Description of our school:

The Los Angeles Education Corps is a WASC-accredited charter high school with four campuses within LA's urban core. We provide small learning communities of approximately 140 students per campus and 15-20 students per class. We seek to provide a superior alternative for students and families who are unsatisfied with their larger, neighborhood high schools. Typically, many of our students were unsuccessful in their previous high school experience due to a combination of disorder and apathy on their previous campuses coupled with their own personal baggage and bad habits. We seek to offer them a second chance within our innovative charter school model, which combines small class sizes with caring teachers, one counselor for every 40 students, opportunities for paid employment (with our nonprofit partner, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps), and an emphasis on giving back to the community through service and projects. Our results are as follows:  100% 2014 senior class passing rate on the CAHSEE, 92% college acceptance rate for our graduates, and an API score that exceeds our larger neighborhood high schools by over 100 points (623 in 2011--admittedly, not a great API score, but we are taking students who have dropped out from these neighborhood high schools and then we are getting them to ultimately outperform their peers who didn't drop out).

What we have open:

We currently have an English teacher opening at our EcoAcademy High School campus in Pico-Union (near downtown Los Angeles). Our Fall semester begins on August 11th, but we would like to hire someone in July so that they would have time to get ready.

Our ideal candidate would have the following characteristics:

• experience working with at-risk youth (able to motivate, mentor, uplift)
• previous teaching experience (whether in a traditional or nontraditional setting)
• intern, preliminary, or clear credential in English
• passion for students who’ve previously been unsuccessful in school
• interest beyond merely teaching, to include extracurricular activities (art? sports? camping? drama? yearbook? college fairs? college road trips? what extra talents do you bring?)

What is unique about our teaching positions:

Working in a small charter school setting such as ours, you will join a team of like-minded educators who have a great deal of autonomy and empowerment. You will not be a cog in the wheel of a giant, top-down bureaucracy. Instead, as a team, we determine what curriculum to purchase. We craft our own direction. If you have an idea for a new project or a way to improve the school, you can make it happen.

What are the pay and benefits, etc.:

Starting salary for a first-year teacher (without experience) is $42,000. Pay goes up from there based upon experience (currently, our highest paid teacher makes around $80,000). We offer medical, dental, and vision. Our teachers are also part of the STRS retirement system.

How to apply:

If you'd be interested in joining our team, please email a resume and cover letter to ecoacademyhs@gmail.com