Chief Academic and Accountability Officer

Job Description Code: 2A.010

Division/Department: Academics and Accountability

Pay Grade: Chief Officer

Pay Type: Salaried; Exempt

Retirement: TRS

Contract Work Year: 235 Days

Reports To: Superintendent of Schools/Chief Executive Officer

Evaluation Instrument: BEI

Minimum Qualifications

Master’s Degree or higher with Educational Leadership certification as required by the Professional Standards Commission. Minimum 12 years of progressively responsible experience in education with at least 3 years of experience in positions of leadership at local school and/or District level. Strong knowledge of curriculum, instruction and assessment; ability to communicate tactfully, appropriately, and effectively with individuals and groups, including the Board of Education, Superintendent, Executive Cabinet team, the Board Attorney, district staff, local school staff, and the community; strong strategic planning and organization skills. Ability to make challenging decisions, remain professional under stress, and possess exceptional judgement.

GOAL

The Chief Academic and Accountability Officer leads the district’s systems for teaching, learning, assessment, advanced learning, accelerated intervention, special education and student performance improvement for grades PreK – 12l for all schools. The CAAO ensures the alignment of teaching and learning standards, resources for teachers, parents, and students, formative assessment, and instructional improvement plans aimed to maximize student achievement and eliminate achievement gaps. A part of this focus includes a clear instructional model for classrooms in the Cherokee County School District (CCSD) and a clear performance impact framework for the district, leaders, and schools.

Representative Duties & Responsibilities

• Serves as a key member of the Superintendent’s executive leadership team, acting as a strategic leader and spokesperson on behalf of the Superintendent and CCSD.
• Communicates with the Board on behalf of, and in coordination with, the Superintendent as appropriate.
• Positively and proactively participates in leadership meetings, representing the Superintendent and district priorities.
• Advises and leads the development and implementation of the district’s instructional vision that incorporates a combination of evidenced-based practices; aligns standards, resources, and instruction; and comprehensive professional learning focused on meeting the learning needs of every student.
• Drives the successful integration of evidence-based strategies to ensure the student performance growth and school climate success of all schools. As appropriate, designs proofs-of-concept and evaluates effectiveness while preparing to scale effective models.
• Oversees the effectiveness of aligning teaching and learning processes to the state-adopted standards and aligns all district resources to CCSD Teaching & Learning Standards.
• Facilitates the district’s identification, selection and recommendation process for board-approved resources for teachers, students and families.
• Designs, implements and evaluates the district’s academic programs.
• Aligns the district’s annual strategic priorities and long-range strategic plan across all departments, creates a shared understanding of the role of reliable, replicable and consistent processes for teaching, learning and student performance improvement, and identifies systemic gaps in intervention and acceleration.
• Partners with the Chief School Leadership and Operations Officer (CSLO) to design school-specific performance acceleration models that result in student performance improvement.
• Establish standards for district-wide performance and in coordination with the CSLO, sets standards for school performance as measured by local, state and national student performance metrics.
• Creates collaborative and effective communication channels between the board of education, district office, Assistant Superintendents, Principals, and families; aims to resolve conflicts.
• Directly supervises multiple Executive Directors, ensuring that they effectively drive a culture of productivity, reliability and aligned support structures that improve classroom instruction, student learning outcomes and resources.
• Actively cultivates partnerships with early learning providers, higher education, and other business and community partners.
• Works in collaboration with the Human Resources Division to identify, prepare, place and retain great teachers.
• Works closely with the Chief School Leadership Officer and local leadership teams to develop, implement and monitor Continuous School Improvement Plans that aim to improve student performance.
• Oversees the growth and development of early learning programming and foster community relationships to support birth – 5 learning.
• Develops and/or maintains local policies and procedures to ensure a consistent academic foundation is present at each school.
• Drives continuous improvement in instruction by building teacher leaders.
• Serves as the district’s liaison to the Georgia Department of Education on Accountability and Teaching & Learning matters.
• Leads the district’s preparation and improvement plan for all metrics aligned to the State of Georgia’s Accountability Model.
• Prepares for and attends all meetings and trainings of the Board of Education.
• Uses quantitative and qualitative information in an instructional setting to drive decision-making and evaluation.
• Analyzes complex situations and synthesizes information carefully to develop an effective course of action.
• Coaches others to drive student achievement gains.
• Works collaboratively to build consensus while also delivering exceptional results.
• Collaborates and builds relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Be flexible, resilient and adaptable to changing priorities.
• Commits to high performance standards and maintains an unwavering belief that all students can excel.
• Accountable for the existence of standards, aligned quality resources, and a district-wide formative assessment system.
• Accountable for improving student performance as indicated by the State of Georgia’s Accountability System; Georgia Milestone Proficient and Distinct performance, CCRPI, and Climate Survey.
• Accountable for increasing the culture of expectations as measured by percent of students reading on grade level and above at every grade level, the percent of middle school students who successfully complete a high school class, and the percent of graduates who complete a post-secondary experience (dual enrollment, industry certification, and or AP course).
• Prepares School Board agenda items, as well as presentations for the Superintendent/School Strategic Work-Sessions, as directed.
• Possesses and maintains valid and appropriate license, certificate and/or credential as may be required for this position.
• Follows work scheduling and attendance requirements in a regular, predictable and punctual manner.
• Participates in training programs to increase skills and proficiency related to assignments.
• Reviews current developments, literature and technical sources of information related to job responsibility.
• Ensures adherence to good safety procedures.
• Follows federal and state laws, as well as School Board policies.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
  
  

IMPORTANT NOTES

Essential Duties

Job descriptions are designed and intended only to summarize the essential duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and requirements for the purpose of clarifying the general nature and scope of a position’s role as part of the overall organization. Job descriptions do not list all tasks an employee might be expected to perform, and they do not limit the right of the employer/supervisor to assign additional tasks or otherwise to modify duties to be performed – even if seemingly unrelated to the basic job. Every employee has a duty to perform all assigned tasks. (An employee who is assigned a duty or task believed to be unlawful should report the assignment to the Chief Human Resources Officer.) It should also be noted the order of duties/ responsibilities as listed in the job description is not designed or intended to rank the duties in any order of importance relative to each other.

Minimum Requirements

In filling a vacant position, preferred or required credentials regarding education, training, experience, and other bona fide occupational qualifications may be established. The credentials shown in this job description may be interpreted only as the minimum criteria existing at the time the description was developed. Other bona fide occupational qualifications and criteria may be utilized as needed in the selection process.

Fringe Benefits

FICA is paid by the employee and matched by the School District. Temporary workers do not qualify for employee benefits.

Adopted: April 20, 2000

Revised: March 2005, July 2008, March 2010, September 2014, July 2024