Holyoke High School Opportunity Academy

Holyoke High School Opportunity Academy (HHSOA) is a series of alternative pathways in Holyoke Public Schools which offers students myriad options to complete their diploma or diploma equivalent requirements, including pathways to a traditional diploma, and to a GED/HiSet. The GED/Hi-Set pathway is a fully accredited Adult Basic Education (ABE) program, located within Opportunity Academy's Success Center campus, and offers a traditional in-person option, and a remote option, serving approximately 40 adult students, total. Using a blend of personalized learning, and project-based learning, Success Center serves both traditional high school studenrts and ABE students, ranging in ages from 16+. ABE students have the option of ABE only classes, and blended classes, and participate in a separate advisory. The goal of the program is to ensure that regardless of age, or credit attainment, every student seeking a dioploma equivalent within Holyoke Public Schools has the opportunity to not only complete their requirements, but to be truly prepared for a choice-filled pos-secondary life, through a robust curriculum and instructional program and the socio-emotional support of a school that believes deeply in the importance of caring, trusting, and warmly demanding relationships with staff and peers. As part of the Juntos collaborative, the HHSOA ABE program staff have access to myriad professional development opportunities, while benefiting from the traditional HPS schedule and support.

 

Position Description

The HHSOA Adult Basic Education Teacher and Advisor, would be uniquely responsible within the HHSOA teaching team for planning and delivering two courses, designed specifically for adult learners (one remote coursework, one in-person coursework); as well as co-teaching one blended course with ABE and high school students; and a weekly advisory session for ABE students, only. As the Advisor for ABE students, the Teacher and Advisor, would also be responsible for providing the engagement support to ensure our ABE students remain engaged, and continue making weekly progress towards their goals (including outreach, case conferencing through our primary person model, data management, and collaboration with a network of engagement and instructional colleagues.) While schedules change multiple times throughout each school year for students and staff at HHSOA's Success Center, the typical week would consist of approximately:

• 15.5 hours of instruction (remote, in-person, advisory)
• 7 hours of engagement, case-conferencing
• 6 hours of planning and prep
• 4 hours of data entry and analysis

The ABE Teacher and Advisor plans lessons to be delivered daily, with flexibility one day each week (Wednesday) to provide more intensive 1:1 support with students as needed; plans a weekly advisory, and monitors students career/college planning with the support of the HHSOA Post-Secondary Coordinator; assists in testing coordination, and data tracking and entry; leads outreach and engagement support for the ABE cohort; and collaborates with peers on an ongoing basis. While the ABE Teacher and Advisor will work most directly with our older student population, all OASC staff work with both the high school and ABE population throughout the course of the week, and should be prepared to hold a warmly demanding demeanor with students of all ages, 16+. The position is an in-person position, located at the HHSOA Success Center, at the Picknelly Adult and Family Education Center (PAFEC), in Holyoke, MA.

 

Responsibilities

Teaching:

• Plan and Deliver ~60 min daily lessons for 2 ABE Classes (4x/wk per class, remote and/or in-person)
• Co-plan and deliver one Project-Based course each cycle (4x/wk., ~60 min classes) for ABE and HS students
• Teach a weekly ABE advisory (~45 min.) focusing on college/career planning
• Maintain grades, provide daily written and verbal feedback on student work, monitor readiness for Hi-Set/GED exams, using student performance data as a guide

 

Meet with ABE students individually, and with the support of the ABE Lead Advisor to:

• Initiate contacts with prospective ABE students / taken from the LACES waitlist
• Prepare Intake paperwork/ intake interviews 
• Case Conference (conversations and paperwork) regarding Goal Setting and positive and negative happenings in their lives
• Follow up for attendance issues
• Engagement follow up 
• Create ETS HiSET accounts 
• Register for HiSET testing
• Apply for Accommodations to take the HiSET exams

 

Meet with ABE students in a group setting to:

• Administer MAPT pre-tests (after the students have attended classes for 12 hours); then followup for post-tests (after the students have attended classes for 65 hours)
• Provide Workshops (in coordination with other staff members):  e.g. resume writing; interviewing skills; filling out on-line job applications; introducing employers from various fields (e.g. veterinarians, medical fields, mechanical, manufacturing, etc.)

 

Administrative tasks: 

• Monitor ABE students’ information in Filemaker (our school-wide student data system)
• Update various spreadsheets - e.g. MAPT, HiSET
• Update FileMaker data for ABE students
• Attend quarterly Advising Cohort meetings
• Attend monthly Juntos meetings and Juntos Advisor meetings and PD

 

LACES - DESE data program - Data Entry (ABE)

• Entering student data - ensuring that all necessary data fields are correctly completed
• Enrolling students into classes
• Entering staff data
• Entering class description/data
• Entering student attendance by class (using information from Filemaker) – to be done on a weekly basis
• Monitor LACES data in comparison with our spreadsheets
• Completing the End of Year requirements

Requirements

The ABE Teacher and Advisor should have prior experience with either or both of the Hi-Set/GED exams, in at least one subject area, and ideally multiple subject areas (with prior experience including having taken and demonstrated proficiency in the exam areas; or having successfully taught exam area preparatory classes.) The position requires extremely strong organization skills including data tracking, experience in student data systems, and a demonstrated record of balancing multiple competing priorities. Appropriate candidates will have Bachelor's Degree in a related field, prior experience working with ABE and/or high school students, and ideally, most or all of the following:

• Experience in urban education, especially with students who have struggled in traditional learning environments
• A warmly demanding approach to holding students accountable, which is centered in developing strong relationships, and leveraging those relationships to hold all students to high expectations with a can-do approach
• Demonstrated success teaching Hi-Set/GED prep; and/or a demonstrated excellent understanding of assessed content and skills
• Very strong organizational skills, and the ability to balance multiple projects at once
• A desire for, and track record of highly productive collaboration with colleagues
• A sense of inititiative - the candidate sees an area of improvement, and develops action plans and executes actions to address the challenge
• The ability to manage necessary technology for student data management and remote teaching (zoom, google suite, databases, etc.)
• A desire to work with both over-age under-credited high school students; and our traditionally older ABE population
• Adult Basic Education Teacher Licensure or ability to obtain licensure required
• Bilingual Candidates preferred