Personal Qualities of Top Candidates

• Commitment to Equity: Passionate about closing the achievement gap and ensuring that every child, regardless of background or circumstance, receives and excellent education.
• Leadership: Coaches, mentors, and challenges others to excel despite obstacles and challenging situations.
• Focus on Data-Driven Results: Relentlessly pursues the mastery of instruction based on student performance, and is driven by a desire to produce quantifiable student achievement gains.
• Innovative Problem-Solving: Relentlessly pursues the mastery of instruction based on student performance, and is driven by a desire to produce quantifiable student achievement gains.
• Adaptability: Excels in a constantly changing environment and adapts to flexibility in shifting projects or priorities to meet the needs of a dynamic transformation effort.
• Teamwork: Increases the effectiveness of surrounding teams through collaboration, constant learning and supporting other; sensitive to diversity in all its forms; respects and is committed to learning from others. 

SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE REQUIRED/DESIRED: 

Holyoke Public School District is seeking a highly qualified ABA Teacher for students with autism spectrum disorder in our Applied Behavioral Learning (ABL) Program. This teacher provides direct instruction in academic subjects, daily living skills, cognitive processing, social skill development, and vocational 

skills training. This teacher also assists in the development and implementation of behavior management, as well as, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) programs. Students enrolled in the ABL program receive the majority of their program within the specialized instructional setting, with access to inclusion to the maximum extent appropriate. This teacher will follow the regulations associated with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), and procedural safeguards and 

Individual Education Plan (IEP) development and implementation. ABA teacher works 

under the supervision of the School Principal, Director of Intensive Services, and Chief of Pupil Services. 

 

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Demonstrate an ability to use research-based principles of effective instruction, such as specific prompting protocols, discrete trial instruction (DTI), pivotal response training (PVT), and generalization training 
• Ability to create and implement programming to target academic skills, social skills, independence, activities of daily living, social skills, and targeted inclusion opportunities. 
• Follow district processes and procedures in assessing students referred for special 
• education services to determine eligibility and appropriate services. 
• Coordinate and facilitate Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings. 
• Design individualized education plans appropriate to meet the learning needs of students. 
• Ability to complete thorough assessments, such as ABLLS-R, VB-MAPP, AFLS, and participate in FBA-related information gathering. 
• Provide necessary documentation and data to validate student progress toward goals and objectives. 
• Maintain and update special education records as required by district, state and 
•          federal agencies. 
• Ensure confidentiality of special education records. 
• Provide behavior management programs to address behavior challenges and 
•          increase appropriate student behavior. 
• Serve as a member of the school support team (SST). 
• Meets Regularly with Autism Specialist/BCBA to collaborate on programming and 
•         follow protocols designed by the Autism Specialist/BCBA 
• Coordinate the efforts and services of support personnel (OT, PT, Augmentative 
•         Communication, Speech/Language Pathologists, etc.) services to assist student 
•         with special needs. 
• Participate in professional development activities to develop specialized skills. 
• Establish positive working relationships with parents, teachers, educational 
•         assistants, and administrative personnel. 
• Train, plan for, and supervise ABL Paraprofessionals 
• Ability to maintain professional and committed relationships with families 
• Attends staff meetings and serve on staff committees as required 
• Other duties as required by district and building administration 

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s Degree 
• Minimum of 3 years working in an ABA setting 
• Minimum of 1 year supervising classroom staff 
• RBT Training Preferred 
• CPI Training Preferred 
• Experience with implementation of ABA strategies, including discrete trial training, pivotal response training, PECS training, data collection, and behavior plan 
• Commitment to ensuring academic success for all students 
• Experience working with multi-disciplinary teams, strongly preferred 
• Experience working in an urban setting, preferred 
• Experience working with diverse student populations, preferred 
• Experience with using media and technology to target learning 
• Ability to read, interpret, and apply student performance data to instructional planning and execution 
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; excellent teamwork skills 
• Bilingual applicants (Spanish) strongly encouraged to apply 

Required license(s): 

Must possess Massachusetts Educators Licensure in Moderate or Severe Special Needs, All 

Levels. 

Compensation and Benefits:

• Salary and benefits will be competitive and commensurate with experience