Professional Learning Curriculum Specialist

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Job Summary:

What is WIDA? For over 20 years, WIDA has provided a trusted, comprehensive approach to supporting, teaching, and assessing multilingual learners. We are an educational services organization that advances language development and academic achievement for multilingual children in early childhood and grades K-12. In short, we provide educators around the world with high-quality language standards, assessments, professional learning, and research. We are proud to be a part of UW-Madison's nationally ranked School of Education.  Visit https://wida.wisc.edu/about/careers and watch our Introduction to WIDA video to see why WIDA is an incredible place to work!  

The Professional Learning Curriculum Specialist position is located within WIDA’s Educator Learning, Research, and Practice (ELRP) department and will report to the Assistant Director of Professional Learning Curriculum. This position is responsible for the development, adaptation, facilitation, and continuous improvement of research-based professional learning content and instructional resources that support educators serving multilingual learners. They will recommend and implement practice-centered and evidence-based approaches to professional learning, facilitate engaging learning experiences for diverse audiences, and collaborate across teams to ensure the quality, accuracy, and relevance of professional learning offerings.

This position will contribute to WIDA’s professional learning content across a variety of formats, including but not limited to virtual, in-person, and self-paced workshops, and educator instructional resources including supporting Spanish-speaking educators. This role will regularly facilitate professional learning in both English and Spanish and serve as a subject matter expert for Spanish-language professional learning initiatives as determined by the Assistant Director of Professional Learning Curriculum. 

Travel is required up to 20% of the time.  Due to this travel requirement, you must live within 90 miles of a major US metropolitan airport.

This position will be eligible for fully remote work as assigned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A successful candidate will have the ability to work from home or an alternate office location as the position's Headquarters Location. This means that business travel and travel back to UW-Madison's campus would be compensated and eligible for reimbursement. More information and expectations of remote work can be found in the following UW Remote Work Policy (UW-5087). 

WIDA operates in a Windows-based environment and a Dell PC laptop will be issued for use in this role. Software and virtual connection tools that are critical to our work dictate that WIDA staff work on a PC. 

Key Job Responsibilities:

• Meets with students for intake and general assessment and makes referrals to others on campus as appropriate

• May participate in strategic planning and grant proposals for instructional development, new teaching methods, and program direction

• May supervise the day-to-day activities of work unit employees involved in instructional support

• Develops teaching techniques that enhance course effectiveness in alignment with desired outcomes and established strategy and may train other staff in use of said instructional techniques

• Works to develop and/or design curriculum and/or techniques for instruction in a disciplinary area and suggests new ways of effective instruction within that discipline

• Provides supplemental instruction for students enrolled in classroom, online, and/or laboratory courses in a variety of formats such as one-on-one sessions, group sessions, peer mentor sessions, and seminars

• Assists in defining the objectives of the program and plays a major role in carrying out program duties

• Assesses learner performance and may prepare reports recommending instructional improvements

Department:

School of Education / WIDA

Compensation:

Minimum: $70,000.00

Commensurate with qualifications and experience. This position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum 3 years of US teaching experience serving multilingual learners in PreK-12 environments.  

• Bilingual/biliterate in Spanish

• Experience developing and facilitating professional learning related to multilingual learners in both English and Spanish.

• Experience developing materials and resources used to support the professional development of educators.

• Knowledge of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and andragogy/adult learning theory  

• Experience collaborating, co-planning, and co-facilitating with other staff; ability to effectively communicate and problem-solve with colleagues and supervisors.  

• Excellent organizational skills and ability to work independently and manage workload to meet deadlines and expectations.  

Preferred Qualifications:

• ESL and/or Bilingual Education license or endorsement (ESL/TESOL/ESOL/ENL/Bilingual). Foreign language or world language certifications do not meet this requirement.  

• Experience implementing ELD/SLD standards and resources and ability to discuss their relationship to educational practice in PreK-12 environments.

Education:

Bachelor's degree or advanced degree required in education or related field.

How to Apply:

Please go to the “Apply Now” area and select your current UW Employment Status.

Upload a copy of:

• Current Resume/CV

• A Cover Letter that addresses the following:
  1. This role requires creating training materials and facilitating professional learning sessions in Spanish and English to educators. Please describe your level of Spanish proficiency and how you have used Spanish in a professional setting.
  2. Tell us about your experience designing and leading professional learning opportunities for educators who work with multilingual learners. Please share recent examples of the types of professional learning you have developed (such as in-person, virtual, or self-paced), the audiences, how many participants you typically served, and the topics covered.
  3. Describe your experience applying English Language Development (ELD) Standards and/or Spanish Language Development (SLD) Standards to instruction, coaching, or professional learning.

Note:

• There is one upload area in Workday, but you can upload multiple documents to your application. Incomplete application packages that do not include all of the requested documentation will not be considered.

• Please note that successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e., a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without need of employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment. UW-Madison is not an E-Verify employer, and therefore, is not eligible to employ F1 STEM OPT Extension participants.

Contact Information:

Joy Pfeiffer

HR Generalist

humanresources@wida.wisc.edu

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment. 
 
The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7). 
 
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