ABOUT US

The Primary School is creating a new school model that brings together all of the adults in a child’s life, including parents, educators, and medical and mental health providers, starting from a very early age. We recognize the entrenched racism that exists within our public systems and the unjust impact this has had on families of color. Our aim is that children and families most impacted by systemic poverty and racism receive the multidisciplinary support they deserve to be well, learn, and thrive. 

Long-term, we hope to create a game-changing model that can be replicated across the country. As we continue to learn and grow, we plan to share what we’ve learned and pursue policy and systems change on a local, state, and national level. We are supported by a growing coalition of philanthropic partners, building on the generous support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Our approach has three defining characteristics:

  • We start early. We start working with children as young as 12 months and provide full-time school starting at age three to reach them at a critical stage in development. 
  • We partner with parents. We believe that when parents thrive, children thrive, so we support the wellness and growth of parents alongside the growth of their children.
  • We integrate services. Our unique model unites health care and education, building a multi-disciplinary team and holistic system of care around a child’s full needs.

In 2016, we opened our flagship school in East Palo Alto, California, with our first class of four year olds. We have grown to serve over 400 children and their families through our Early Family Foundations program, parent wellness program, full-day preschool, and elementary/middle school, which will grow through eighth grade. In 2021, we opened our second site in the East Bay.

ABOUT OUR EAST PALO ALTO SITE

We are continuing to grow our East Palo Alto site and are excited to launch 7th grade for our 2024-2025 school year. In our school program, we currently serve over 400 students across two preschool grades (3 and 4 year olds) and kindergarten through sixth grade. Integrated into our program are the other core components of our model including our parent program - partnering closely with parents throughout their child’s development and providing wellness programming for caregivers; our Early Family Foundations program - coordinating early developmental screenings and intervention services; and our medical home partnerships - working with existing health care providers in the community to coordinate care for children.

ABOUT OUR EAST BAY SITE

We opened our second site with a founding class of four-year-old children and families who started preschool in August 2021, and continue to serve preschool students in our year round, full day school program. We also added an Early Family Foundations program in 2023. Drawing on key learnings from our first site, core components of the model include our parent program - partnering closely with parents throughout their child’s development and providing wellness programming for caregivers; our Early Family Foundations program - coordinating early developmental screenings and intervention services; and our medical home partnerships - working with existing health care providers in the community, including Kaiser Permanente in the East Bay, to coordinate care for children. 

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Primary School model is dependent on having a rich and integrated view of a child, built on data about a child’s academic, health, and socio-emotional well-being. The Data Fellow will play a critical role in ensuring we have an accurate robust set of data to inform our program design and evaluation, by collecting a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative data.  The Data Fellow will also support with data entry, analysis and visualization to help us understand our data.

This role requires both a strong attention to detail, experience working with data,  and the ability to work with a wide variety of people, particularly young children.

The fellow is scoped as a one-year role.

Job Type: Full-time

Work Location: Hybrid (must be able to travel to East Palo Alto and San Leandro) 

Dates: July/August 2024 to July/August 2025

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Deliver a variety of assessments, screeners, and evaluations to students,  including oral, written, tech-based
  • Spend time in classrooms to get to know students
  • Build relationships with students, teachers and staff
  • Collect qualitative data through interviews and focus groups
  • Perform observations of various programs (e.g., classrooms) to record activities
  • Enter data into spreadsheets and databases
  • Clean and aggregate existing datasets
  • Analyze and summarize data 
  • Other responsibilities as needed to support our learning, dissemination, codification and design work

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Experience working with young children
  • Extremely detail-oriented and passionate about delivering error-free work
  • Excellent time and organizational management skills
  • Competence in Excel and/or Google Sheets
  • Enjoy working with data, including data analysis and visualization 
  • Self-aware and self motivated
  • Resourceful and able to problem solve with minimal supervision
  • Comfort with ambiguity 
  • Able to build relationships easily with students and families
  • Belief in the mission of The Primary School and that all children and families are capable of extraordinary things.

A Plus If

  • Fluent Spanish speaker

COMPENSATION

Hourly pay is $26.21/hr, plus excellent health benefits (medical, dental, and vision), 401k retirement plan, flexible spending account (FSA), dependent care FSA, and generous paid time off, including a competitive paid parental leave benefit. TPS will cover 93% of the total premium cost for individual team members in our HMO and PPO plans, and 95% for individual team members in our HDHP plan. TPS also covers 50% of enrolled partners and/or dependents' costs on all three of our medical plans (HMO,PPO, HDHP). Please note that in order to be considered for this position, you must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. We are unable to offer sponsorship. 

To ensure fair and equitable compensation for all of our employees, The Primary School has a no-negotiation policy on all offers extended. Final offers are determined using role descriptions, job market data, internal parity, and semi-annual benchmarking. Our goal is  that this policy, paired with ongoing transparency in our compensation process, will make TPS a more fair, inclusive, and diverse workplace. 

HOW TO APPLY

TPS values diversity (please see our commitment to DEI); people of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Please complete the online application and submit your most recent resume. These short-answer questions are designed to replace a cover letter, so take your time with them and copy in your answers from a separate document. If you feel that the questions do not accurately capture what you have to offer The Primary School, you are also welcome to attach a cover letter. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis so we encourage you to submit yours soon. We look forward to reading your application!

The Primary School provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. The Primary School complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the organization has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.