Chief of Academic Programs at Achievement First

Achievement First Public Charter Schools prepare every student to excel in college and career, deepen their knowledge of self and community, and lead lives of purpose. In partnership with our families and communities, we work to disrupt the legacy of inequity in education.

Achievement First (AF) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization supporting 39 public charter schools across New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. For more than 25 years, AF has been recognized as one of the top tuition‑free public charter school networks in the country. We are committed to creating schools of academic excellence within nurturing environments — schools that prepare students to be college‑ready and to pursue and succeed in whatever paths they choose in life.

The majority of AF students are Black and Latinx children from low‑income families, many of whom will be the first in their families to graduate from college. Across our network, we employ more than 2,200 staff members — 64% of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color — who collectively educate nearly 15,000 students in Brooklyn and Queens, NY;
New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford, CT; and Providence and Cranston, RI.

Our mission is to prepare every student to excel in college, career, and life; deepen their understanding of self and community; and lead lives of purpose. We believe in the limitless potential within our students and their power to shape a more just society. That belief drives our deep commitment to student achievement: we aim to set a high bar for learning and create warm, demanding classrooms where rigorous instruction is paired with the care, encouragement, and consistency every student deserves.

To achieve AF’s strategic vision and graduate aims across our three regions (New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island), we need an aligned, high‑quality K‑16 program that prepares our students for success in college and beyond. The Chief of Academic Programs (CoAP) will set the vision for excellence across academics and student supports, translate that vision into coherent systems, and partner closely with regional leaders to drive transformative learning outcomes.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the CoAP will be a key member of AF’s senior leadership team (called “the Executive Team”) and will serve as a strategic partner to the organization’s Regional Executive Directors (EDs). This role combines responsibility for leading AF’s program team (including our teaching and learning, special services, student experience, college, and academic operations teams) with influence across regional and school teams to ensure all students – including students with special needs, multilingual learners, and students in crisis – have access to exceptional teaching and learning.

• Codify a clear, actionable vision of excellence across all core content areas and enrichment programs
• Integrate academics and student supports to ensure the vision reflects and meets the needs of all learners
• Develop models of exemplar practices and student work expectations that raise the ceiling for instructional quality and the student experience across classrooms and schools
• Use feedback from students, alumni, educators, leaders, and community members to continuously refine the K‑16 programmatic vision

• Translate the programmatic vision into a coherent, research‑informed school design that articulates the core elements of an AF K‑16 school experience
• Lead and/or co‑lead the organization‑wide processes to codify, pilot, and continuously improve aspects of the K‑16 school design
• Leverage school (re) design processes both to address current implementation challenges and to innovate or reimagine with a thriving K‑16 model
• Partner with regional and school leaders to align and operationalize the overarching K‑16 school design

• Establish and refine goals and metrics for student learning and student experience aligned to the programmatic vision
• Desi…