Job Title: Facilitator of Learning - English Language Arts / Interdisciplinary Humanities
Reports To: Chief Academic Officer
Approved By: Board of Trustees
Date Revised: June 30, 2026
Job Classification: Full-Time, Exempt
YouthBuild Preparatory Academy is not looking for traditional classroom managers. We are looking for educators who can design learning, build relationships, challenge old systems, and help students see themselves as thinkers, creators, leaders, and problem-solvers.
The Facilitator of Learning serves as a teacher, advisor, curriculum designer, project coach, and member of an interdisciplinary learning community. This role is grounded in YBPA’s commitment to liberatory education, competency-based learning, project-based learning, and culturally responsive practice. The Facilitator of Learning must be able to move beyond worksheets, isolated lessons, and compliance-driven instruction. At YBPA, learning must be meaningful, rigorous, relevant, and connected to students’ lives, identities, communities, and futures.
The English Language Arts Facilitator of Learning is responsible for helping students strengthen their reading, writing, speaking, listening, research, storytelling, analysis, and communication skills through real-world projects, powerful texts, community-based inquiry, and student-centered demonstrations of mastery. This role requires an educator who can teach literacy across disciplines and help students use language as a tool for power, reflection, advocacy, creativity, and leadership.
YouthBuild Preparatory Academy is a competency-based, project-based, interdisciplinary learning community rooted in liberatory education. We serve students who deserve more than a traditional school model that asks them to sit still, comply, and memorize information disconnected from their lives.
Our work is grounded in four core commitments: Growth, Relationships, Agency, and Belonging. We believe students learn best when they are known well, challenged with purpose, and given opportunities to demonstrate mastery through meaningful work. We are building a school where students do not simply earn credits. They build identity, voice, skill, confidence, and a path toward their future.
The ideal Facilitator of Learning is:
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Deeply committed to working with young people, especially students whose brilliance has too often been overlooked, underestimated, or misunderstood by traditional school systems.
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Skilled at building strong relationships with students while maintaining clear expectations, structure, and accountability.
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Able to design learning experiences that are competency-based, project-based, culturally relevant, and connected to real-world issues.
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Comfortable teaching in an interdisciplinary model where literacy, history, community, identity, career readiness, and civic engagement can intersect.
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Reflective, flexible, and willing to grow. This role requires an educator who can receive feedback, revise practice, and contribute to a developing school model.
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A strong communicator who can collaborate with colleagues, families, community partners, and students in direct, respectful, and solution-oriented ways.
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Committed to eliminating proficiency gaps by changing adult practice, not by lowering expectations for students.
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Grounded in the belief that students should have voice, choice, agency, and responsibility in their own learning.
- Design and facilitate competency-based learning experiences aligned to YBPA’s curriculum, competencies, graduation expectations, and Rhode Island academic standards.
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Develop project-based units that allow students to demonstrate mastery through writing, presentations, exhibitions, portfolios, research, discussion, creative products, and real-world application.
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Teach English Language Arts skills through meaningful texts, inquiry, storytelling, community issues, student voice, and interdisciplinary projects.
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Support students in developing strong reading, writing, speaking, listening, research, media literacy, and critical thinking skills.
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Create lessons that are accessible, rigorous, culturally responsive, and connected to students’ lived experiences and future goals.
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Use clear learning targets, rubrics, exemplars, conferencing, revision cycles, and student reflection to support mastery.
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Provide differentiated instruction and support for students with varied academic needs, language needs, learning differences, and levels of readiness.
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Integrate technology, digital tools, and multimedia resources in ways that strengthen student learning rather than replace meaningful instruction.
- Assess student learning through demonstrations of mastery rather than relying only on traditional tests, quizzes, or completion-based grading.
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Use rubrics, portfolios, performance tasks, student conferences, exhibitions, and written feedback to evaluate progress toward competencies.
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Track student progress consistently and use data to inform instruction, intervention, enrichment, and advising.
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Provide students with timely, clear, and actionable feedback that helps them revise, improve, and take ownership of their learning.
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Support students in understanding where they are, what they need to work on, and how they can demonstrate mastery.
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Maintain accurate records of attendance, grades, competency progress, intervention efforts, and family communication.
- Collaborate with colleagues to design interdisciplinary projects that connect academic content to career pathways, community issues, student identity, and civic action.
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Participate actively in common planning time, professional learning communities, staff meetings, student support meetings, and curriculum development work.
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Work with other facilitators, advisors, support staff, and leadership to ensure students experience a coherent and connected learning model.
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Contribute to the development and refinement of YBPA’s competency-based curriculum, performance tasks, rubrics, exhibitions, and portfolio expectations.
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Support schoolwide learning experiences, including community projects, exhibitions, student showcases, advisory work, and other major student demonstrations of learning.
- Build a classroom culture rooted in respect, belonging, accountability, joy, and high expectations.
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Use restorative, relationship-centered, and developmentally appropriate approaches to support student behavior and conflict resolution.
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Create a learning environment where students feel seen, challenged, supported, and responsible for their own growth.
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Serve as an advisor, mentor, and advocate for students, helping them navigate academic progress, personal growth, and postsecondary planning.
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Communicate regularly with families and caregivers about student progress, strengths, concerns, and next steps.
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Work closely with student support staff, special education staff, multilingual learner support staff, and school leadership to address student needs.
- Teach in a way that affirms students’ identities, challenges deficit thinking, and refuses to treat compliance as the goal of education.
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Examine curriculum, instruction, assessment, and classroom culture through an equity and liberation lens.
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Help students ask critical questions about history, power, language, community, identity, justice, and possibility.
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Participate in ongoing professional development connected to competency-based learning, project-based learning, culturally responsive pedagogy, restorative practice, special education, multilingual learner support, and liberatory education.
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Reflect on personal practice and remain open to feedback, coaching, and continuous improvement.
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Model the intellectual curiosity, integrity, humility, and courage expected of students.
- Bachelor’s degree required.
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Current and active Rhode Island educator certification in the appropriate content area, or eligibility to pursue certification through an approved pathway where permitted by Rhode Island requirements.
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Current B.C.I. required.
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Minimum of three years of relevant teaching or youth development experience preferred.
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Experience working in urban school communities or with students who have experienced barriers in traditional school settings strongly preferred.
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Strong verbal and written communication skills.
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Ability to build effective working relationships with students, families, colleagues, community partners, and the public.
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Ability to design and facilitate student-centered, project-based, and competency-based learning experiences.
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Citizenship, residency, or work authorization required.
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Commitment to the mission, values, and educational model of YouthBuild Preparatory Academy.
- Rhode Island Secondary English Language Arts certification.
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Dual certification in Multilingual Learner education, Special Education, Reading, or another high-need area.
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Bilingual or multilingual ability.
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Experience with competency-based learning, project-based learning, portfolio assessment, advisory models, restorative practices, or interdisciplinary curriculum design.
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Experience supporting students in writing, public speaking, storytelling, research, media production, or community-based projects.
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Experience designing performance tasks, rubrics, exhibitions, or student portfolios.
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Ability to teach literacy across content areas and support reading and writing in interdisciplinary projects.
A successful Facilitator of Learning at YBPA will:
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Build strong, trusting relationships with students while maintaining high expectations.
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Design learning experiences that are rigorous, relevant, and connected to the real world.
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Help students demonstrate mastery through meaningful work, not just seat time or task completion.
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Collaborate with colleagues to create interdisciplinary learning experiences that reflect YBPA’s mission and model.
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Use data, student work, reflection, and feedback to improve instruction.
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Support students in becoming stronger readers, writers, speakers, thinkers, leaders, and community members.
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Contribute to a school culture where students experience Growth, Relationships, Agency, and Belonging every day.
YouthBuild Preparatory Academy is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and learning community. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable law.
This role is for an educator who believes school can be different because it has to be different. At YouthBuild Preparatory Academy, the Facilitator of Learning is not simply delivering content. They are helping students build skill, voice, confidence, purpose, and power.
We are building something that challenges the old model. That means we need educators who are ready to design, reflect, collaborate, and do the work with honesty and care. If you are looking for a traditional teaching job, this may not be the right fit. If you are looking to help build a school rooted in liberation, mastery, relationships, and real-world learning, this is the work.
