Search for the Program Director, Education Program The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Menlo Park, California

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1 Search for the The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Menlo Park, California The Search The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Hewlett Foundation) seeks a Program Director, based in Menlo Park, to lead the Foundation s education portfolio. Reporting directly to the Foundation s president, the Program Director will serve as a key member of the Foundation s senior leadership and will work closely with the other members of the education team to chart the Program s strategic direction for the future. Building on the strong work of the Education Program s current strategies, the Program Director will lead the continued growth of the grantmaking, research, and assessment efforts across the Deeper Learning and Open Educational Resources portfolios. She or he should bring content expertise and leadership experience in education or a related field, and a commitment to addressing issues of equity and diversity in education today. The Program Director will provide managerial and operational oversight for the Education Program s work, and will continue to prioritize effective communication and relationship building with grantees and partners in the field. The successful candidate will be intellectually nimble and analytically sharp; a proven manager and lifelong learner who is passionate about improving the public education system in America; and open minded about the pathways for achieving measurable results and positive, long-lasting outcomes. She or he should be creative and willing to take risks in order to make progress, and collaborative by nature. Experience or familiarity with philanthropy, as a funder or grantee, would be valuable. The Program Director oversees a staff of eight, including four program officers, three program associates, and an education fellow. In 2015, the Education Program awarded 104 grants to 121 active grantees totaling $59 million. The Program Director reports out regularly to the Board of Directors about the Education Program s work and results, and, in partnership with the rest of the education staff, is responsible for setting the long-term strategy for the Program s grantmaking and non-grantmaking activities. The executive search firm is assisting the Hewlett Foundation with this important search. All inquiries, nominations, and applications should be directed in confidence to the search consultants as indicated at the end of this document. About The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation The Hewlett Foundation is a nonpartisan, private charitable foundation that advances ideas and supports institutions to promote a better world. For 50 years, the Foundation has supported efforts to advance education for all, preserve the environment, improve lives and livelihood in developing countries, promote the health and economic well-being of women, support vibrant performing arts, strengthen Bay Area communities, and make the philanthropy sector more effective.

2 The Foundation was established in 1966 by engineer and entrepreneur William R. Hewlett and his wife, Flora Lamson Hewlett, with their eldest son, Walter Hewlett. Today, over half a century later, the Foundation s philanthropic approach flows directly from its founders core ethos and values. The Hewletts approached philanthropy with a humanistic philosophy based on a faith in the capacity of people to do good and a belief in the importance of healthy institutions as a means for doing so. The Foundation remains committed to this humanistic approach and to a core set of guiding principles that inform the organization s work to this day. Larry Kramer, formerly dean of the Stanford Law School, has served as President of the Hewlett Foundation since September He oversees a staff of about 120 employees, all based in the Bay Area, and reports to a thirteen-person board of directors that provides overall direction for the Foundation. Hewlett has approximately $9 billion in assets, making it one of the largest philanthropic institutions in the United States, and in 2015 awarded roughly $400 million in grants to organizations across the globe. There are more than 1,400 grants active at any one time. For more information about the Hewlett Foundation, please visit its website at About the Education Program The Education Program makes grants to help students succeed in college, work, and civic life by building towards Deeper Learning competencies and expanding access to Open Educational Resources. The Education Program pursues these goals by investing in organizations that develop and advocate for innovation in ideas, practices, and tools, as well as those that participate in the public policy debate on these issues. It s worth noting that the Program Director will be leading the education team within a new and shifting federal policy reality, following passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December Deeper Learning While the job market in the United States has changed significantly, the country s K-12 classrooms operate in the same way as they did in the industrial era of the early 1900s. When today s students graduate, the most valuable skill sets they can bring to the jobs of tomorrow go beyond basic math and English skills. The Hewlett Foundation seeks to help students become college and career ready and become engaged citizens at home. To that end, the Education Program works to align K-12 schools in the U.S. to deliver and measure deeper learning a set of six interrelated competencies: mastering rigorous academic content, learning how to think critically and solve problems, working collaboratively, communicating effectively, directing one s own learning, and developing an academic mindset (a belief in one s ability to grow). The Deeper Learning portfolio is national in reach examples of grantees include the Alliance for Excellent Education, the Learning Policy Institute, and the Council for Chief State School Officers with targeted Deeper Learning pilot programs in California and New Hampshire, among other states. Goals of Deeper Learning Resetting learning goals refocus schools on building deeper learning competencies by supporting policy reform to improve education goals, assessment, accountability and practice. This includes engaging a community of researchers, policy leaders, and advocates to support such reform. Page 2 of 6

3 Strengthening assessment help teachers use classroom-based formative and performance assessments to improve their practice, providing teachers and students with real-time, actionable feedback. Support a broad system of assessments, including summative tests, to measure and facilitate student learning. Scaling teaching practices promote the creation and demand for high-quality instructional materials, and foster a community of practitioners that can test and demonstrate innovative teaching practices with the potential to influence instruction broadly, paying particular attention to historically disadvantaged communities. Establishing a research base invest in research to determine whether, how, and under what conditions deeper learning improves the lives, long-term career potential, and civic engagement of young people, including research on dispositions that are difficult to measure. Open Educational Resources In 2002, the Hewlett Foundation began investing in open educational resources (OER), which are high-quality teaching, learning, and research materials that are openly licensed and free for people everywhere to use and repurpose. Hewlett s Education Program was one of the first institutions to invest in the field, at a time when MIT s Open Courseware initiative and Creative Commons were in their infancy. Since then, the Foundation has partnered with several content producers as well as technical assistance advisors and policy groups to support the creation of an ecosystem of OER groups. In addressing the costs and quality of learning in the U.S. and the dearth of high-quality course materials, Hewlett sees an unprecedented opportunity to scale OER and unleash its potential to improve education for the future. The OER grantmaking supports mainstream adoption and effective use of openly licensed educational resources that provide students around the world greater access to a world class education. The OER portfolio is broad and diverse, supporting programs across the country and around the world. Goals of Open Educational Resources K-12 support the development of effective, high quality, standards-aligned open educational resources for teachers and students in the United States, and promote OER as a way to increase educational access and equity in the developing world. Postsecondary education reduce the cost of college and increase the quality of pedagogy by ensuring that OER, including open textbooks, are freely and openly available for postsecondary courses, and that OER-based degree pathways are widely accessible in community colleges. Infrastructure investment support people and institutions promoting OER, research on OER effectiveness, and the technical basis for OER, including policy and advocacy, research, open licenses, interoperability, and accessibility standards. Page 3 of 6

4 Role of the Reporting to the Foundation s President, Larry Kramer, the Education Program Director is responsible for managing and directing all program-related activities and grant decisions. The Program Director is a member of the Foundation s 14-person senior staff and is responsible for selecting, implementing, and managing goals, strategies, and initiatives to achieve the program s objectives. He or she will also collaborate when appropriate with other program directors and staff throughout the Foundation. This position represents an exciting opportunity for a seasoned education leader who is passionate about improving the state of K-12 education in America. This new leader is a strategic, systems-level thinker who has respect for, and ideally experience with, evaluation and assessment; is familiar with both the education policy and practice landscapes; understands the work of philanthropy and believes that empowering grantees is the most effective way to support their work. The Program Director will provide a comprehensive, forward-looking vision for the education portfolio and, specifically, will work to address the following challenges and opportunities: Provide strategic direction for the Education Program s grant-making efforts. The Program Director will implement and steward a comprehensive vision for the Education Program s grantmaking strategy, building on the strong work of the program s Deeper Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives. The Program Director will work collaboratively with the education team s four program officers and three program associates and program fellow to refine and execute on the program s strategy, ensuring a continued commitment to outcomes-focused philanthropy, meaningful assessment, and strong relationships and leadership across the field. As the country s federal and state education systems navigate the rollout and impact of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Program Director must think strategically about how best to amplify the Deeper Learning and OER work pulling both the policy and practice levers in an everevolving and at times noisy education reform environment. Continue to address issues of equity and diversity across the Education portfolio. The work of the Education Program includes a long-running commitment to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in education. Looking ahead, the program plans to pay closer attention to the most underserved performers and underrepresented students in the education pipeline while maintaining its focus on all learners. There are opportunities across both programmatic platforms Deeper Learning and OER to target and measure outcomes specific to these groups and to share learning broadly across the field. The Education Program s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion mirrors conversations and work underway internally at the Foundation. In conjunction with these internal efforts, all of the program areas across the Foundation are now working to ensure that their grant-making strategies and portfolios reflect this shared ethos. Ensure efficient management and operational oversight of the Education Program. The Program Director will be a savvy organizational leader and manager, responsible for guiding the Page 4 of 6

5 education team s work and partnering with Hewlett s legal, finance, grants management, and communications departments to ensure well-designed, timely, well budgeted, and thoroughly executed projects. The Program Director will also provide clear direction for the entire education staff informed by thoughtful planning, encouraging regular idea-sharing and collaboration across the program officers distinct portfolios. As the Deeper Learning and OER initiatives continue to evolve, there may be continued opportunities for joint grantmaking efforts within the Education Program to enhance the team s collective work. In addition, over the next few years, the Program Director will have the opportunity to make a number of key hires as two, or half, of the Education Program Officers will reach their term limits in 2017 and Maintain the Education Program s strong relationships/partnerships across the education field. The Hewlett Foundation has long been known for its humanistic approach to philanthropy, which prizes the contributions and agency of its grantees and recognizes the importance of healthy, wellsupported institutions as a means for doing good. The Education Program echoes these guiding principles in its grantmaking efforts; program officers build strong, give-and-take/cooperative relationships with their grantees, and encourage bottom up innovation and creativity in their grantees work. Regardless of ebbs and flow in programmatic strategy, the Program Director should remain true to this ethos in leading the education team. The Program Director should also set a tone across the team that encourages meaningful collaboration and partnering with other funders, policy experts, nonprofit leaders, and state and federal government leaders, among others. As a key member of Hewlett s senior staff, provide leadership and counsel for cross-foundational direction and initiatives. The six program directors across all of Hewlett s programmatic areas meet regularly with the President to discuss foundation-wide efforts and strategic direction, and to share best practices. Recent projects include a cross-foundational diversity and inclusion task force, and a heightened focus on transparency in Hewlett s grantmaking, research, and other resources, which has resulted in a transparency task force and a revised statement of purpose outlining the Foundation s commitment to openness in its work. These efforts create opportunities for staff across the Foundation to work with and learn from one another through shop talks, brownbag lunches, and internal project teams. The Foundation s program directors also report regularly to the Hewlett Board of Directors about their program s work and measurable outcomes. The Board includes four members of the Hewlett family and between five and 11 other leaders drawn from philanthropy, government, business, education, and civil society. At present, there are 13 Directors on the Hewlett Board. Qualifications and Characteristics The Program Director should be a strong leader and manager, a flexible thinker with highlydeveloped intellectual and emotional intelligence who will bring confidence and creative vision to the role. She or he should be comfortable operating within a relatively flat organizational structure and able to travel regularly. The Program Director must be based out of the Hewlett Foundation office in Menlo Park, CA and is eligible to serve a term of no more than eight years. Page 5 of 6

6 For this important role, the Foundation seeks candidates with the following experiences, characteristics, and abilities, understanding that no single candidate will have all of the ideal qualifications: A proven record of senior-level experience in education systems leadership, philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, public policy, and/or government. A demonstrated ability to manage well: to communicate, delegate, prioritize, motivate, and build a strong team. Successful management and operational experience overseeing budgets and staff; a collaborative leadership style and an appreciation for how best to balance staff autonomy with team goals. Experience leading strategic implementation and assessing programmatic progress and outcomes within an educational context; both a big-picture, systems-level thinker and a data-driven leader. A nuanced understanding of the K-12 landscape in the United States and the different levers available for influencing change through philanthropic activities, including federal and state policy and on-the-ground work with practitioners. Experience or familiarity with philanthropy and the work of foundations, and a sense for how philanthropy can effectively generate action in policy and practice. A confident, independent thinker, who is comfortable reconciling complex ideas and recognizes the value of considering varied perspectives; creative, innovative, and intellectually curious. Superb written and oral communication skills; the ability and inclination to strengthen relationships and build partnerships across the K-12 sector. Warmth, humor, and energy; integrity, humility, and grace. A graduate level academic degree is highly desirable. Applications, Inquiries, and Nominations Screening of complete applications will begin immediately and continue until the completion of the search process. Inquiries, nominations, referrals, and CVs with cover letters should be sent via the website for the search: Electronic submission of materials is strongly encouraged. Regan Gough, Ericka Miller, Katie Rockman, and Emily Buehrens 1000 Sansome Street, Suite 300 San Francisco, CA The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and invites individuals who bring a diversity of culture, experience and ideas to apply. Page 6 of 6