences.  

As the Director of Humanities, you will leverage your content expertise and data analysis skills to identify network-wide needs and opportunities for improvement. Your insights will guide both short- and long-term programmatic decisions that strengthen teacher, Assistant Principal, and Principal development and execution.

In this role, you will provide targeted, content-specific coaching to accelerate leader growth and facilitate coordination meetings with campus Assistant Principals to clarify program vision, deepen content knowledge, and build capacity for data-driven decision-making. Your work will directly inform collaborative planning, professional development for teachers and leaders, Data Days, the July Leader Retreat, and August Orientation.

The Director of Humanities reports to the Senior Director of Program and is a member of the Program Team.

THE DAY TO DAY

Support leaders with execution and evaluation of high-quality ELA and Social Studies programming and curriculum in service of student outcomes and achievement of goals. 

• Deliver on a comprehensive literacy program that includes literacy professional development, data tracking student outcomes, evidence based interventions and practices using a multi-tiered system of support and setting/ measuring performance goals
• Ensure general education, special education and ELL teachers along with Academic AAPs understand how student literacy is developed, build knowledge and demonstrate competency for delivering on a structured literacy program
• Evaluate implementation and execution of ELA and Social Studies programming and curriculum across all tiers.

• Ensure that teachers are teaching with fidelity to our program and to the rigor of the Common Core State Standards and DC Social Studies standards while providing the appropriate instructional support to best support ALL students.
• Analyze and evaluate progress towards internal and external accountability measures on a weekly,monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
• Create, develop and sustain professional development models for evidence based literacy practices in the classroom to improve student outcomes.  Provide weekly development to leaders to grow their capacity to coach and develop teachers on our tiered programming.
• Prepare weekly data analysis and action planning to drive student growth. 
• Conduct regular classroom observations with members of school leadership teams to gather data on the effectiveness of the ELA and Social Studies programming and curriculum in action.
• Create, develop and sustain PD plans to target readers who are significantly below reading level and provide training grounded in high quality instructional materials to ensure effective implementation that leads to improvement in student literacy
• Plan and facilitate content-specific Coordination meetings with Assistant Principals.
• Participate in Principal Cohort, Director, and Program Team meetings.
• Provide weekly dispatch (1-on-1 coaching and development) to Assistant Principals. Provide job embedded coaching and professional development to support classroom teachers and their literacy practices.  
• Analyze network benchmark data, plan and facilitate quarterly Data Day Prep Facilitation.
• Plan and facilitate July Leadership Retreat sessions to train leaders for the upcoming school year.
• Support programming and partnership with families on evidence based practices to support literacy development. 

Manage external partnerships and contracts aligned to your content area. Contract with vendors for high quality, science based reading program based professional development.  

• Be willing to take on additional responsibilities as necessary to fulfill DC Prep’s mission for our students.

QUALIFICATIONS

Skills & Mindset

• Unwavering commitment to DC Prep’s ​Vision, Mission, and Values​, including a strong and demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion
• Ability to disaggregate problems and structure and implement solutions to complex, challenges
• Savvy, honest and effective communicator with demonstrated track record of creating alignment around and implementing shared goals and solutions
• Intellectual depth and emotional maturity to work with colleagues and stakeholders across the entire organization
• Emotional resilience and constancy coupled with strong leadership presence and passion to motivate, support and sustain teams in challenging and critically important work
• Demonstrated track record of investing and leading teams through change
• Effective people developer and collaborator across diverse teams

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience, with at least two years of  K-12 school leadership experience 
• Experience as a K-12 school leader (preference for former principals and assistant principals), experience designing or implementing program and curriculum initiatives and practices, and organizational leadership experience required

Role specific

• Proven track record of system-level strategic thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated content area mastery in elementary and/or middle school content areas

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS 

• Provide in person support to leaders and teachers across DC Prep’s campuses and Home Office.
• All DC Prep staff perform clerical duties related to instructional supplies, student reports and records, attendance reports, assessments, etc.
• Additional responsibilities may arise during the school year.  This could include: attending staff and student field trips, after school events, family-teacher conferences, home visits, and other events involving parents and students, as needed. This list is not exhaustive. DC Prep will communicate mandatory events outside of school hours with ample notice.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands and environmental conditions described below are representative, but not exhaustive, of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the role.  All of these physical requirements should be able to be performed with clarity, coherence and connectedness to DC Prep’s vision.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

• Must be able to sit and work at a desk/computer for extended periods of time
• Must be able to spend the majority of the day standing or mobile throughout the classroom, as well as talk, hear, grasp, reach and lift up to 30lbs with or without accommodations
• Ability to concentrate in active and noisy environments such as cafeterias and playgrounds, to more moderate situations such as classrooms or large group professional settings
• Must be able to have repetitive wrist/hand/finger movement to work on computer and/or related office equipment
• Ability to handle potential high stress conditions

JOIN US

Do you believe that Learning Has No Limits? Are you eager to join a supportive, innovative, and collaborative community of educators? Are you committed to growing your strengths as an educator through individualized professional development and coaching? Apply today!

We’re an equal opportunity employer and hire without consideration of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or disability. We strongly encourage diverse candidates to apply.