[Hiring] Partner, School Design - Assessment @Transcend

Role Description

The purpose of Transcend's Evidence team is to make it possible for extraordinary learning communities to understand and communicate their impact. Unfortunately, the most predominant tools for measuring that impact, standardized tests in English Language Arts and math, have significant limitations. These tests capture only a slice of what matters most, leaving higher-order skills like critical thinking, complex problem-solving, and collaboration largely unmeasured. They are built on the assumption that all students progress and learn at the same pace, making personalized and competency-based learning difficult to implement while creating significant logistical burdens for students and teachers. Part of Transcend's mission is to help change that reality, pushing the field toward new and better forms of assessment.

The Partner, School Design - Assessment will work at the center of that challenge. This role will work directly with schools and districts to help them pilot, validate, and scale innovative assessment approaches that are more personalized, less administratively burdensome, and able to measure a wider range of outcomes and experiences than the current systems allow. In particular, we believe there is significant promise in assessments that combine proven practices such as portfolio- and performance-based assessments with new possibilities enabled by AI. This role sits at the intersection of psychometrics and school design, requiring someone who can translate technical rigor into practical guidance for educators and facilitate the kind of community-driven design that builds genuine ownership.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead project planning and execution:
  • Define overall project success, including milestones, deliverables, and metrics.
  • Build a clear project plan aligned to goals, Transcend's core schema, and local context.
  • Manage project expenses to the approved budget and communicate progress to ensure timeline, quality delivery.
• Build and lead your project team:
  • Foster a project team culture where members do their best work.
  • Put clear collaboration and communication structures in place.
  • Ensure role and work clarity, and create opportunities to reinforce Transcend's values, mission, and equity commitments.
• Manage external relationships:
  • Support the cultivation and stewardship of school partners, funders, and system leaders.
  • Support your manager with scoping for prospective projects and grants.
• Contribute to ongoing learning:
  • Contribute to the Evidence team’s collective learning about the future of assessment and accountability systems.
  • Share experiences with internal and external audiences to showcase examples of innovative assessment practices in action.

Sample Projects

• Piloting uses of AI in literacy assessment:
  • Partner with two secondary schools to pilot AI-augmented literacy assessment embedded in real classrooms.
  • Convene diverse design teams of students, educators, and administrators to identify high-leverage use cases.
  • Document implementation lessons that other schools can follow.
• Revamping accountability systems for a charter authorizer:
  • Generate recommendations for updating a charter authorizer’s high school accountability plan framework.
  • Conduct a national scan of how charter authorizers and state systems are evolving their approaches.
  • Co-develop a clear, actionable proposal for evolving their approach to high school accountability.
• Facilitate workshops where schools explore and apply a Portrait of a Graduate to their context:
  • Help schools unpack a state Portrait of a Graduate and apply it to their local contexts.
  • Design and facilitate a workshop where school leaders leave with an understanding of what’s required.

Qualifications

• Deep commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education.
• Curiosity, care, and a drive to make meaningful change.
• Genuine curiosity about the possibilities AI creates for assessment.
• Prior experience directly implementing K-12 assessments in schools.
• Robust foundational knowledge of core psychometric principles.
• Strong facilitation skills and a knack for leading inclusive, engaging design experiences.
• R&D orientation, energized by learning, iterating, and improving your approach.
• Outstanding project management and organizational skills.
• Strong self-management skills, including comfort navigating ambiguity.
• Skill and care in building relationships across a wide range of stakeholders.
• Resourcefulness and a solutions-oriented mindset.
• Willingness to travel approximately 30% of the time.
• Care deeply about getting assessment right for students.

Application & Hiring Process

• Initial interview with the team via Zoom.
• Try-on activity to engage in a role-aligned exercise.
• Interviews with a small group of Transcend teammates.
• Final round interviews with two senior leaders at Transcend.
• Reference checks to learn more about your superpowers and working style.

Salary

• Geo Comp 1: $145,000 - $210,000 (NYC metro area, CA Bay Area, Boston City, LA City, Washington, D.C, Seattle).
• Geo Comp 2: $137,750 - $199,500 (San Diego; New Haven, CT; Ventura, CA).
• Geo Comp 3: $130,500 - $189,000 (Most other US locations).

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage options.
• Org-wide holidays and paid time off.
• Paid parental leave and professional development opportunities.
• Fully remote work.