National Louis University Looking for Assistant Professor, and Chair Elementary Education and Elementary/Early Childhood Education Combined Full Time

National Louis University’s Undergraduate College has set the ambitious goal of becoming a local and national leader in driving equity in bachelor’s degree attainment and employment. Through an innovative, affordable, rigorous, flexible, supportive, and professionally focused approach to undergraduate education, NLU seeks to help thousands of students – many of whom face significant barriers to completing college – get to and through college and move on to successful careers and fulfilling lives. Aligned to this mission and fueled by a recently awarded grant as a part of our membership in the state of Illinois’ Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE), we are have launched a new competency-based Early Childhood Education major which is a highly individualized pathway to an ECE degree, leveraging each learner’s individual skills, prior learning and previous credential attainment.

The Chair of Elementary and Elementary/Early Childhood-Combined (ELE/ECL) Education is responsible for the vision, implementation, and student outcomes of the Elementary Education and Elementary/Early Childhood-Combined majors within the Undergraduate College (UGC) at National Louis University (NLU). In this role, the Chair provides leadership to all aspects of the curriculum including revisions to existing coursework along with development of new courses, minors and concentrations for the ELE/ECL majors. Using a data-driven approach, the Chair manages the maintenance, revision and development of courses for the majors to ensure student success and preparation to become next-generation leaders and change agents in the field of Education. 

This role is responsible for all aspects of hiring, staffing, evaluating, and supporting faculty teaching in the majors. The Chair supervises the full-time ELE/ECL faculty teaching in the majors and provides ongoing performance management for full-time and adjunct faculty as well as providing ongoing professional development to drive instructional excellence. Administrative responsibilities include ensuring ongoing communication between UGC administration and other Department Chairs, faculty, and staff within the Educator Preparation unit. Additionally, the Chair of ELE/ECL engages in administrative planning for the majors, including working with marketing and enrollment to increase enrollment for the majors. Outreach activities and representing the college/department externally is a key function of this work. The Department Chair also participates and leads college activities such as major experience days, admit days, and other events designed to recruit new students and support existing students in their exploration of the majors and programming available to them.

The Department Chair supports the department’s efforts to coordinate assessment, accreditation, and compliance for the majors. This includes ensuring course syllabi, course information sheets, and compliance instruments are up to date and monitored. The Chair also collaborates with the Office of Field Experiences (OFE) to ensure seamless field experiences for licensure majors in their purview. Collaboration with the online unit and Director of Online Operations (UG ED Prep.) is key to the success of this position, as well, to ensure continuity, consistency and quality across all modalities for the majors. Additionally, the Chair supports content test preparation for the majors as well.

Excellence in teaching is the cornerstone for this position–this includes demonstrating best practices in teaching and learning with a teaching load across modalities while also helping to develop excellence in the practice of others. The Chair serves as an exemplar for the model of teaching in the UGC: student-focused, culturally relevant, and equity driven. This includes collaborating with the faculty team to ensure an excellent student experience. Central to this role is also supporting the resolution of student issues. This includes taking the lead to help students transition to support plans and making recommendations to department leadership about policy to support student success. Academic appeals and re-admission to the program are functions of this role, as well.

Who You Are:You will: Provide Students with Exceptional Learning Experiences

Your work has demonstrated your respect for education and the power that it holds to empower students to achieve their career and life goals. Each term, you will facilitate blended and online classes that utilize technology and data to drive instruction. You will work with a dedicated team of faculty, success coaches/advisors, career advisors, employer relations managers, and data analysts to determine how to personalize the learning experience for your students. In addition to teaching content, you will support students with meeting the goals that they have for themselves and celebrate the lived experiences they bring to the classroom.

You are: Driven to Succeed:

You are energetic and passionate about a diverse student body that includes many first-generation students.

To be successful teaching in this program, you must be committed to excellence in teaching and learning in Higher Education. The position requires you to be agile, creative, and engaging while offering an unparalleled experience to undergraduate students. Enthusiastic candidates have the belief that all students can be successful students. As an active team member, you believe in a supportive environment and a student-driven and data-informed culture.

You are ready to: Make an Impact

Each and every day, our Undergraduate College changes lives. You want to be a part of that meaningful innovation. You are someone that will always look for creative ways for students to earn success. We know this work is challenging, but we are in it together.

You are: an experienced classroom educator with content knowledge of career development best practices, who is passionate about building students’ career skills and confidence. You have made equity and inclusion a priority in your work and believe that all students, when given the opportunity, can achieve success. You also have 3-5 years of applied career development experience through professional leadership roles and can apply current industry trends to classroom instructional practices.

To be successful in this program, you must be committed to excellence in teaching and learning in higher education. The position requires you to be agile, creative, and engaging while offering an innovative, practice based curriculum and an unparalleled experience to undergraduate students. You believe in a supportive environment, a strengths-based approach to learning, and a student-driven culture. As an active team member, working closely with both internal and external partners, you are open to continued learning and self-reflection.

NLU UGC CORE COMPETENCIES

• Student-Focused: Make decisions based on what is best for students with the belief that when all students have access, resources and support, they are empowered to achieve success.
• Expect Excellence: Hold high expectations for our students and for the adults to serve them and hold ourselves accountable for achieving excellence.
• Personalized Support: Take a holistic approach to providing individualized support that encourages students to realize their full potential in college and beyond.
• Data-Driven, Collaborative Environment: Work together as a unified team, utilizing real-time data and technology to adapt to student needs.
• Continuous Improvement and Innovation: Remain agile and open to changes and new ideas-incorporating data as well as student, faculty and administration voice-to ensure that we are continuously learning, improving, and innovating in all aspects of the student experience.

Essential Resposibilities

• Demonstrate excellence in teaching: Teach 4 courses per year; collaborate with faculty team to develop an effective student experience for students; facilitate courses by delivering engaging instruction in a blended, flipped classroom environment; empower students to develop competency by sharing a passion for the subject and skills being taught; utilize technology-based teaching platforms, including but not limited to an adaptive courseware engine to aid students in the development of competencies; and communicate professionally and relate well.
• Curricular oversight of ELE and ECL majors and licensure and regulatory requirements: Maintain current and active knowledge in subject matter expertise in the discipline areas. Conduct regular reviews of the curriculum, and make data-informed revisions of the majors and courses offered, with a strong experiential and professional component including continuing maintenance of course syllabi, University Course Outlines (UCO), PD, etc. Lead subject matter experts in the maintenance, revisions, and new development of courses in blended and online formats designed to support student success and address the changing requirements in the field, compliance, and regulatory environments. Manage alignment of course outcomes to the Program Level outcomes, ISBE requirements, and accreditation standards that support students’ attainment of the Professional Educator’s License and endorsements.
• Administrative Planning and Goal Attainment: Ensure all administrative functions are completed in a professional and timely manner and in alignment with institutional and college timelines and due dates. This encompasses the planning and budgeting for the department, building and deepening external relationships, and operational functions to support students, faculty and other departments. This position is also responsible for meeting benchmarks and achievement of department, Educator Prep unit, college and university goals including student outcomes (persistence, retention, and graduation), Content Test, and PEL attainment.
• Oversight of Content Test Preparation: Provide overall support to the Content Test Preparation team in relation to content test passage of the ECE and ELE tests (connected to student major).
• Hiring, Staffing, Evaluation and Ongoing Professional Development: Collaborate with Human Resources to regularly create and maintain a hiring network in the subject area creating a diverse pool of hiring options for full-time and adjunct faculty positions, reviewing candidates, interview for FT faculty and make recommendations for hire to UGC leadership. Onboard new faculty and provide continuous support through classroom observations, constructive feedback, coaching and individualized PD. Additionally, align and facilitate departmental professional development with University and College-level initiatives and expected outcomes. Assign faculty to courses in content areas based upon qualifications, experience and fit for the modality and student population. Conduct annual performance reviews and supervise full time faculty, meeting with them on a regular basis to ensure progress on their goals and instructional excellence.
• Data-Driven Course and Major Planning: Review course/major data quarterly and annually, in collaboration with UGC administration and content area faculty team, in order to inform ongoing course and major enhancements and to explore opportunities for course/concentration/major additions. This includes the follow up and follow up on EAB reports, attendance and grade entry to inform case management and student interventions.
• Support Resolution of Student Issues: General oversight and development of student support plans. Additionally, support UGC administration in the resolution of student issues in the content areas, such as academic appeals and re-admissions of returning students.

Qualifications Skills and Competencies

• Master’s Degree in Elementary Education, Doctoral Degree preferred
• 5+ years of teaching excellence and accomplishments in PK-Gr. 2
• 5+ years of prior experience with teaching in a higher education setting in either full time or adjunct roles in both online and on campus settings.
• 5+ years demonstrated leadership in a PK-12 and/or higher education setting with measurable outcomes.
• 5+ years demonstrated ability to work with racially, culturally and economically diverse colleagues and students.
• 5+ years of commitment to student success, student professional growth, effective professional advising, and experiential education.
• 3+ years evidence of effective management of human and fiscal resources.
• 3+ years of experience using data for improvement purposes.
• 3+ years of project management experience with positive deliverable outcomes.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ownership and Quality of Work – Effectively manages own work, ensuring timely delivery of high-quality work within a fast-paced environment.
• Organizational Commitment – Passionate, energetic, and driven to make a difference; Acts with honesty, integrity, and professionalism; Self-reflective, focused on development, and makes regular progress on development areas; Learns from mistakes and setbacks; Is adaptable and welcomes change.
• Upward Management – Engages at an appropriate level with a supervisor in defining desired outcomes, providing status updates, and obtaining input as to ongoing project direction and process; Keeps commitments and meets deadlines without the need for reminders; Proactively shares information in a timely manner.
• Collaboration – Works with colleagues, from across the organization, toward achieving common goals by sharing knowledge, learning, and building consensus. Proactively identifies relevant stakeholders and engages colleagues as needed to achieve goals.
• Communication – Uses effective written and oral communication with internal staff, teams, the community served, and partners; demonstrates empathy and listening.