[2025 - 2026] KIPP Durham Elementary EC Assistant Teacher

KIPP Schools; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 35,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

An established educational organization is seeking a passionate EC Assistant Teacher dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable learning environment. This role involves providing exceptional support to students, ensuring they thrive academically and emotionally. The ideal candidate will have a strong commitment to anti-racism and the potential to inspire students from diverse backgrounds. Join a team that values growth, collaboration, and the relentless pursuit of excellence in education, making a significant impact on the lives of students in the community.

Benefits

Health Benefits

Generous School Holidays

Professional Development Opportunities

Qualifications

• 3+ years of teaching experience in K-12 settings.
• Strong commitment to anti-racism and equity in education.
• Ability to work with students with special needs.

Responsibilities

• Provide emotional and physical support to students.
• Assist with behavior management and classroom tasks.
• Build positive relationships with students and families.

Skills

Teaching Experience

Classroom Management

Differentiated Instruction

Data Analysis

Relationship Building

Anti-Racism Commitment

Spanish Fluency

Education

Associate's Degree

60+ College Credit Hours

Job description

Company Description

KIPP NC is a network of eight high-performing, college-preparatory public charter schools providing an academically rigorous and joyous school experience to more than 3,500 students in grades K-12 in Charlotte, Durham, Gaston, and Halifax. KIPP NC supports several thousand alumni on their journey to and through high school, college, and career.

KIPP NC is building on a rich tradition of academic excellence and relentless fight for social justice present from the founding of both KIPP ENC and KIPP Charlotte. KIPP ENC is the second oldest KIPP region in the nation. In its 20 years of operation, KIPP ENC has been a cornerstone for students and families in rural Gaston and Halifax, operating two primary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. Over the past five years, it grew to serve even more students by opening up a middle school in Durham, an urban center in the center part of the state. KIPP Charlotte, which grew out of the strong traditions and academics of KIPP ENC, has supported students and families for the past 13 years, operating one primary school and one middle school in the largest city in North Carolina.

KIPP North Carolina is building upon the successes and experiences of KIPP ENC and KIPP Charlotte to provide inclusive school environments and an educational program that will enable our students to lead full lives and equip graduates to be future leaders and agents of change in North Carolina and beyond. KIPP NC is engaging in direct, anti-racist work, and contributes meaningfully to the dismantling of structures of inequality within our organization, schools, and classrooms. We’re committed to expanding our efforts to embed anti-racism in all of our activities and engagements within our classrooms and schools, across our organization, and throughout the State of North Carolina. All of this will be in a tireless effort to create classrooms that are homeplaces for our students, places where they feel safe, loved, validated, seen, and heard, places where all their beautiful identities will be affirmed and celebrated, and places where they will learn the academic knowledge and skills needed for college, career, and beyond.

Job Description

CRUCIAL COMPETENCIES

Our one “re-founding” EC Assistant Teacher will blow the following four crucial competencies* out of the water:

Driving for Results: Our EC Assistant Teacher will have a strong desire to achieve outstanding student learning results and the task-oriented actions required for success. Our EC Assistant Teacher will set high goals for themselves and their students, making persistent, well-planned efforts to achieve these goals despite barriers and resistance; holding others accountable for doing their part to achieve results; and putting in all the extra effort necessary to ensure success.

Influencing for Results: Our EC Assistant Teacher will motivate others—students, staff colleagues, and families—and influence their thinking and behavior to obtain outstanding student learning results. Our EC Assistant Teacher will understand that they cannot accomplish change alone, but instead must influence the work of others. They will use a variety of influencing moves—inspiring students, nurturing ridiculously joyful AND rigorous classroom and schoolwide cultures, grasping and responding to unspoken student needs and motivations, and simultaneously supporting and prodding colleagues to collaborate on the path to schoolwide success—as the situation requires. The relationships they will form are for the purpose of influencing others to enhance student learning, not just for the purpose of personal bonding.

Problem-Solving: Our EC Assistant Teacher will be LASER FOCUSED on planning, organizing, and delivering high quality, differentiated instruction, AND they will continually analyze data to determine student learning needs and next steps for intervention blocks during the day, on select weekend academies, and during summers (while running summer academies during select weeks and participating in summer teacher professional development sessions during other select weeks).

Personal Effectiveness: Our EC Assistant Teacher will exhibit flexibility and optimism when faced with stressful, uncomfortable, and unfamiliar situations; maintain confidence in themselves and a willingness to keep improving despite the many challenges of their role; actively embrace the constant changes needed to ensure student learning in high-challenge situations; and hold and maintain a strong belief in the human potential for learning and improvement, despite significant societal pressures to settle for less. Our teachers will see themselves as not just a classroom teacher, but a SCHOOLWIDE teacher oriented around solutions and being proactive in their engagements.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

Preparing and Delivering Instruction

• Provide exceptional education students (individually or in groups) with physical help and emotional support so they can benefit from our instructional program
• Establish as fully as possible a supportive and sympathetic relationship with students without fostering or encouraging intense emotional involvement
• Guide and help students with curriculum tasks set up by classroom teachers
• Works with students (individually or in small groups) to reinforce materials initially introduced by classroom teachers
• Assist with behavior management and other disciplinary procedures in a manner consistent with policies and expectations of colleague teachers and the school
• Keep supervising teachers informed of any issue with specific students
• Communicate with colleagues about student issues or special information as appropriate
• Communicate with, contact, and respond to families as directed by colleague teachers
• Assist students in such physical tasks as putting on and taking off of outerwear, moving from room to room, and using the bathroom
• Perform simple errands and tasks for students, such as sharpening pencils, carrying lunch trays, and the like, as needed given student conditions
• Perform classroom health procedures, when necessary, under the supervision of the school nurse
• Serve as a resource person, if and when requested, to the student evaluation team conferring about students to whom assigned
• Embrace and incorporate the gift of feedback from wherever it comes—colleagues, principal, assistant principal, regional coaches, students, wherever—in the spirit of Pursuing Excellence, one of KIPP NC core values

Building Positive Classroom and Schoolwide Cultures

• Develop positive relationships with students, families, teachers, and staff through regular positive phone calls to families, routine curbside check-ins with families at arrival and dismissal, and attendance at all school events, including Back-to-School Night, family conferences, report card conferences, and all other school celebrations
• Leverage those relationships to induce behaviors and instructional habits from students that are significantly different from those previously exhibited; pinpoint and tap the needs, wants, and underlying motivations of students
• Participate fully in the daily routines of a school that form the foundation of culture, like arrival/dismissal, advisory/circle time, lunch, hallway transitions, and the 1,000 other moments that make up a day
• Embody, nurture, and build KIPP NC’s core values (Pursuing Excellence, Building Knowledge, Fighting Injustice, Sparking Joy, and Rising Together) and the school’s student and staff cultures
• Assume personal responsibility for student achievement, all the students in the school, and the success of staff colleagues
• Create and maintain a joyful classroom space that exudes love, builds a sense of belonging, and celebrates learning, which includes displaying current student work and grade level/content- appropriate and identity-affirming decorations

Exemplifying a Growth Mindset

• Collaborate with leaders and coaches to identify areas of strength and areas of growth for professional development throughout the year, some of which will be leader-led, and some of which will happen in the quiet after-school moments in classrooms with colleagues in the routine preparation for the next day
• Attend practice clinics to hone and sharpen pedagogical skills and lesson delivery
• Participate in Teacher Work Days, Regional Data Days, and Professional Development meetings after school; satiate their hunger to learn and grow as a professional

Taking Care of Yourself

• Use the many benefits the organization offers employees (health benefits, generous school holidays, etc.) to relieve stress after the workday is done or over school breaks and holidays, as the job of turning a school around is tough—teachers will experience stress and emotional challenges associated with all the essential duties enumerated above, and self-care will be a priority

Qualifications

QUALIFICATIONS

The following are required of the KIPP Durham Elementary EC Assistant Teacher:

• A deep commitment to the mission of KIPP NC and an unwavering belief in the potential of all our students
• An unwavering commitment to anti-racism, equity, inclusion, and liberation
• A deep commitment to both racial equity and improving the lives of kids from economically marginalized communities
• An Associate’s Degree OR have earned 60+ college credit hours
  • Working toward a Bachelor’s degree with a goal of becoming a certified Exceptional Children’s Teacher preferred
• 3+ years of teaching experience in K-12; experience in teaching in a high performing charter school and/or schools with a high population of students with free and reduced lunch
• Demonstrated success in raising the achievement levels of economically marginalized students
• Must be designated as "Highly Qualified"
• Training and experience working with children with special needs
• Must be able to physically perform the basic operational functions of stooping, kneeling, crouching, reaching, standing, walking, hearing and repetitive motion
• Pass Criminal Background Check
• Fluency in Spanish is preferred

Additional Information

*We are forever indebted to Public Impact, a North Carolina-based non-profit organization dedicated to an excellent education for all students and excellent careers for all educators through its national Opportunity Culture initiative, for this language and framework.