Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Curriculum Specialist Job in Bridge International Academies


Position Title: Curriculum Specialist

About Bridge International Academies

Bridge International Academies is a for-profit startup company revolutionizing education across Africa with a unique business model.

The company runs a large-scale network of low-cost primary schools in Kenya that significantly outperforms other primary schools in the same areas because of our “school in a box” systems.

Our schools profitably deliver this high-quality education for less than $4 per child per month, which enable the schools to cover all their costs and create a profitable central organization at scale. We have launched 37 schools in Kenya, we will double in size in the next 6 months, and plan to rapidly scale the company to serve more than 1 million students across the continent.

About this position

Bridge International has developed Version 1.0 of an extremely detailed and rigorous instructional approach to enable a broad universe of teachers from local slum neighborhoods to be extremely effective in the classroom, overseen and managed by a school manager implementing a specialized support and oversight system, monitored and audited by a field-based operations team from headquarters.

Critical elements of the Bridge International instructional approach include:
  • a Direct Instruction or scripted curriculum (word for word, action-by-action scripts for every lesson in the classroom) based on the national syllabus
  • a continuous assessment program integrated with the curriculum, using specialized assessment recording forms and easy to follow rules for when teachers should continue on to new material or remediate on previous lessons
  • an integrated tutoring and enrichment program to ensure that students don’t fall behind, and those who are ahead of the curve are constantly engaged.
Due to the standardization and systematizing, our overall operational approach is most similar to that of other well-run, large-scale chains of service businesses, such as those in retail and food services.

The critical difference being that our service is world-class quality but ultra-affordable primary education.

We are seeking a Curriculum Specialist to create the curriculum elements of our “School in a Box” model.

You will be responsible for developing and researching curricular materials, including schemes of work , detailed lesson plans, direct instruction scripts, student exercises, and student assessments.

You will be responsible for ensuring that the curriculum that Bridge International uses delivers a high-quality education—a world-class education—to children in slum and other impoverished environments.

About You
  • You are an excellent writer, especially in English.
  • You enjoy receiving feedback and making continuous revisions to ensure the best possible product.
  • You meet every deadline without fail.
  • You have 3-5 years of experience as a primary school teacher.
  • You have 3-5 years of experience writing curriculum/instructional materials. (preferred)
  • You function well in a fast-paced informal environment where constant change is the norm and the bar for quality is set high.
  • Bachelors or Masters degree
Our team has a passionate belief that basic primary education is critical to the development of every child, family, community and nation.

We believe that it is possible to address this critical need for poor families through new and innovative approaches leveraging the private sector, and that by providing low-cost but high-quality primary education, we will give millions of children the opportunity to accomplish their dreams.

We are looking for people who want to join us in this rewarding task.

You can apply and view detailed job requisitions on the Careers page at www.bridgeinternationalacademies.com