JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

TEACHING PRACTICES TEAM LEAD,

Position recruited by Diversified Educators Empowerment Project (DEEP) to lead its “Teaching Practices” component on the USAID-funded Liberia Foundational Skills Activity (LFSA)

Number of positions: 1

Location of the position: LFSA Central Office in Monrovia with frequent travels throughout the target six counties.

Start Date: October 11, 2024

End Date: October 25, 2024

Program Overview

Liberia Foundational Skills Activity (LFSA) is a USAID-funded five-year project designed purposefully to increase the percentage of Liberian children accessing primary school and meeting the government of Liberia’s learning standards especially in foundational English literacy. LFSA will improve education access and learning by increasing on-time enrollment, enhancing age-appropriate placement in classrooms, providing contextually appropriate teaching and learning materials, and improving instructional delivery and teacher wellbeing. LFSA will equip key education ecosystem actors with improved capacity, opportunity, and motivation to achieve results.

Led by Chemonics International in Liberia, LFSA is a five-year project implemented by a consortium of Liberian and international partners, including the Diversified Educators Empowerment Project (DEEP), Kid’s Educational Engagement Project (KEEP), WE-CARE, Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Liberia, Foundation for Research, Education, and Empowerment (FREE) Liberia, Mathematica, and One World Network of Schools (OWNOS). The project will be implemented in six counties: Montserrado, Bong, Margibi, Grand Bassa, Nimba, and Lofa.

LFSA is expected to make a difference in Grades 1-6 children’s learning outcomes through interventions targeting four key Results (Rs):

1. R1: Age six children are enrolled on time,
2. R2: Children are placed in developmentally or age-appropriate classrooms, including accelerated learning classes,
3. R3: Sufficient and contextually appropriate reading, teaching, and learning materials are available and used by learners, and
4. R4: Teachers consistently apply evidence-based and developmentally appropriate teaching practices and learning materials in the classroom

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

The Teaching Practices Team Lead position is of paramount importance as its functions are central to the LFSA’s technical approach for improving children’s learning outcomes through evidence-based interventions that will improve teachers’ classroom practice. He/she plays a crucial role in enhancing the quality of foundational English literacy instruction within target schools. To this end, working in close coordination with the LFSA technical management team, including OWNOS, the successful candidate will perform the following functions:

• Provides quality insights and guidance to inform LFSA programming, strategy, activity design with a special focus on teacher continuous professional development (CPD), instructional coaching and pedagogical leadership as well as on development and distribution of foundational literacy teaching and learning materials (TLMs).
• Provides high-quality technical guidance to county technical staff on matters regarding instructional leadership and supervision to enable them to effectively support decentralized level educators in the improvement foundational literacy instruction.
• Effectively manage the LFSA teacher practices component to promote a positive school learning environment that engages and motivates teachers to improve their classroom practice.
• Advocate for and implement inclusive teaching practices that address the diverse needs of students.
• Collaborate with MoE and partners to develop and or or refine literacy benchmarks that align with national standards and reflect the needs of early-grade learners.
• Develop strategies to ensure the sustainability of teacher CPD, including building local capacity to continue training efforts beyond the project’s timeline.
• Coordinates with the LFSA’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) team to develop appropriate tools and ensure they are consistently used to measure progress in teacher classroom practices.
• Oversees the LFSA coaching interventions to ensure teachers receive constructive feedback that supports them to improve their classroom practice.
• Provides technical guidance to the county technical staff to ensure the explicit integration of school safety, teacher wellbeing, and teacher peer support into LFSA’s school-level interventions aimed to promote a positive and inclusive school culture.
• Conducts periodic field visits to monitor program activities, including teacher trainings, CPD activities, survey/assessments, and all other activities within LFSA’s scope.
• Coordinates with LFSA’s MERL and CLA team to pilot test, adapt and adopt effective teacher support options for scaling throughout the six counties.
• Participates in preparation of program reports by contributing content on the teacher practices component.
• Execute other tasks as assigned by the supervisory team.

Job Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in education, master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience working on donor funded education development projects in Liberia.
• Demonstrated experience working in the primary education sector
• Experience in scaling educational interventions or teacher CPD programs across multiple regions or counties.
• Knowledge and experience in inclusive education practices, with the ability to support teachers in adapting instructional methods for diverse learning needs.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage with a range of stakeholders, including government officials, program leads, school leaders, teachers, and community leaders.
• Proven experience in designing, implementing, or supporting foundational literacy programs, particularly in primary education.
• Experience using literacy assessment tools to monitor student progress and adjust teaching practices to meet set instructional targets.
• Programming expertise in teacher professional development and instructional coaching.
• Proficiency with software such as Microsoft Office Tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc).
• Strong technical English writing skills
• Strong team leadership skills

NOTE: To apply, send your cover letter and CV clearly articulating the required qualifications, experiences and competences to the following email address: blonkanjayjackson@gmail.com & rose22saulwas@gmail.com, before the close of business on October 25, 2024.