About Equitable Facilities Fund (EFF)
Equitable Facilities Fund (EFF) is a nonprofit social impact fund that’s on a nationwide mission to help high-performing public charter schools spend more money on students and less on the costs of borrowing for their facilities. We offer school leaders simple and much-needed access to low-cost loans combined with support from an expert team that has walked in their shoes.
To date, EFF has invested nearly $1 billion in schools serving over 60,000 students, providing them with funding to amplify their impact. Equity is at the core of our mission, and we seek to create opportunity for students and communities that have traditionally been denied access to high-quality public schools. In 2023, we will launch EFF’s Fund II through which we will commit an additional $2 billion with increased prioritization for early-phase schools and schools run by leaders of color.
If you’re seeking to have a community-level impact on a national scale, apply to join our team!
The Opportunity
The Principal, School Quality will play a critical role in EFF’s effort to ensure every high-impact charter school operating in historically marginalized communities has a pathway to affordable facilities. Reporting to the Chief Credit Officer, the Principal will build out EFF’s school quality assessment methodology and ensure EFF invests its capital in schools and leaders who are truly moving the needle for student achievement. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in programmatic evaluation, a high bar for excellence, and a willingness to “get under the hood” to discern the full story behind school performance.
Who You Are
You believe all children deserve a quality education. And you believe accountability is critical to schools delivering results for students.
You know what good teaching and school leadership look like. You’ve done it yourself and have coached teachers and leaders. You like getting in the grain and scrutinizing the quality ingredients that lead to successful charter school growth.
You love data. Whether it’s state test results, MAP Growth data, internal culture metrics, or something else, you know how to analyze it and determine what it says about a school’s performance.
You enjoy building evaluation frameworks and systems. You create and use them equitably to evaluate, recommend, and communicate decisions to others.
You know how to look around the corner and down the road. You stretch to consider the results a school will deliver for students not only this year but also over the next 5+ years.
You relentlessly champion racial equity and DEI values. These values have shaped you as an individual and are non-negotiable drivers of personal and professional decisions you’ve made throughout your career.
What You’ll Do
The Principal, School Quality will be responsible for:
- School Quality Methodology
- Building out EFF’s policies and procedures for evaluating prospective borrowers’ current and projected academic performance, leadership, enrollment growth plans, teacher quality, instruction, and culture.
- Aligning EFF leadership, board, and team members on key assessment criteria.
- Developing a standard set of metrics and “look fors” as well as separate modules for specific school types (early-phase, alternative models, etc.).
- School Evaluation & Recommendations
- Conducting a school quality evaluation for approximately 20 prospective borrowers each year with support from data and underwriting teams.
- Providing recommendations to EFF leadership on whether to advance loans for Credit Committee review and Board approval, and under what conditions.
- Conducting onsite observations and “deep dives” on instruction and culture for approximately 5 to 8 early-phase/high-growth/alternative model borrower prospects.
- Portfolio Support & Remediation
- Developing loan covenants and monitoring protocol to assist EFF’s Portfolio Team in tracking the long-term academic performance of portfolio members.
- Supporting portfolio members that encounter academic and programmatic challenges and covenant violations, either individually or with the support of consultants.
- Serving as EFF’s resident expert on school programming, hosting periodic trainings for portfolio members and serving as a resource for advice.
- Org Leadership
- Serving on EFF’s leadership team that convenes on a biweekly basis, partaking in strategic decision-making, and prioritizing org-level activities.
Qualifications
- 10-15+ years of professional experience including 5+ years of instructional coaching or programmatic evaluation. Leadership experience with a charter school/CMO, grantor, and/or authorizer preferred.
- Unyielding commitment to EFF’s mission to ameliorate educational, financial, and racial inequities
- Demonstrated advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplace and investment practices
- Expertise in analyzing academic data at school and LEA levels, including state test results and NWEA MAP Growth data
- Experience developing school evaluation frameworks
- Deep understanding of charter school seat growth strategies and student recruitment/enrollment practices
- Strong problem-solving skills and an ability to think “outside the box” and pivot as needed to support a growing business
- Customer service orientation and ability to collaborate across functional areas
- High degree of integrity and authenticity and a good sense of humor
- Willingness to travel 25-30% of time
Compensation & Benefits
The starting salary for this position is $160,000 - $195,000 with up to a 10% bonus based on organizational performance. Compensation is competitive, commensurate with experience, and may be subject to modest adjustments for high-cost-of-living geographies. We are proud to offer excellent benefits including a 6% 401k match.
Location
We are open to applicants from across the continental U.S. The role will be expected to travel to NYC or other locations for 3+ days each month to participate in team activities.
Reporting Relationship
The Principal, School Quality will report to the Chief Credit Officer
