A Day in the Life of a Chief Academic Officer at Scholarship Prep Schools
A Chief Academic Officer's day involves significant on-site presence, including "modeling lessons for teachers," providing coaching, and partnering with site leadership to address challenges. The role also encompasses substantial back-end work focused on "problem-solving," curriculum management, assessment oversight, and system-wide monitoring of attendance, discipline, and academic data.
Executive/Leadership, Data Analysis, Problem-Solving, Communication, Coaching
Advizer Information
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Taylor Ellis
Chief Academic Officer
Scholarship Prep Schools
UC Santa Barbara 2009
CSU Long Beach MA in Curriculum and Instruction, Administrative Services Credential
Anthropology, Sociology
Education
Strategic Management and Executive
Honors Student, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Works directly with students and teachers, modeling lessons and providing coaching through video observations and data analysis.
2. Partners with site leadership to address challenges related to students, teachers, staffing, and families.
3. Handles problem-solving, curriculum management, assessment monitoring, and systems management related to attendance, discipline, and academic data.
Transcript
What does the day in the life of a chief academic officer look like?
I can't speak for every Chief Academic Officer, but for me, I like to be really present on campuses. Every day, I am on school sites.
I try to go to every school site at least once a week. I work with students directly sometimes, modeling lessons for teachers. I coach most of our teachers directly.
We do video observations, and I take videos. I dive into teachers' data and then help support through our debriefs on how teachers can improve their practice. This involves looking at their data and talking about where kids are and where we need to get them.
I also coach site leadership. When I'm on sites, I'm being a thought partner for them around the challenges they're seeing, whether that's with students, teachers, staffing, or families. So, I offer in-the-moment thought partnering and coaching.
When I'm in my office, it's a lot of problem-solving and troubleshooting with curriculum. We ensure we are meeting all our marks for assessments in terms of who's taking them and how we're doing in terms of achievement.
We also do a lot of systems management. This includes monitoring attendance, student discipline, and academic data. That's generally what my day looks like.