Upper School Assistant Director

Description

Mary McDowell Friends School is a K-12 college preparatory program dedicated to the success of students with learning disabilities. Grounded in the Quaker values of equality, integrity, and social responsibility, we cultivate a diverse community in which each student can reach his or her full potential. Our specialized teaching methodologies and challenging curricula empower students to become academic achievers, creative thinkers, and contributing members of a global society.

Job Title: Upper School Assistant Director

Reports to: Upper School Division Director

Position Overview

Mary McDowell Friends School (MMFS), a K-12 Quaker school in Brooklyn, New York, dedicated to the success of students with learning disabilities, seeks an engaging and grounded leader—both an accomplished administrator and a deeply knowledgeable educator—to serve as its next Upper School Assistant Director. For over 40 years, MMFS has been guided by a simple and powerful conviction: that special education is excellent education. Across three divisions, more than 400 bright students with dyslexia, ADHD, language processing disorders, and other learning disabilities find a community built around their strengths and potential. Small classes, specialized teaching, and a rigorous college preparatory program sit alongside a vibrant life in the arts, athletics, and travel, all in service of the school's promise to reveal brilliance in every student.

Reporting to Upper School Director Mark Doty, the Upper School Assistant Director is the division’s second leader and serves on both the Upper School Administrative team and the school’s senior leadership team. As the Upper School has grown, the role has evolved with it. MMFS views this transition as an opportunity to define the position intentionally around what the division needs most in the years ahead. The Assistant Director will work in close partnership with the Director and collaborate daily with the Upper School Administrative team, department clerks, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), and counselors. They will also work with the Associate Head of School and the MMFS DEI Office on initiatives that span divisions. This is both a strategic and a deeply hands-on role – its holder helps set direction for the division while remaining a steady, practical presence in its daily life.

The position spans several interconnected domains. The Assistant Director will lead the division's work on learning disabilities across faculty and curriculum, support students' academic and social-emotional experience, strengthen professional growth among faculty, partner closely with families, and keep the division's structures and systems running smoothly. They will also teach, engaging with the full arc of upper school life and becoming a familiar figure to students, faculty, and families alike. MMFS seeks a leader who pairs deep expertise in learning disabilities with the organizational steadiness to put that expertise to work across an entire division. In the absence of the Upper School Director, the Assistant Director will be the building’s administrative leader.

Strategic Priorities:

In close partnership with the Upper School Director and alongside the Upper School Administrative team, the Upper School Assistant Director will advance the division's commitment to its students. That work spans students, faculty, the program, and families. Key priorities include:

• •Serve as a visible, trusted presence in students' lives through daily interactions and engagement across academic and co-curricular life, partnering with deans, counselors, and therapists to support each student's social, emotional, and academic growth and help students understand how they learn.
• •Elevate expertise in learning disabilities across the faculty by building and leading a robust, in-house professional development program, and partner with the Academic Dean and department clerks to weave differentiation, accommodations, and LD-informed practice into curriculum and instruction.
• •Lead the development of a consistent, reliable standardized assessment program for the Upper School, in collaboration with divisional leaders across the school.
• •Champion and support the Upper School’s speech-language pathologists and learning specialists, deepening their collaboration with one another and their connection to classroom teachers.
• •Cultivate a culture of support and help shape how the division recruits, hires, and onboards new teachers.
• •Deepen partnership with families through proactive communication and parent education on learning disabilities, the school's approach, and each student's path forward, serving as a trusted, knowledgeable voice for the broader community.
• •Partner with the Upper School Director in shaping the division’s vision and future planning, informed by a close, firsthand sense of the community gained through everyday interactions with students, faculty, and staff.

Diversity and Equity Commitments:

• •Understand and participate in all school-wide diversity and equity initiatives
• •Examine administrative practice through the lens of race, identity, equity, and privilege
• •Provide an equitable framework for leadership decisions
• •Support a school culture that allows for social identities to feel welcome

Supervisory Responsibility

This position has supervisory responsibilities.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time exempt, twelve-month position that follows the academic calendar.

Requirements

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• •Master’s degree in education, speech-language pathology, or a related field.
• •A minimum of five years of direct experience teaching students with learning disabilities.
• •Previous experience leading teacher training programs that develop adult understanding of students with learning disabilities.
• •A minimum of three to five years of demonstrated leadership experience, including supervisory experience.
• •Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• •The ability to be held accountable for the overall quality of the program.
• •Licensure as a speech-language pathologist (CCC-SLP) is a plus.

Procedure To Apply

Interested candidates are invited to CLICK HERE to submit the following materials confidentially as a single PDF file:

• •A cover letter indicating the candidate’s particular interest in and qualifications for the position
• •A current resume
• •A statement of educational philosophy
• •The names, email addresses, and telephone numbers of five references, including at least two recent supervisors. References should speak to your ability to be an effective educator and administrator, to work successfully with children, and to work collaboratively and collegially with adults (references will be contacted only with the candidate’s permission). Please indicate your relationship with each reference (e.g. supervisor, colleague, or direct report).

Please address any questions by email to [email protected] .

Salary range: $140,000-$165,000

SEARCH CALENDAR

Applications due: December 4, 2026

Semifinalist interviews: Week of January 11, 2027

Finalist interviews: Weeks of January 25 and February 1, 2027

Announcement: Mid-February 2027Start date: July 1, 2027

Employment at Mary McDowell Friends School is based solely on qualifications and competence for a particular position, without regard to race, color, ethnic origin, nationality, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, familial status, or any other category protected by the law. Mary McDowell Friends School’s policy of non-discrimination extends to all employment practices including but not limited to hiring, transfer, promotion, training, compensation, benefits, layoffs, and termination.