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Start Date: Aug 30, 2021
Salary: commensurate with experience

Position and Responsibilities

The Director of Diversity & Equity for Children’s Programs serves as an essential organizational leader in the School for Children and support for Bank Street’s Family Center early childhood program. This role reports to the Dean of Children’s Programs & Head of School and is a 10-month position. The Director sits on the school’s leadership team and works in partnership with leaders across Bank Street College to realize the equity-based values of justice, belonging, antiracism and democratic voice in our children’s programs communities. 

A strategic thought leader with strong relational and implementation skills, the Director will be known well across the Bank Street community as they partner to strengthen and grow the culture and structures of our programs to realize empowering and liberating learning experiences for all students. One of the first steps for the Director will be to engage with our varied constituencies to understand the multiple perspectives and the history of equity, diversity and community efforts at Bank Street. Building on that work towards a vision for the future, the Director must be a leader with the capacity to analyze both self and systems in ways that can identify, interrupt and ameliorate oppressive aspects of our organization. 

Leadership

• Participate in and co-facilitate Children’s Programs Leadership Group to deepen leadership for equity so that our community truly affirms each person’s identity
• Liaise with admissions and enrollment, marketing and communications, and fundraising and alumni relations to support SFC’s commitment to social justice, equity and access
• Participate in and make decisions with the School for Children’s Financial Aid committee
• Liaise with Bank Street College’s Office of Social Justice, Equity & Inclusion, serving as a member of the office’s collegewide new Equity Task Force

Community Engagement & Culture Building

• Lead the engagement of students, faculty, staff and families to bolster our responsive and restorative justice approach to culture and clarify shared behavioral expectations
• Oversee and evolve the structures to empower student voice and participation, including coordinating student affinity groups with the relevant faculty facilitators 
• Organize and facilitate, with faculty and staff, affinity groups and cross-group dialogue
• Partner with SFC Parent Association’s Parent Advisory Board, and the Family Center’s Parent Staff Advisory Committee, to expand family participation, oversee and support our various parent affinity groups, cross-collaboration, and other important forums

School for Children Curriculum & Student Learning

• Partner with school Division Heads and faculty to reflect on practices that create inclusive learning environments for children of diverse backgrounds and examine curriculum to hold to our commitment to ambitious and equitable learning for all
• Document and further develop with school leadership and faculty the units of study across grade levels that foster deeper understandings and commitments to equity, social action, diversity, antiracism, and community engagement
• Participate in the work of the School Support Team, which includes learning specialists, psychologists and school leadership team members, in order to increase the school’s capacity to bring a lens of equity in practice
• Further bolster the school’s efforts and systems to use authentic assessment data to achieve greater equity of learning outcomes for students

Faculty Support & Development

• Strengthen staff recruitment and hiring practices, such as hiring fairs, outreach, and engagement for candidates from groups that have historically been underrepresented in partnership with school leadership, the college's HR team, and staff union (P.E.F.)
• Examine, assess and strengthen current staff support practices to increase the retention of our faculty, given the work done to diversify staff in recent years
• Build a collaborative structure to identify and support staff Equity Leaders in each school division and Family Center to deepen capacity across programs
• Lead the process for creating a coherent vision for schoolwide professional learning rooted in Bank Street’s understanding of how adults learn and develop and in our values of equity and antiracism, including the annual People of Color Conference
• Support the Family Center in developing and implementing professional learning opportunities, bridging to School for Children activities when possible
• Partner with Bank Street Graduate School of Education to implement the Parson’s Fellowship for Associate Teacher candidates working in the school