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Position: Facilitator
Location: TBD
Overview
Graduate NYC! (GNYC) is a collaborative effort of the New York City Department of Education (DOE),
the City University of New York (CUNY), and various community-based organizations to improve high
school and college outcomes for all New York City students. GNYC convenes and engages the local
college success community while leading projects that are intended to catalyze and support efforts
within and across institutions to increase college degree completion. The work of GNYC is built upon
the belief that a college degree can be a driver of social mobility and financial stability, particularly for
low-income young people, and ensuring more young people complete them is critical to the long-term
health of this city. GNYC focuses its efforts within four primary impact areas, which include:
 Data sharing, research & policy
 College awareness, planning & advisement (NYC College Line)
 Identifying, disseminating & scaling best practices in college readiness and completion, in
partnership with community organizations
 Academic readiness & curriculum alignment
Position Description
The Facilitator will primarily be responsible for attending and facilitating workshops for the NYC
Collaborative Curriculum Revision Project (CCRP). Workshop participants include high school and
higher education faculty members and librarians. Workshops serve the purpose of helping participants
collaboratively revise high school curriculum from the point of a common understanding of the
educational challenges related to high school and college. The facilitator will review and approve
workshop documentation, monitor project progress, and consult with Graduate NYC! and the Advisory
Board made up of New York City DOE and CUNY educators. Facilitators report to the GNYC Project
Manager.
Academic readiness and curriculum alignment
One of GNYC’s key areas of impact is through leadership in academic readiness and curricular
alignment between K-12 and college. High rates of remediation locally and nationally are indicative of
the need for improved alignment between high school and college curriculum. The CCRP was
developed as a result of alignment projects resulting from GNYC’s Curriculum Alignment Project
(2012-13), pilot projects with the CUNY Centers for Teaching & Learning (2013-14), and ongoing
alignment efforts led by the DOE-CUNY Library Collaborative.
The NYC Collaborative Curriculum Revision Project (CCRP)
This project addresses the needs of three deeply interrelated audiences—librarians, educators, and
students—through a new model of collaborative curriculum revision that changes educational practice
by creating alliances across institutional and disciplinary boundaries. Many students who do graduate
fail to meet college and career readiness measures. Since 2010 the need to improve college
readiness has prompted 45 states, including New York, to adopt the Common Core State Standards
(www.corestandards.org). It has also prompted numerous library initiatives, including the formation of
the DOE-CUNY Library Collaborative. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is not a
curriculum, even as advocates acknowledge they hope CCSS will prompt pedagogical change. Yet
unlike curricular “packages,” where high school teachers are handed a product they have no
investment in, this model enables them to generate their own college-readiness aligned curriculum. It
does so by bringing together the expertise of subject teachers, writing instructors, and librarians on
both sides of the high school and college divide.
Working closely with the Project Manager and teams from DOE and CUNY, the Facilitator will be
responsible for building a community of practice among the CCRP workshop participants. The
Facilitator will productively manage conversations around educational challenges in high school and
early college and will facilitate the work of participants as they identify areas of the curriculum for
revision within existing 12th grade curriculum and as they work through the revision process. The
Facilitator may also support reporting efforts connected to this project as appropriate.
Primary Responsibilities
 Facilitate workshops to ensure process follows existing model as articulated in grants
 Monitor workshop progress and adjust facilitation to meet project goals while maintaining fidelity to
project facilitation model
 Build rapport among workshop participants in support of the development of a community of
practice
 Model best practices in collaborative inquiry through effective use of seminar style discussion
techniques
 Maintain close communication with workshop participants as well as with the Project Manager, the
Documentarian, and teams from DOE and CUNY
 Review workshop notes and advise Documentarian as needed and in a timely manner so that
notes and materials are distributed in advance of each workshop
 Attend meetings with DOE and CUNY advisors to share information
 Participate in an exit interview to provide reflection on process and to identify best facilitation
practices
Qualifications & Core Competencies
Required
 Teaching experience at HS or college level and/or experience in facilitation
 Excellent group facilitation and communication skills
 Expert knowledge in current HS education reform efforts (Common Core State Standards),
interrelationship between critical thinking and critical writing, and college freshman research
assignments
 Responsiveness to needs of the group and the ability to adapt to changing group dynamics
 A commitment to supporting college readiness & success for all students and addressing
achievement gaps; dedication to the mission of the CCRP
 Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and written and verbal communication skills
 Strong analytical ability
 Demonstrated ability to multi-task and produce deliverables within given deadlines
 Proven capacity to work with multiple and diverse constituencies to achieve a common agenda
 Ability to thrive in a small team environment as part of a much larger system
 Ability to take direction and work as part of a team, as well as to take initiative and work
independently
 Master’s degree in a relevant field of study
 Experience working with teachers, librarians, faculty, curriculum developers, and/or
administrators at the K-12 level and college level
 Willingness to travel to multiple project sites in New York City
 Computer skills should include MS Office suite (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint)
Additional Information
 Experience in library services preferred
Salary: Rate of $65 per hour (24-38 hour commitment)
Project Duration: September-December 2015 with possible assignment in Spring 2016 term
To Apply: Applications will be accepted through July 6, 2015. Please submit a resume and targeted
cover letter, outlining how your skills, experience, and interests meet the qualifications of the position
described here to the attention of Melissa Herman, Project Manager at Graduate NYC! at
[email protected]. Please put “CCRP Facilitator” in the subject line. Please also state
how you learned of this job opportunity.
Graduate NYC! and the Research Foundation of the City University of New York are committed to
equal opportunity and affirmative action, and strive to attract and nurture a talented and diverse staff.
CUNY’s Diversity Vision Statement can be found here:
http://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/ohrm/diversity/DiversityActionPlan/DiversityVisionSt
atement.html