Program Manager

Teach For India is on a journey to reach an India free of poverty and filled with love by ending educational inequity in our country. Fifteen years into our journey we are a movement of ~5000+ Alumni working at all levels of the education system, who are reaching 1 in 10 children across the country. These Alumni have graduated from our two-year Fellowship Program where they taught in under-resourced classrooms to put ~33,500 low-income children on a different life path. Today, we have ~1000 Fellows and are the largest pipeline of driven, skilled talent into the educational ecosystem in India. Over 16,000 Teach For India students have appeared for the 10th grade board examinations till date, with an impressive 95% pass rate across cities as of November 2024.

In 2022, we embarked on Phase 4, our fourth strategic phase. We have a bold and ambitious ten-year journey ahead of us that aims to grow 50,000 leaders, who will work collectively, and with love, to transform the lives of 1 in 10 low-income children in our regions, through an education that unleashes the potential of self, others and India. In this decade, five key priorities will lead us to this vision.

Our work will only be completed when we have built a movement of leaders that is large enough to ensure that every child in India attains an excellent education.

We pride ourselves as being a passionate, idealistic, mission-driven team of individuals. We’re committed to learning and excellence in our roles, and to being deeply rooted in our core values.

Reporting to: Senior Program Manager / PM Coach

Directly Managing: 16-20 Fellows

Program Managers play a critical role in the continuous support and development of Fellows across cities. They serve as managers and coaches for a group of 16-20 Fellows towards creating individuals who drive excellence in the classroom and a deep sense of clarity and conviction in the long-term movement. Program Managers support Fellows through training, facilitating spaces for collaboration, regular classroom observation, continuous feedback, and coaching cycles. As the first point of contact between Fellows and the organization, they are also responsible for cultivating a strong and productive ecosystem in the city and a positive team culture across their team and the larger city cohort.

The Kolkata City Operations team is in its third year of operations. We currently have 15 Staff and 111 Fellows in 27 schools directly impacting ~110 classrooms and nearly 47 alumni who have graduated from the Fellowship. The team works towards furthering Teach For India’s short-term theory of change in Kolkata and the surrounding regions by getting committed individuals to dedicate 2 years to help us achieve our vision of “One Day all children will attain an excellent education”. The team also works towards creating committed and connected stakeholders to further Teach For India’s mission of building a movement of leaders to eliminate educational inequity.

As an Instructional Coach:

• Managing & coaching a group of approximately 16-20 Year 1 and Year 2 Fellows to achieve ambitious student outcomes in their classrooms and thereby build leadership skills.
• Helping Fellows understand their children better - the gap to grade, their context, the impact of their current reality, and their role in shifting this.
• Working with the school team and stakeholders to ensure a conducive environment for Fellows and students in partnership with the School Relations Manager and the Coach/SPM of the region.
• Providing feedback on daily lesson plans, weekly plans, unit plans, assessments, etc..
• Observing Fellows in their classrooms to understand teacher proficiency, student learning, and classroom culture. Conducts 5 Magic Question debriefs once in two weeks to drive reflective practice and strengthen Fellow execution.
• Facilitating Learning Circles for their group of Fellows.
• Facilitating meaning making and post Fellowship clarity conversations with Fellows.
• Contributing to the design and facilitation of City projects and events.

As a People Manager:

• Setting up strong performance management systems for their Learning Circle towards ambitious goals.
• Creating differentiated support plans based on the needs of Fellows.
• Building a robust pipeline of talent toward our puzzle pieces within and outside the organization.
• Driving engagement, growth, and retention of team members to successfully graduate from the Fellowship.
• Maintaining positive school relationships and working closely with School Relations and Government Relations vertical for effective day to day problem-solving.
• Engineering and overseeing a monitoring and evaluation system, coupled with strategic direction, to guide our abilities to continuously improve.

As a Culture Builder:

• Building and executing a robust culture strategy for the Fellow team aligned to the Three Commitments of Leading Self, Others and India and core values.
• Facilitating and enabling shared learning, support, and strong self and peer accountability within the Learning Circle and School Teams.

As a Manager at Teach For India:

• Contributing to the team goals and priorities beyond individual goals and priorities.
• Serving as an ambassador of the Teach For India brand and an advocate for our work and for educational equity in our country through both internal and external communication after committing time in our classrooms to understand our work more deeply.
• Supporting with key organizational priorities like Institute, Selection, Volunteer Management.
• Clarifying and reinforcing adherence to organizational and school policies, practices, and procedures within their Learning Circles.

• 2-5 years of professional experience, teaching experience mandatory within that.
• Fellow Applicants must have at least 90% student attendance, 60% of kids scoring 35% in Math (applies to SST and Science) and 50% students making growth to bridge the gap to grade.
• Alumni applicants should have more than 80% students making minimum 1-level of growth and passing in all subjects along with strong holistic growth.
• For External Applicants, teaching experience in K-10 and schools is mandatory.
• Experience in driving operations in challenging, resource-constrained and goal driven environments.
• Experience of having collaborated effectively with a broad range of individuals and groups.
• Experiences and examples of having taken initiative in the past.

Note: We want to hear your unique voice and perspectives through the process, hence all applicants are expected to personally author statements of purpose/essays in the application form. Sole use of AI or Chat-GPT based tools may lead to disqualification from the process.