The Lead Academic Success Coach will drive and promote continued student engagement and academic progress in the Excel Center by leading a team of student first and service-oriented academic success coaches. He/she will supervise, manage, train, and evaluate a staff of 3-5 academic success coaches and is responsible for supporting a small caseload of students. He/she will work closely with the GEC Director, Lead Teacher, and other key Leadership Team members to build collaborative relationships between team members to support students. He/she will build a strong coaching team that is focused on building student relationships, identifying student barriers to success and presenting solutions to support students in their academic journey. The Lead Academic Success Coach will work with the team to create a culture of action, urgency, and solutions on the coaching team. The incumbent will be a member of the site leadership team and work collaboratively with the instructional team in supporting the school’s motto: “Relationships, Relevance, and Rigor”. This position is responsible and will be held accountable for behaving in accordance with divisional and organizational RISE values and expectations.

Key Competencies:
• Customer focus
• Building effective teams
• Drive for results
• Conflict management

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Manages, monitors, and facilitates the work responsibilities for the Academic Success Coaching Team.

2. Creates and fosters a culture of support with the Academic Success Coaching team and leads with a solution-oriented mindset when approaching student barriers and plans. Identifies resolutions during moments of conflict between students and coaches and presents key next steps and outcomes. 

3. Performs casework services with students to help identify and resolve individual barriers to promote student success. 

4. Serves on site leadership team and provides critical insight and input into the day- to-day operations of the school. 

5. Collaborates with the Director, Lead Teacher, Registrar, and other Leadership Team members to ensure common understanding of the Excel Center course progression among all coaches. 

6. Monitors and manages the student scheduling process and ensures coaches are developing strong graduation plans that align with the students’ current progression. Works with the school leadership team to adhere to urgent scheduling timelines and master schedule reviews with a focus on students. 

7. Participates in the selection of Academic Success Coaches and leads the onboarding and training process for new coaches. 

8. During each enrollment cycle, manages and monitors the new students’ intake process and works with the Enrollment Team to schedule all intakes. Distributes new student caseloads evenly to the coaches. 

9. Reviews progress documentation in the student information system (PowerSchool) to ensure academic progress and appropriate intervention plans. 

10. Collaborates with instructors and other school team members to monitor student progress and to identify supports needed on the pathway to successful academic outcomes. 

11. Gathers background information on the student’s social history by conducting observations, making home visits as necessary, interviewing students, and reviewing student records. 

12. Participates in eligibility meetings and contributes to the development of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP). 

13. Serves as a resource to teachers and staff regarding social, emotional, and academic needs of students. Meets with students and coaches to review individualized intervention plans and/or attendance plans created to support academic outcomes. 

14. Provides in-service training, professional development, and workshops for teachers and staff on topics including proper referral procedures for to appropriate internal and external services, social emotional supports for students, intervention plans, and collaborative planning between teachers and coaches. 

15. Organizes and facilities student support programs and activties to address specific emotional and social needs of students and support student learning. 

16. Serves as a liaison, with the academic success coach, to the student, home, school, counseling facilities and community resources such as social services, court services, and family service agencies. 

17. Acts as a member of the school crisis team to provide intervention to students, as necessary. 

18. Supports the attendance tracking and monitoring of students with the Coaching team and ensures compliance to the school attendance policy. Uses student data (attendance, retention, and productivity) to drive action and suggest innovative solutions to drive positive change.
19. Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibility:

Supervises the Academic Success Coaches and Student Support Specialist(s), conducts regular evaluations of the coaching team and designs and supports improvement plans where needed.

Required Qualifications:

1. Bachelor’s Degree
2. 3-5 years of experience in facilitating and/or offering educational programming, family counseling, rehabilitation counseling, student counseling/personnel services, mental health and human services, individual/development, and/or community services. Two full years (10 terms) as an Academic Success Coach at GEC may be substituted for this requirement.
3. Two years of supervisory experience.
4. Experience working with high school aged students or young adults in a non-traditional setting and/or an adult education setting strongly preferred.
5. Must possess ability to collect, interpret, and synthesize information about a student’s social history, community environment, family dynamics, economic differences, and significant crises that influence academic and behavioral functioning.
6. Must have demonstrated ability to work cooperatively as an interdisciplinary team member and create an appropriate service plan for current students.
7. Must possess the ability to synthesize and interpret student academic data and student barriers to identify solutions and an intervention plan.
8. Must possess excellent communication, time management, and organization skills.
9. Outstanding administrative skills.
10. Must possess the ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with community agencies, students, families, team members, and others.
11. Ability to positively drive change; demonstrates strong planning and organizational skills and initiative.
12. Has strong knowledge of computer programs to perform documentation tasks: Google Applications (specifically Gmail), Excel, Word and Internet Explorer.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Masters Degree in Social Work, Psychology, or related field.
2. 3-5 years of experience in facilitating and/or offering educational programming, family counseling, rehabilitation counseling, student counseling/personnel services, mental health and human services, individual/family development, and community services.
3. Five or more years of work experience in a school setting, with 3-5 years of supervisory experience.
4. Experience working with local DC social services and has created strong working relationships and partnerships.
5. Experience advising students around academic progress and creating intervention plans to support academic progress.