"I cannot believe that one week of learning could have such an impact on someone's view of education and the process by which we teach our children. My whole teaching style will be different from this point on. I am leaving here a different person-- a better teacher."
"I'm leaving this experience with a greater respect for the dynamics of authentic, student centered learning. The facilitation by ELS was outstanding, a well-coordinated team bringing a wealth of experience. It was truly an honor to have been served by and collaborate with each ELS staff member."
Students--
When you are done with the expedition, you go home and tell your mom and dad what you learned and they practically don't even know what you are talking about. It's like you wrote a new chapter in the encyclopedia. Six weeks ago I would never have known about pond life.
And parents--
"I've helped Quania with her WORK AT HOME before, but this was the first time I wanted to go to school. The school makes you feel really welcome. They suggest it's a good idea for parents to go to school. They say, 'Come up anytime,' and you feel comfortable when you get there. That's the feeling a parent should have."
THE ORGANIZATION
Expeditionary Learning Schools/Outward Bound (ELS) is a comprehensive, research-based design and teacher development program for comprehensive school improvement that achieves demonstrated results in:
Improved instruction and a more professional faculty
Higher student achievement and engagement
A positive and productive school culture
The approach combines rigorous academic content and real world projects -- learning expeditions -- with active teaching and community service. The ELS design focuses on active, engaging teaching. Faculty members receive intensive professional development in curriculum, teaching practices, and building a strong school culture.
In Expeditionary Learning Schools/Outward Bound, much of the academic work is done in learning expeditions -- long-term investigations of important questions and subjects that include individual and group projects, field studies, and performances and presentations of student work. Active pedagogy, the type of instruction in an ELS classroom, is meant to be the norm whether or not there is a learning expedition underway.
ELS partners with individual schools and their districts--and with charter schools--primarily in cites and rural communities where good schools are most needed and where good schools have not been the norm. Expeditionary Learning programs are now being implemented in over 160 urban, rural, and suburban schools in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
In 2003 ELS was awarded a five-year grant of $12.6 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help create 20 new, small, college preparatory high schools: eight in New York City and 12 in other parts of the country. In 2007 ELS received another five-year grant of $8 million from the Gates Foundation to create an additional eight schools.
ELS was developed by Outward Bound USA, and draws upon the educational and developmental ideas of Outward Bound's founder, Kurt Hahn, and Outward Bound's significant history of teaching through adventure and service. Expeditionary Learning has its own nonprofit 501(c)3 status, but operates in close concert with other Outward Bound entities in the US and around the world.
Expeditionary Learning Schools/Outward Bound has its headquarters in New York City and delivers its program to schools through regional offices in New York City, New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Northwest, the Southwest and Puerto Rico.
ELS Professional Development
Expeditionary Learning's program of professional development emphasizes active teaching and learning, student and faculty engagement, and a demanding and supportive school culture. Literacy is central and reading and writing are integrated throughout the curriculum. Character development and teamwork are not just emphasized, but embedded in school structures, practices and rituals and integrated into the academic program.
ELS's professional development enables teachers and principals to do this work with quality. It happens primarily at the school site, where ELS staff and national faculty come to work with teams of teachers and administrators for 30 or more days each year. On-site, direct professional development is complemented with regional and national institutes, conferences, school-site seminars and educator Outward Bound courses where ELS teachers and administrators from different schools across the country learn together.
ELS and Outward Bound (OB)
In the late 1980's, Outward Bound developed a joint project with the Harvard Graduate School of Education with the objectives of bringing a more experiential dimension to the Harvard Education School curriculum and more academic rigor into Outward Bound's work with schools. In the 1990s Outward Bound began a national urban education initiative to build on this work and to identify, develop, and replicate its most effective models of urban and school-based programming.
Outward Bound's urban/education initiative began to focus on whole-school improvement and the professional development of teachers when, in 1992, Outward Bound's Expeditionary Learning proposal was selected by the New American Schools Development Corporation (later renamed New American Schools) for potential five-year support. NASDC's grants and other support enabled Outward Bound to develop and test the Expeditionary Learning design and then, once it appeared to be successful, to scale up its application to more schools.
Expeditionary Learning moved from reliance on philanthropy for financial support to fee for service, paid by the schools and districts involved. ELS started with 10 demonstration schools in five cities: New York, Boston, Portland, ME, Denver and Dubuque in the 1993-94 school year. Most of the first ten schools are still active partner schools in its national network, and are in their 15th year of implementing the design.
As Outward Bound has aimed at personal transformation, Expeditionary Learning aims at the transformation of whole schools. Both work at challenging and helping people do more than they would have thought possible. Both view learning as an act of discovery, and experience as the most potent teacher. They are based on certain ideas about what is important for a person to learn and practice as a foundation for academic success and success in life, such things as enterprise. resilience, curiosity, tenacity, self-discipline, teamwork and compassion.
Today, ELS operates as a free-standing division within Outward Bound USA with close collaborative relationships with other Outward Bound programs directed at making communities better places to live.
Links to Additional ELS Information
The Core Practice Benchmarks ((http://www.elschools.org/aboutus/practices.html) describe Expeditionary Learning in practice: what teachers, students, school leaders, families, and other partners do in fully implemented Expeditionary Learning Schools/Outward Bound. The five core practices--learning expeditions, active pedagogy, school culture and character, leadership and school improvement, and structures--work in concert and support one another to promote high achievement through active learning, character growth, and teamwork.
See FAQs at http://www.elschools.org/faq.html.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Reporting to the Expeditionary Learning Board of Directors and, as a Vice President of Outward Bound, to the CEO of Outward Bound, the President/CEO of ELS will guide the organization as it continues to grow and to enhance the quality of its school programs. This calls for an accomplished executive with broad general management skills; development will comprise as much as 50% of the job.
Specifically, the President/CEO will focus on leading ELS to achieve these organizational priorities:
To build a diversified and sustainable funding base
To ensure measurable gains in school quality and student learning and growth both in academics and character development
To foster strong partnerships with staff, funders, schools, and others
To develop efficient and appropriate program replication
To build a strong organization and leadership team
To promote the visibility and credibility of Expeditionary Learning
Building a diversified and sustainable funding base is clearly the most important task for the President, who must have the ability to inspire, engage, and motivate foundations, as well as individual and corporate donors. Strong and creative networking and partnership development skills will be critical attributes for this leadership position.
Specific responsibilities of the President/CEO include:
Further develop and communicate ELS s strategic vision and direction, including program refinement, new program development, and overall organizational direction.
Increase fund raising to support ELS s national operations and to provide financial resources to sustain improve and enlarge the program.
Build and maintain a high quality staff to deliver on all programs and partnerships.
Manage program development and implementation.
Engage the ELS and Outward Bound Boards on key initiatives where their talents and efforts can improve results; effectively recruit new ELS trustees capable of providing financial support and their own time to ELS and its mission.
Lead ELS s communication initiatives as the public face of the organization; raise the profile of ELS by commanding the position of respected leader able to speak authoritatively and engagingly on teaching and learning, professional development for educators, and improving public schools in local and national media.
In addition, as Vice President of Outward Bound the President/CEO will
Participate as a member of the OBUSA Senior Leadership Team on topics and issues of system-wide importance to Outward Bound
Collaborate in developing and implementing overall Outward Bound strategy and programs.
Encourage and help develop programming that effectively connects ELS and its partner schools with other forms of Outward Bound for the greater benefit to students and schools.
Communicate actively and openly to ensure that ELS and its work are well and properly represented within and through OB and that OB is well and properly represented through ELS.
Report to the National Board and CEO of Outward Bound USA on those matters common to both affiliated and chartered organizations, with particular attention to safety and management of the Outward Bound brand.
THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
The ideal candidate currently is CEO, President, Executive Director, or other senior executive of a foundation or program-based organization, including government agency or program, that delivers a school reform or other social service to schools, parents, and/or communities. Alternatively, he or she is a school superintendent or principal with strong operations skills and perhaps previous experience running a not-for-profit organization.
This individual is someone who brings both charisma and a strong operations background to the position. He or she must be comfortable in the public arena raising money, talking to foundations and corporate partners, facing customers, etc. while at the same time bringing discipline, accountability, good judgment, and creativity to the delivery of ELS s programs to schools.
He or she has the following attributes--
An engaging leader who naturally attracts, hires, and works to retain capable people; aligns and sustains productive relationships with diverse stakeholders and leads them to consistently high performance
Accomplished fund-raiser with demonstrated success with diverse funding sources foundation first, then corporation, government, and individual.
Active advocate for and participant in excellence in education, preferably including successful experience as a teacher, principal, and/or teacher of teachers, with organizations that provide professional development for teachers and principals and that are effective in improving schools.
Strong operational experience with a track record of executing upon strategy.
Knowledge, understanding and deep interest in OB s and ELS s values and programs; appreciation for the unique operating and cultural dynamics of this environment.
Excellent communicator--one who both listens well and articulates ideas in clear and compelling ways both orally and in writing; ability to be empathetic and impactful with a very broad range of audiences from funding sources and employees to school partners.
Champion of the improvement and growth of a successful organization; highly skilled and comfortable at managing multiple dimensions simultaneously; able to make sound decisions that emphasize delivery of high-quality programs, operational efficiency, team collaboration, and balanced budgets.
Perspective and humor.
Ability to navigate in non-profit environments; blend of market and mission perspectives.
Track record of building long-term partnerships with outside organizations.
Specific knowledge of project-based instruction in K-12 schools.
Experience as an active Board member of a not-for-profit organization.
Culturally and temperamentally, the ideal candidate is a team player who believes that individual success flows from the overall success of the entire organization.
This involves a range of personal attributes-- flexibility and adaptability; a great work ethic; an ability to analyze and evaluate one s own (and other s) performance and to develop plans to improve performance; excellent presentation skills; willingness to take responsibility for both success and failure a thick skin; self-confidence and a positive attitude about self, company, and marketplace; and a strong desire for success.
THE CAREER OPPORTUNITY
To an experienced executive seeking a new challenge in the not-for-profit world, this opportunity offers several attractive features:
The opportunity to join Outward Bound, a respected and successful organization, while at the same time enjoying autonomy as President and CEO of ELS
For a current #2, the opportunity to assume leadership of an organization with a operating budget of more than $10MM
The opportunity to make a difference; culture of innovation will appeal to individuals who feel thwarted by red tape and the weight of tradition in a larger organization
The opportunity to work on a national scale
The opportunity to work with a distinguished and involved board
COMPENSATION
Compensation offers an attractive salary in line with an individual s work experience.
TRAVEL
Travel could be as much as 50%.
CONTACT
Resume should be sent as a Word document to Ralph Protsik, BSG Team Ventures/Boston Search Group, ralph@bsgtv.com, and also posted on the BSG website, www.bostonsearchgroup.com
Applicant Category: Professional
Requisition Code: Work at home
Two Initials of Recruiter: bw
System Date: 01/21/2008
System Time: 13:33:31
Document Name(40): President and CEO
Source: 6FigureJobs - USA
SearchTerms: "work at home" "work from home"
URL(80): http://www.6figurejobs.com/ExecSearchJobsDetail.cfm?CFID=3919397&CFTOKEN=5246434
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