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Assistant Principal - Diploma Programme Coordinator

KLIA is a new international high school in Shanghai with 450 students, led by principal Antony Geralis, a graduate of University College London, University of Cambridge, and King's College London. The high school serves students seeking to a study in the United States or United Kingdom after graduation, and follows the International Baccalaureate curriculum.

The function of the Diploma Programme Coordinator is to take a leading role in the coordination of the Programme, to allow its smooth, efficient running, and thus maximize student learning outcomes.

• The job description of the Diploma Programme Coordinator includes recognition of this leadership function, in addition to the management roles of general programme administration and communication. DP implementation requires significant expertise in change management and a detailed understanding of the principles and practices of the DP.
• In addition to carrying out a range of administrative functions, the Diploma Programme Coordinator is a part of the High School pedagogical leadership team. Pedagogy is defined as “the art and science of teaching children” (Ozuah 2005: 83), in contrast to andragogy which is “the art and science of helping adults learn” (Knowles 1980: 43). When considering teaching strategies suitable for DP students aged 16 to 19 it may be useful to move towards more andragogical approaches, in order to design teaching more appropriately matched to the developmental stage of the students.

• The Diploma Programme Coordinator has a good knowledge of the school regulations and procedures described in the respective handbooks, guides and policies, as well as the Handbook of Procedures for the Diploma Programme and the General regulations: Diploma Programme. The Diploma Programme Coordinator is allocated sufficient time to do the job properly, reflecting the extensive demands of the role, and is part of the High School pedagogical leadership team, in order to raise the profile of the DP at the highest level.
• The Diploma Programme Coordinator has responsibility for communicating information to all members of the school community. The following illustrate some of the additional aspects of this role that should be taken into consideration:

1. Guiding the school community
School-based guidance must ensure that the community (students, parents and teachers) understand the course selection choices available, which can involve complex decision-making. Implicit in this is the need not only for clear knowledge of the IB regulations for course selection but also an understanding of the consequences for individual students in terms of appropriate balance, course load, stress and suitability for entry into higher education. This process of guidance in course selection
must begin well before the first year of the DP. The Diploma Programme Coordinator will be involved in the publication of documentation to support such guidance in order to promote the understanding and support of the implementation of the DP by the school community. The Diploma Programme Coordinator should apply the IB copyright policy in all communications to the school community. This role is often fulfilled in collaboration with the Student Support Services (SSS) Department.

2. Determining admission to the Diploma Programme
The Diploma Programme Coordinator will be closely involved in developing and administering the processes for student admission into the DP; this may take the form of student interviews, testing or evaluation of teacher recommendations. Since KLIA is a selective school, as per its Admission Policy, the role of the Diploma Programme Coordinator will be to develop processes for widely informing potential students and their parents about the programme,so that they can make appropriate choices about whether to enrol and what options within the programme to select. The Diploma Programme Coordinator may work alongside the Business Office (Marketing & Admissions Department).
3. Working with Diploma Programme teachers
A significant aspect of the Diploma Programme Coordinator’s role is to ensure that DP teachers gain a full understanding of the programme as a whole. In the implementation stage of the DP, the Diploma Programme Coordinator will be well involved in working with teachers to ensure that they fully understand their own subject’s requirements and have a broader awareness of the whole of the programme and its expectations. This is often achieved through in-house professional development, professional learning communities and regularly scheduled meetings with teachers. This serves to provide them with a good understanding of the demands that the programme places on the student and the forms those demands take, thereby putting their own subject into perspective. These meetings can also be critical in providing time for teachers to work collaboratively to develop effective timelines for assessment, thereby ensuring that students are not unduly taxed, with multiple assignments due at any one time. In addition, these meetings allow teachers to share methodologies for ensuring learning success and academic honesty.

4. Scheduling Diploma Programme courses and the school calendar
The Diploma Programme Coordinator will work closely with the High School Administration to create the school schedule and calendar to ensure that all courses meet DP requirements and that students gain the maximum benefit of concurrency of learning whenever possible. Scheduling can be a complex issue, particularly when the DP teachers also teach in the Pre DP, and it is frequently necessary to conduct a detailed analysis of timelines for internal and external assessment completion and submission. Linked to this, the Diploma Programme Coordinator has a role to play in supporting the High School Principal in ensuring that school policies support the ongoing development of the DP and
that excellent teachers are recruited and retained.

5. Supporting the core The Diploma Programme Coordinator will have the additional responsibilities of the overall supervision and support of the core (CAS, EE/ RP, ToK) in the school.
CAS — The Coordinator role includes developing opportunities for students to engage in authentic experiential learning and to reflect on their experiences in meaningful ways. This is time-consuming
and requires close cooperation with many other school colleagues, who need to be involved in supporting the programme. The Coordinator has a leadership function, if not a specific management responsibility, in ensuring that the programme is properly supported and valued in the school. The Coordinator will be under the overall supervision of the High School Principal.
Extended Essay/ Research Project — The Coordinator is responsible for overseeing the programme, ensuring that students fully understand its nature, training potential teacher–supervisors, and working to develop an appropriate timeline for production. Depending on the number of students involved, this can be an extensive task. The Coordinator will be under the overall supervision of the High School Principal.
TOK — The Coordinator should ensure that the TOK teacher(s) and the individual subject teachers collaborate in developing an understanding of the requirements of TOK across the DP. The
Coordinator will be under the overall supervision of the High School Principal.
6. Articulating curricular expectations leading to the Diploma Programme

The Diploma Programme Coordinator will be under the overall supervision of the High School Principal.
The Diploma Programme Coordinator will work with Heads of Department/ Subject/ Area/ Year Supervisors, Core Facilitators or curricular specialists to try to ensure that the curriculum provides
adequate preparation in course content and assessment procedures, and potentially gives the maximum number of students the opportunity to successfully attend the DP. The Diploma Programme Coordinator will naturally be in regular contact with the Teaching, Learning & Assessment Coordinator
4.to ensure coherent programme articulation through horizontal (looking across a grade level) and vertical (looking between grade levels) articulation exercises.

7. General administration
The Diploma Programme Coordinator will be responsible for managing a large number of essential administrative tasks detailed in the Handbook of Procedures for the Diploma Programme. These
include, but are not limited to:
• registering students as DP/ courses examination candidates;
• entering data on the IB information system (IBIS), including
provisional grades;
• student mark entry;
• supporting students with assessment access requirements. The Diploma Programme Coordinator will also play a role in organizing and managing the examinations and must ensure that all teachers are following the correct procedures and practices in monitoring assessment tasks and sampling work to be used for moderation and/ or standardisation purposes, as well as forwarded to the IB.

8. Designing a database for the IB community
It is important to maintain contact with alumni of the DP and to develop a database of examination results, higher education experience and contact information within the context of any pertaining data protection requirements. This type of longitudinal data analysis will be the responsibility of the Diploma Programme Coordinator in collaboration with the Teaching, Learning & Assessment Coordinator. Students are encouraged to register with the IB alumni network at blogs.ibo.org/alumni/
register/
9. Administering the Diploma Programme budget and teacher professional development The Diploma Programme Coordinator will be frequently responsible for administering DP related
postage and courier costs, the purchase of publications, and annual and examination fee payments.
In addition, the Diploma Programme Coordinator will ensure that teachers have received appropriate IB-authorized training in collaboration with the High School Principal.

10. Organizing and completing the five-year programme evaluation
The Diploma Programme Coordinator will have the prime responsibility for ensuring that all stakeholders have access to, and comprehend the expectations explicit in, the document Programme
Standards and Practices (2014 and/ or 2020). This understanding will be the basis of an effective review process, conducted over one full year, which the Diploma Programme Coordinator will spearhead, ensuring completion by the due date for submission to the IB.

11. Student progression to further education
The Diploma Programme Coordinator in collaboration with the Dean of Students, the Teaching, Learning & Assessment Coordinator and the SSS Department will have a role in facilitating student progression to further education, communicating with universities, as/ if needed, and explaining to students and parents the processes and policies involved. One important element of this is ensuring
that students and parents are aware of specific university admissions requirements and any impact these may have on subject selection (see article 7 on “University recognition” in Rules for IB World Schools: Diploma Programme). This role may go beyond communication of existing opportunities to a
proactive engagement with universities, provincial and national authorities in order to improve recognition of the diploma, as/ if needed. The Diploma Programme Coordinator will need to ensure
that all requests for results to universities and legalization of diplomas are processed.
12. Programme implementation and development
The role of the Diploma Programme Coordinator in the implementation and development of the programme will be extensive. The most intangible, but also probably the most significant, aspect of this role will be to ensure that the school embraces the IB’s mission statement and its learner profile,
and that the school is able to demonstrate in an explicit way how the structure of the DP and its implementation are furthering both (see “IB learners and the IB learner profile”). In this way, the DP
Diploma Programme Coordinator fosters, in collaboration with the Teaching, Learning & Assessment Coordinator, the spirit of an international education in the school, one that will hopefully help
graduating students to develop the skills, wisdom and cultural understanding necessary to engage with the significant global issues we face now and in the future.
13. Part of the pedagogical leadership team
The processes involved in the management of the DP are comprehensively explained in the Handbook of Procedures for the Diploma Programme, which details the specific regulations and practical requirements for delivering the programme. However, in addition to the crucial “procedural”/organizational responsibilities of the Diploma Programme Coordinator, another important aspect of the role is that of being part of the High School’s pedagogical leadership team.
For more details see Approaches to teaching and learning in the Diploma Programme (2015).
This does not mean that the sole responsibility for pedagogical leadership should fall on the shoulders of the Diploma Programme Coordinator. However, it does mean that the Coordinator plays a crucial role in helping to ensure, for example:
• that there is a clear and unified approach to planning, including collaborative planning;
• that international-mindedness is embedded in curricular and co-curricular activities;
• that the standard to which coursework is marked is established and monitored;
• that the three elements of the DP core play a central role in the curriculum and that both
support, and are supported by, the subject disciplines.

14. Promoting the use of the Programme Resource Centre (PRC)
Encouraging teachers to actively use the PRC and to participate in its forums will be another important
consideration. The Diploma Programme Coordinator must also ensure that all teachers attend IB training as required by programme regulations.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in a related field from a recognized/ accredited university (required)
Teaching License/ Certification/ PGCE, etc. (required)
Advanced degree in Education and/ or Education Administration (required)
Minimum 4 years of relevant experience in education overall (required)
Minimum 2 years of relevant experience in the Diploma Programme (required)
Minimum 2 years of relevant administrative experience in education (preferred)
IBEN active participation (preferred)
English language competency (oral and written): Native/ near native (for international hires –
required), proficient (for national hires - preferred)
Chinese language competency (oral and written): Native/ near native (for national hires –
required), proficient (for international hires - preferred)
P. R. China work permit and visa minimum requirements (for international hires – required)

To apply, please submit your resume to resume@alariss.com and note why you believe you'd be a good fit.