FILLED- Common Ground is Seeking an English Teacher

Common Ground Is Seeking A Full-Time English Language Arts Teacher

About Common Ground High School 

Common Ground High School is the nation’s longest-running environmental charter high school, founded in 1997. Our 230 students form an inclusive, powerful community of learners and leaders. These students benefit from a unique learning environment: an urban farm and 20-acre site, home to state of the art school facilities, adjacent to West Rock Ridge State Park, and located in the City of New Haven. We strive to create a learning environment grounded in foundational building blocks: rigor, responsive relationships, relevance that’s rooted in the local community and environment, and real roles & rights. Common Ground’s graduation rate consistently surpasses the state average, and between 97 and 100% of our students are accepted to college each year. 

Common Ground High School is part of a community nonprofit organization that also operates an urban farm and community environmental education center. As a whole, Common Ground is a center for learning and leadership, inviting people across ages and identities to connect to their urban environment, build community, grow into their full potential, and contribute to a just and sustainable world. We work toward this mission through active, authentic learning rooted in justice and our environment: a farm, in a forest, in a city. 

About the Position

We are seeking a dynamic, passionate, creative, effective English teacher to join our Core 10 team. This position is for SY 2021-2022, with the opportunity to continue for a long-term contract based on excellent performance. Candidates should possess or be able to possess a CT Teacher License (015) prior to the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

Core 10 is a new integrated curriculum consisting of English, Science, Social Studies, and Art. Over the course of this year-long experience, students will dive into four interdisciplinary units: New Haven Stories, Justice, Power, and Community Health. Students will use the city of New Haven as a learning laboratory and take part in numerous off-site field experiences with community partners. Additionally, the Core 10 has a commitment to exposing students to the arts through photography, drama/theater, various visual arts media, and videography. The 10th grade core meets for four of Common Ground’s eight periods allowing students and teachers to engage in extended field experiences and use time flexibly to meet students’ needs.

The Core 10 ELA Teacher position will be collaborating with experienced teachers, and an instructional coach; they will have the opportunity to work both independently in their own classroom and as part of a strong interdisciplinary team in creating an innovative classroom experience.

The Core 10 English teacher will:

• Teach four sections of Integrated Core 10 English to support student growth and mastery with reading, writing, oral language and critical thinking. 
• Support the refinement of an English curriculum and daily lesson plans to compliment interdisciplinary themes, expose students to relevant social justice issues that impact New Haven, reinforce literacy and critical thinking skills, and provide students with high quality experiential learning opportunities.
• Work with the 10th grade Core Curriculum team to support 10th grade students through an culturally relevant integrated curriculum with a focus on social justice. 
• Attend two interdisciplinary team meetings per week to collaborate on lessons, performance tasks, and student supports. 
• Help to schedule, host, and support community relationships building on experiential learning trips, classroom experiences, and launch activities. Additionally, the candidate will attend and support Core 10 field experiences.  
• Teach one additional ELA Elective course.
• Teach a guidance (advisory) group.

Common Ground anticipates all students and staff to be fully in person for the 2021-2022 school year. 

We are looking for candidates who demonstrate some or all of the following:

• Understanding and knowledge of a diverse range of fiction and nonfiction texts which would lend to the course themes on New Haven’s story, Justice, Climate Change, and Community Health. 
• At least four to five years of demonstrated success in the ELA classroom. Strong knowledge of literary content, exceptional written and oral communication skills. 
• Knowledge of and experience integrating Common Core State Standards into curriculum and lesson plans.  
• Values and embraces collaboration, communication, and has capacity to work effectively within a team that includes multiple teachers and community partners.
• Possess a commitment to experiential, interdisciplinary, project- and place-based learning, where students do real work and investigations. 
• Experience working directly with racially, economically, academically diverse high school aged young people, and with low-income young people and people of color in particular. Knowledge about and passion for working for an organization that is committed to social justice, the dismantling of systems of oppression, and creating a just, equitable, and inclusive culture.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience; Master’s degree preferred.

We are also excited to consider candidates who have:

• Background in the themes at the center of the 10th grade Core: New Haven history and local issues that impact the New Haven community; social justice issues (such as wealth inequity, opportunity gaps, privilege and oppression, policing and criminal justice reform); climate change and environmental justice topics (such as access to healthy spaces, equitable regulations and policy, and sustainability), and community health (food justice, gun violence, and housing justice). 
• Prior curriculum development and experience with leading school-based teams or content area departments. 

• Experience developing and sustaining relationships with community partners.
• Understanding of the history and present-day dynamics of the city of New Haven, as well as connections/social networks within our city.
• Experience in trauma-informed work, restorative justice, social emotional learning/literacy.
• Experience working with Google applications, online course management platforms, and other online learning tools.

Please send cover letter and resume to:

Applications@Commongroundct.org 

Please specify the job you are applying for in the subject line of your email.

Equal Opportunity Employer 

Common Ground is particularly eager for candidates who can help us to fulfill our commitment to building a racially and culturally diverse faculty and staff. Common Ground has a commitment to examining the intersection of social, environmental, and food justice issues; how systems of oppression, including white privilege, impact the organization’s work; and how resistance to those systems can offer windows into a more sustainable society. 

Common Ground is committed to the recruitment and retention of staff that is reflective of the communities we work with. We strongly encourage applicants from people of color, immigrants, women, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ community, people whose native language is something other than English, and other underrepresented and historically marginalized groups. 

It has been the policy and will continue to be the strong commitment of the Common Ground and all contractors and subcontractors who do business with Common Ground to provide equal opportunities in employment to all qualified persons solely on the basis of job-related skills, ability and merit. Common Ground will continue to take Affirmative Action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, mental disorder (present or past history thereof) age, physical disability (but not limited to blindness), marital status, intellectual disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and criminal record. Such action includes, but is not limited to, employment, promotion, demotion or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation, and selection for training, professional development, attendance at conferences or other opportunities for advancement. Common Ground, its contractors and subcontractors will continue to make good faith efforts to comply with all federal and state laws and policies which speak to equal employment opportunity. The principles of Affirmative Action are addressed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the United States Constitution, Civil Rights Act of 1866, 1870, 1871, Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VI and VII of the 1964 United States Civil Rights Act, Presidential Executive Order 11246, amended by 11375, (Non-discrimination under federal contracts)< Act 1, Section 1 and 20 of the Connecticut Constitution, Governor Grasso’s Executive Order Number 11, Governor O’Neill’s Executive Order 9, the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Law (Sec. 46a-60-69) of the Connecticut General Statutes, Connecticut Code of Fair Practices (46a-7081), Deprivation of Civil Rights (46a-58(a)(d)), Public Accommodations Law (46a-63-64), 

Discrimination against Criminal Offenders (46a-80), definition of Blind (46a-51(1)), definition of Physically Disabled (46a-51(15)), definition of Intellectual Disability (46a51(13)), cooperation with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (46a-77), Sexual Harassment (46a-60(a)-8), Connecticut Credit Discrimination Law (360436 through 439), Title I of the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972. This Affirmative Action Policy Statement re-affirms Common Ground’s commitment to equity in the workplace and the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity