Do you know someone interested in becoming a Senior / Team Lead? Encourage them apply to the Senior / Team Lead (S/TL) Pool! This visible pool of interested candidates is used by principals across the district as they search for strong fits for their S/TL openings.

Please note that you must secure a teacher role at a school in order to serve in a Team Specialist or New Teacher Ambassador role at that school.  Senior Team Lead and Team Lead roles are hybrid roles, encompassing both the teacher and teacher leader responsibilities.  See here for more information about TLC roles.

• Apply to Posted TLC Vacancies At Schools

Teacher Leader roles (see above) in Denver Public Schools (DPS) are an opportunity to lead without leaving the classroom. All roles are designed for excellent teachers to maximize their impact through the school in a leadership role, while simultaneously teaching a highly effective classroom.

Candidates must meet eligibility requirements in order to apply for and serve in teacher leader roles. This page, organized by type of applicant, guides you to determine if you are eligible to play for Team DPS as a teacher leader next school year.

• Eligibility Requirements to Apply for TLC Roles

• View Your Teacher Leader Eligibility

 

DPS Employees: Current In-District Teachers

If you are a current teacher, you can find your projected teacher leader eligibility status in Infor HR.

To be eligible for Senior / Team Lead roles, candidates must have a 2019-20 rating of Effective or Distinguished. If your projected teacher leader eligibility status in Infor HR is Insufficient Data or Not Applicable, this means that DPS doesn’t have enough information about your teacher effectiveness to confirm eligibility.  

You may still apply to teacher leader roles, as long as you can provide teacher effectiveness data to the hiring manager as evidence of meeting eligibility requirements during the school-based selection process.  If your eligibility status is Not Yet Eligible, you are not able to apply for that teacher leader role for the 2020-21 school year.

If you would like principals across the district to have visibility into your interest in Senior / Team Lead roles, please apply to the General Senior / Team Lead – Pooled posting.  Please also apply directly to school-specific teacher leader postings that interest you.

 

DPS Employees: Not Currently Teaching

If you are a DPS employee, you can find your projected teacher leader eligibility status in Infor HR.

If you didn’t teach in DPS in 2018-19 or were not in a role that receives a LEAP rating, you will have a current teacher leader eligibility status of Insufficient Data or Not Applicable because DPS doesn’t have enough information about your teacher effectiveness to confirm your eligibility.  

You may still apply to teacher leader roles, as long as you can provide teacher effectiveness data to the hiring manager as evidence of meeting eligibility requirements during the school-based selection process.  If your eligibility status is Not Yet Eligible, you are not able to apply for that teacher leader role for the 2020-21 school year.

If you would like principals across the district to have visibility into your interest in Senior / Team Lead roles, please apply to the General Senior / Team Lead – Pooled posting.  Please also apply directly to school-specific teacher leader postings that interest you.

External to DPS Candidates

All candidates new to DPS must first complete the DPS General Teacher screening process, as classroom instruction is a vital component of all teacher leader roles.

Candidates not currently employed by DPS in any capacity will have an eligibility status of Insufficient Data or Not Applicable because DPS doesn’t have enough information about your teacher effectiveness to confirm your eligibility.  

You may still apply to teacher leader roles if you can provide teacher effectiveness data as evidence of meeting eligibility requirements during the school-based selection process.

External candidates are also encouraged to apply to the General Senior / Team Lead – Pooled posting, which will give principals across the district visibility into your interest.  Please also apply directly to school-specific teacher leader postings that interest you.

Have you ever thought: I’d love to take on more of a leadership role at my school but I don’t want to give up my time in the classroom? At Denver Public Schools, you don’t have to choose. You can teach and lead. We believe that a great teacher is one of the most important factors in our students’ growth and achievement. Teacher Leadership allows our best teachers to share the expertise they have developed with fellow teachers, extending a great teacher’s impact and helping more students grow.

See here for more information also on stipends. 

Teacher Leader Roles

• The Senior Team Lead (STL) is a teacher who, as a member of the Instructional Leadership Team, plays a critical role in helping a school reach their student achievement goals. The Senior Team Lead spends part of the day providing high-quality instruction in their own classroom as a teacher, and part of the day developing a team of teachers’ ability to deliver joyful, rigorous and personalized instruction that leads to high academic achievement. As an expert in their content area, Senior Team Leads facilitate collaborative team time, provide 1-on-1 observation and coaching to their peers, and oversee the end-to-end LEAP growth and performance evaluation for each teacher on their team.

• The Team Lead (TL) is a teacher who, as a member of the Instructional Leadership Team, plays a critical role in helping a school reach their student achievement goals. The Team Lead spends part of the day providing high-quality instruction in their own classroom as a teacher, and part of the day developing a team of teachers’ ability to deliver joyful, rigorous and personalized instruction that leads to high academic achievement. As an expert in their content area, Team Leads facilitate collaborative team time, provide 1-on-1 observation and coaching to their peers, and contributes to the LEAP growth and performance evaluation for each teacher on their team.

• The Team Specialist is a teacher who, in addition to providing high-quality instruction in their own classroom, magnifies their impact by facilitating collaborative team time to support a team or sub-team of teachers in developing their ability to deliver joyful, rigorous and personalized instruction that leads to high academic achievement. The Team Specialist does not have release time for this leadership role, but plans and delivers content in addition to their classroom teacher responsibilities.

• The Regional Team Specialist (RTS) is a teacher who, in addition to providing high-quality instruction in their own school, magnifies their impact by facilitating collaborative time for a cohort of teachers in developing their ability to deliver joyful, rigorous and personalized instruction that leads to high achievement. The RTS leads a group of teachers in an aligned content area across multiple schools who may not otherwise have opportunities to collaborate in similar content or focus areas. This may include teachers in Beyond the Common Core subject areas, and others who teach unique content areas in their respective buildings. Here is a FAQ about this role.

• The New Teacher Ambassador (NTA) is a teacher who, in addition to providing high-quality instruction in their own classroom, magnifies their impact by providing resources and supports to new teachers in their building. The NTA provides social emotional and school-based logistical support to teachers new to DPS, including both novice and experienced, in order to build a sense of community, belonging, and understanding of their role. The NTA acts as a communications hub, sharing and reinforcing information from the school’s leadership team and central office. This role does not have release time, but plans and delivers supports in addition to their classroom teacher responsibilities.

• The Pre-Service Teacher Mentor is a teacher who plays a critical role in supporting pre-service teachers in their development.  The Pre-Service Teacher Mentor is a full-time teacher who hosts one pre-service student teacher in their classroom for the year and provides an example of excellent instructional practices. The mentor explicitly models best practice strategies for their pre-service teacher ensuring the teacher is building skills in their ability to deliver joyful, rigorous and personalized instruction that leads to high academic achievement.

This scope and sequence articulates the progression of skills in development of leadership competencies in service of best first instruction. The intention of this document is to promote alignment of support across stakeholders and empower individuals to personalize their own learning trajectory.  This document is NOT to be used as a performance evaluation tool. To support clarity of expectations refer to the Teacher Leader Role Descriptions or LEAD Framework Scoring Guidance. The role progression listed is a recommendation.  Individuals should identify the skills that align to their own development, not just their role.

How can this be used?

Aspiring and Current Teacher Leaders – Drive your own learning by identifying your strengths and gaps

Leaders of Leaders – Ground feedback conversations in a common language, differentiate supports for teacher leaders based on individual strengths and gaps, and provide clarity for aspiring teacher leader development

Central Support Partners – Align central-based supports with school-based supports for structured, social, and experiential learning

DOWNLOAD 11x17 VERSION OF Scope and Sequence for Teacher Leader Development

DOWNLOAD 8.5x11 VERSION OF Scope and Sequence for Teacher Leader Development

Professional learning for teacher leaders is designed to support their individual development of foundational leadership competencies essential in their role. These foundational leadership development sessions  are aligned to the Teacher Leader Scope and Sequence (see above) and LEAD Framework and are an opportunity for teacher leaders to engaged in shared learning with peers across the district. Teacher leaders will additionally engage in required learning for their role as part of leadership weeks, regional learning, and school-specific learning.

The foundational leadership development sessions will be open to any role and will be offered throughout the year, not only in summer. Guidance about which learning is required or recommended for each role is listed below. These sessions are also open to other school leader roles.

Attending professional learning sessions alone will not support leaders to master the skills they need to be effective in their role. Participants will need support from their school-based coach/supervisor to practice and apply their learning.

Senior/Team Leads: Registration links for learning are available HERE.

Regional / Team Specialists: Registration links for learning are available HERE.

Grow in your leadership role by planning learning for yourself or the leaders you support.

The purpose of this LEAD Development Guide is to make accessible to school leaders a suite of learning opportunities, job-embedded experiences, and resources that support the development of competencies outlined in the LEAD Framework. As a leader looking to build your own skills or as a leader of leaders looking to support the development of others, you may use this guide to determine possible learning opportunities that meet individual development needs. Learning opportunities are as diverse as we are as leaders. Through our current systems, i.e. coaching, evaluations, self-reflections, CollaboRATE, etc.,  strengths and growth areas are revealed. This guide will support learning and growing in a current role or stretching into a new role. While this guide includes a variety of opportunities and resources across roles and competencies, it is meant to highlight opportunities and support growth and performance conversations. It is not intended to be all encompassing.

The Thrive Fellowship Cohort is an opportunity for Senior/Team Leads, who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and are in year one or two of the role, to meet as a professional learning community to deepen their understanding of transformational leadership. In Denver Public Schools, we have made some progress in diversifying our ranks of teachers, principals, and assistant principals. Yet, our data shows that our Senior/ Team Lead roles continue to be the least diverse school leadership role. Additionally, we see a trend that our BIPOC Senior/ Team Leads often leave the teacher leader role within three years. As Denver Public Schools continue to address bias and prejudice in our district, we offer the Thrive Cohort as one way to empower BIPOC Senior/ Team Leads. This seven-month cohort experience will allow participants to meet in a professional learning community to deepen their understanding of transformational leadership and reflect on current problems of practice.

For information on DPS Creating Connections, DPS Skills, Equity Boot Camp, Belong Groups, DPS Aspire and DPS Management, please click here.