South Central

REPORTS TO: Director – Teaching and Learning
GROUP/FLSA STATUS: Exempt (Professional), Regular, Full-time, Eight hours per day during regular business hours (M-F); 205 Days
Revised: 04/15/2024

SUMMARY:
MnMTSS is the statewide continuous improvement framework. COMPASS is the Collaborative Partnership to Advance Student Success and is a collaboration between the Minnesota Service Cooperatives and the Minnesota Department of Education.

The Equitable Access Specialist (EAS) is an MDE-funded service cooperative employee who serves as a member of a Statewide EAS Team and supports statewide and regional systems improvement to identify and dismantle barriers to high-quality instruction and layered supports for specific historically and persistently marginalized students’ groups. The EAS will prioritize and support efforts in creating welcoming school climates for all students, families, and staff in their districts, identifying strengths and strategies to develop a foundationally safe and beneficial experience for all.

The person hired as an EAS will focus on and be committed to addressing historical and persistent inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes for American Indian students. Through a systems improvement lens, the EAS will identify and remove the barriers in educational opportunities to improve outcomes for students, building on students’ and community strengths to increase access.

The EAS will have demonstrated an understanding of:

1. The Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL) framework.
2. The Minnesota Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MnMTSS) framework.
3. An ability to use quantitative and qualitative data to identify and expose inequities, as well as support educators and leaders to address them in their districts and schools. A continuous improvement model will be used to create more equitable and excellent systems.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:   (Typical tasks but not all inclusive – major duties of the position.)
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The EAS is both a specialist with a focus on American Indian students and a member of a statewide team of EASs with a focus on other student groups. This specialist works to ensure focus on American Indian students within the system and to collaboratively ensure all identified student groups are represented in continuous improvement discussions and decision-making.

Statewide EAS Team Responsibilities:

• Support the development, curation, and refinement of guidance, professional learning cohorts and series, coaching frameworks, and other resources based on improving access, removing barriers, and building on the strengths of American Indian communities and students.
• Provide internal professional development to other EAS specialists and to other regional teams to build their knowledge of and ability to identify and remove barriers for American Indian students, including knowledge of the historical and persistent failure of the education system to ensure equitable and excellent access and outcomes.
• Participate in professional learning opportunities from other EAS specialists to build your capacity to identify the need for their expertise and to use foundational training and knowledge to begin addressing the needs within the system of the other identified student groups.
• Develop and continuously improve systems coaching capacity and use of effective technical assistance strategies by:

1. 1. Attending all professional learning provided for regional team members by MDE staff.
   2. Participating in coaching provided by MDE staff.
   3. Participating in communities of practice with regional colleagues to deepen understanding and skill in regional coordination.

• Develop guidance for districts and charter schools related to academic achievement of American Indian students.
• As requested by the state leadership team, actively participate in a state tier one instruction cross functional team.

Minnesota Service Cooperative Responsibilities:

• Provide support and coaching to internal staff to build capacity for identifying systemic barriers and building on strengths to improve access to high-quality instruction and a safe and welcoming school climate for American Indian students and communities and other historically and persistently marginalized student groups.
• Serve as an EAS specialist on the regional COMPASS team. Collaborate with colleagues to ensure support provided across all areas is aligned to CRSL and MnMTSS.
• Design and implement large-scale technical assistance activities to support best practices for American Indian students, including culturally responsive practices, so that service cooperative colleagues can increase statewide educational outcomes for American Indian students as part of their overall work with school improvement advocacy.

District and School Responsibilities:

• Provide expertise on the history of systemic inequity in the education system for historically and persistently marginalized student groups and help make the connection between historic and current marginalization, lack of access, and inequitable student opportunities and outcomes.
• Provide expertise on culturally relevant leadership and instruction for American Indian students and communities.
• Support the evaluation of systems with the use of quantitative and qualitative data to identify inequitable outcomes and to identify and support the removal of barriers and the development of appropriate changes to the system and support for American Indian students and families.
• Provide initial support for this work regarding other identified student groups and collaborate with and connect districts and schools to colleagues with expertise in a specific student group as needed.
• Support district and school leaders to plan for continuous improvement of Tier 1/universal instruction through engagement with COMPASS supports and services, such as regional leads in content areas of literacy or math and professional development in Learning Acceleration (Atlas).

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:   (Minimum level of education and experience required.)
·        Bachelor’s degree in education, school psychology, or a related field.

·        Minimum of five years of experience working in a PreK-12 School System.

·        Experience with American Indian Education programming.

 

Preferred Education and Experience:

• Master’s degree in related education field (school administration, curriculum and instruction, special education, etc.).
• Leadership experience in a PreK-12 School System.

LICENSES, CERTIFICATES AND REGISTRATIONS:   (Minimum required to perform the job.)
·        Current Minnesota teaching or administrative license.

·        Valid Minnesota Driver’s License.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:   (Minimum competencies for job performance.)
·        Experience within a K-12 education setting.

·        Knowledge of Minnesota’s American Indian tribal nations and cultures.

·        Knowledge of state and federal laws pertaining to American Indian Education.

·        Thorough understanding of pedagogy and best practices within education.

·        Understanding of adult learning principles.

·        Ability to function cooperatively as a member of a team.

·        Ability to reflect on and continuously improve professional practices in response to coaching.

·        Experience with group facilitation.

·        Experience addressing educational inequity in previous positions.

·        Experience with effective implementation practices and systems change.

·        Ability to adapt to and work with a variety of school contexts.

·        Ability to create a collaborative partnership with educators.

·        Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.

·        Creative analytical and problem-solving skills.

·        Effective written and verbal communication skills.

·        Ability to work effectively and efficiently across agencies and partnerships, individually and as a team member.

·        Ability to show initiative in resolving problems.

·        Ability to assume responsibility, be well organized, execute initiatives from directives and approved self-initiatives.

·        Ability to build open, honest, and trustworthy relationships with people of various personality styles and behaviors – internally and externally.

·        Ability to always conduct oneself in a professional and customer service-based manner.

·        Proficient in the use of G-Suite applications and online learning platforms.

·        Proficiency in adapting to new software and digital tools.

ENVIRONMENT AND PHYSICAL DEMANDS:  (Physical/sensory and environmental conditions.)
This job operates in a hybrid office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and filing cabinets. This is largely a sedentary role; however, some office organization and event set-up/tear-down is required. This would require the ability to move and lift 30 lbs., stand for extended periods of time, and carry items a short distance as necessary.

POSITION TYPE/EXPECTED HOURS OF WORK:  (Minimum essential factors of daily position.)
Hours of work are generally Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but occasional events outside typical work hours, travel to the Minnesota Department of Education, and travel within the region are expected.

OTHER DUTIES:  (Potential other factors of daily position.)
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.