Director Of College And Persistence

KIPP New Orleans Schools (KNOS) is a non-profit network of 13 college-preparatory, public charter schools serving 6,200 elementary, middle, and high school students, and over 1,500 alumni. While each of our schools is as unique as the community to which it belongs, we are united around a shared promise: To build academically excellent schools that create unlimited opportunity for all students. For over 15 years, we have a proven track record of preparing students for success in college, career, and beyond.
At KIPP, you have the freedom to innovate and the support to grow. You never stop learning, and you're part of a national network that's leading the way in getting students from underserved communities to and through college. As we grow to serve more students in communities across the country, we need passionate teammates to join us and make their impact at KIPP. Where will YOU take us? Click here to learn more about teaching and working at KIPP New Orleans Schools!
Job Description As the Director of College and Persistence, you will play a pivotal role in guiding students through the college selection process and helping them identify career pathways that align with their interests, skills, and aspirations. You will lead a team of dedicated counselors and advisors, collaborating closely with school administrators, teachers, and families to ensure that students receive personalized support and resources to achieve their academic and professional goals.
Core Responsibilities:  Develop, execute and aggressively monitor KIPP Foundation persistence and postsecondary success metrics and strategies to ensure that our KIPP New Orleans Alumni are persisting and thriving on their postsecondary pathways.
Lead design and execution of Counseling and Match strategy, including support of an Early Decision cohort and development of a strong personal statement for every Senior 
Effectively plan the organization wide structure for planning and executing parent nights, college visits, guest speakers, career exploration trips, and other postsecondary access programming
Implement and manage special initiatives and programs that grow college and career readiness skills and exposure for students 
Maintain current knowledge on policies and updates on postsecondary education, financial aid, and special populations (undocumented students, students with special needs, IEPs) and share implications and changes that impact our students 
Collaborate with each school's college team and leader to set yearly student-centered bottoms-up goals, aimed at increase in BA/BS enrollment, ECCC, and overall postsecondary enrollment.
Onboard, manage and develop Deans of College & Career, College Counselors, and Persistence Manager.
Provide direct support to Deans of College & Career to support achievement of annual goals and other metrics.
Provide training to high school staff on how to support students in the college application process, including writing letters of recommendation
Set up, utilize, train, and support counselors with various student management platforms to track, progress monitor, and submit student data, including, but not limited to Salesforce, Overgrad, Google suite, etc. 
Provide professional development to College and Career Counselors and College Readiness Teachers in the form of department meetings, and when beneficial, outside workshops, conferences, visits or trainings, as well as co-planning mid and end of year team step backs
Collaborate with Regional Directors across the state on strategic initiatives to increase college persistence and success across KIPP New Orleans.
Work directly with the Director of Career Access to ensure that 100% of students in each graduating class have a post-secondary plan for career training (college or technical school).
Work directly with regional directors to launch and sustain annual Alumni Career fairs designed to assist in post training placement.
Build and implement strategy for school based stipend persistence supports.
Ensure all college team members are consistently and accurately collecting and inputting Match and Persistence data towards agreed upon KIPP New Orleans persistence goals.
Conduct weekly one-on-one check-ins with direct reports and participate in weekly one-on-one check-ins with the School Leader and the Director of Postsecondary Success along with mid-year and end-of-year evaluations. 
Ensure implementation of seminar assessments and regularly review data with seminar instructors. 
Plan and lead cyclical data review at Monthly Match Meetings with leadership to compare progress against milestones, assess areas for improvement and adjust plans to achieve intended outcomes. 
Ensure pertinent data is collected, entered, and updated not limited to: college matriculation, expected HS graduation year, enrollments, GPAs, wish lists, applications submitted, contact owners, etc. 
Summarize and share quarterly data roll ups.
Successfully oversee maintenance of all required systems and data management (Overgrad, Salesforce).
Project manage regional initiatives and events such as Alumni winter and summer events, Decision day meetings, FAFSA renewal events.
Set cadence of expected events and set standards for planning and executing said events.
Attend and support all key events for each school team.
Lead match meeting to debrief and stamp key next steps following planned events.
Coordinate with Persistence Manager opportunities for shared events and office hours supporting alumni and alumni families with FAFSA renewal.
Collaborate with KIPP New Orleans marketing and communications teams to ensure regional representation of alumni voices and stories on KIPP New Orleans as blogs, marketing materials and events.
Establish across school highlight series for that year's graduating class (acceptances, scholarship dollars, etc.)
Establish alumni highlights for each school for students engaged in two to four year programs experiencing success.
Cultivate and maintain partnerships with colleges and community agencies, technical and vocational programs, and college departments to optimize support pathways for students district wide.
Maintain established relationships/partnerships with colleges and universities, summer programs, and scholarship organizations.
Serve as main point of contact for college admissions representatives, actively managing those relationships, building new relationships that could serve students, and advocating on behalf of students with additional appeals for admission and financial aid when necessary
Serve as the Bard Early College liaison ensuring maximum number of students are accepted and remain eligible for AAs.
Serve as the main liaison to the KIPP Foundation on HS Match and College and Career Counseling initiatives, including: scholarships, personal statements, College Knowledge and Career Success Curriculum, Early Decision, You Science.
High School Academic Health and Seminar Teacher Development
Directly manage Academic Health outcomes starting at 9th grade and support credit accumulation tracking throughout the years through school based registrars and 9th grade leads.
Develop and refine 9th-12th seminar focused on reading intervention, college knowledge/exposure, ACT preparation, and career readiness.
Coach and support the Deans of College and Career to develop and evaluate for seminar teachers to increase effectiveness.
Share knowledge and expertise across the High School Regional team on topics related to postsecondary persistence and success. Attend High School Regional team meetings and share relevant match and persistence updates that have implications for curriculum, training, etc.
Collaborate with high school leaders to ensure year-long Junior and Senior seminars are scheduled and staffed.
Serve as lead for KIPP's College Knowledge and Career Success Curriculum; Manage seminar curriculum development and revision.
Maintain constant and consistent communication on the data progress of students with key stakeholders including but not limited to: KIPP Foundation, College personnel, CBOs, Career Partners, school and regional leadership.
Other Responsibilities: Attend monthly Director of College Counseling meetings with KIPP Foundation.
Responding to all information requests from the KIPP Foundation.
Qualifications Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree preferred. Degree in education, counseling, student affairs, or a related field.
Minimum of 3 years of experience working in schools, with a combination of teaching and leadership experience with strong results.
Extreme flexibility, strong work ethic, and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Strong knowledge of college admissions trends, financial aid policies, and career development resources.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build rapport with students, parents, educators, and community stakeholders.
Demonstrated leadership experience, with the ability to effectively manage teams, develop strategic initiatives, and drive programmatic growth independently.
Proficiency in data analysis and evaluation techniques, with experience using student information systems and assessment tools.
Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, with a passion for empowering students from diverse backgrounds to achieve their full potential.
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 of the KNOS vision, and 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 a school or office, 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 schools, to more moderate situations such 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 
Additional Information We offer a competitive compensation and a comprehensive benefits package including: Healthcare & Wellness (health, vision, dental, life insurance, Employee Assistance Program, and short-term disability)403(b) retirement plan with up to a 5% contribution match 104 hours of Paid Time Off per year Approximately 28 holidays per year including Mardi Gras, Juneteenth, Thanksgiving, and Winter Break As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration of race/ethnicity, economic status, age/ability, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, religion, country of origin, language(s) spoken, and/or other diverse backgrounds.