MISSION

Children thrive when they spend their most critical years with dedicated, educated, trained, and well-compensated individuals. The New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute leads the work to establish and implement an early childhood workforce system to ensure funding, standards and competencies, career development resources, qualifications and credentials, professional development (training and strengths-based coaching), and program quality assurance and improvement for individuals who work with young children throughout New York. Housed at the City University of New York, the Institute is a fast-paced, dynamic public/private partnership that is committed to the early childhood workforce across New York State.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

QUALITYstarsNY is New York’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) for early childhood programs, providing support and resources to improve and sustain high quality across New York State. Early childhood educators are committed to the young children they work with and are motivated to improve their practice. QUALITYstarsNY exists because we believe that early childhood educators across the state and in all modalities deserve support to engage in continuous quality improvement for the children and families they serve.

Over the last three years, QUALITYstarsNY has doubled in size, increasing the number of programs being served and growing the team to do the work. The Senior Director of QUALITYstarsNY will play a pivotal and influential leadership role in sustaining and supporting this growth. The Senior Director is responsible for leading the team to develop, implement, manage, and promote the QUALITYstarsNY system that supports early childhood program quality.

This position will report to the Institute’s Executive Director. The Senior Director will lead a team of quality improvement specialists, program quality coaches, data and rating system specialists, a communications and outreach team, and an administration team. The Senior Director will quickly gain an understanding of the Institute’s work and how it fits with other statewide early childhood systems and will be able to identify areas of opportunity for positive impacts on program quality, the workforce, and New York’s youngest children and their families. The Senior Director will work with other local, state, and national organizations and initiatives to accomplish these goals.

The Senior Director will work in conjunction with the Institute’s other system-building projects, including New York Works for Children, the Aspire Registry, Career Development Centers, and professional development and learning projects and systems that produce research, data and outcomes relevant to policymakers and early childhood stakeholders in New York City, New York State, and around the country. In this role the Senior Director will serve as a collaborator with external agency and organization partners to further the work of improving and supporting program quality.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership & Supervision

• Serve as the representative of QUALITYstarsNY throughout the state and in key meetings with the NYS Early Childhood Advisory Council, elected officials, and other public agencies and non-profit organizations, as well in national forums to communicate the value and critical function of the program
• Provide oversite of and direction for the growth and sustainability of the QUALITYstarsNY program
  • Develop and maintain clear objectives aligned with the program’s mission
• Coordinate and supervise efforts led by directors, project managers, administrative staff and remote quality improvement staff. The Senior Director works with the overall leadership team to;
  • Develop and implement program goals and objectives
  • Delegate and carry out program activities
  • Ensure timely completion of program goals
  • Effectively carry out supervision responsibilities and expectations

Reporting & Monitoring

• Provide fiscal oversight and accountability in collaboration with the Director of Systems and Administration
• Analyze and leverage data to evaluate implementation efforts and inform program planning decisions in collaboration with the data systems team
• Develop effective proposals and accurate reports for funders and other key stakeholders that describe progress toward program objectives and outcomes
• Organize monitoring efforts of data system and staff performance carried out by the leadership team to ensure accountability across the team

Communication & Partnerships

• Maintain funder relationships and contractual partnerships, including delivering updates at regularly scheduled meetings
• Liaise with various partners to develop and enhance systems that support participants’ quality improvement efforts in collaboration with the quality improvement team
• Present at conferences, meetings and other engagements
• Review communication releases working closely with the communications team
• Maintain accurate and up to date calendar and Microsoft 365 applications (Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint, and One Drive) to effectively communicate with the team and colleagues