Science Curriculum Specialist
3 days ago
New Orleans
Job Description Job Overview: We’re seeking a sharp, standards-driven Science Curriculum Specialist for grades 6–9 to serve as the educational backbone of our content development team. In this role, you will bridge the gap between science standards, engaging content, and hands-on kits, ensuring every lesson is both rigorous and fun. This position is all about creative instructional design vision rather than script writing – we have curriculum writers for the detailed scripts. Instead, you’ll craft high-level blueprints for lessons (think essential questions, learning objectives, and a slide/session flow) and make sure everything from the initial concept to the student’s experience holds up to scrutiny. We need someone who can look at a lesson and say, “This is engaging, this is accurate, and this teaches exactly what it’s supposed to.” As our Science Curriculum Specialist, you will work collaboratively with curriculum writers, a kit engineer (our hands-on activity designer), and media developers to shape each module. You’ll ensure our discovery-based learning framework is embedded in every session, tying concepts across physical, life, earth, and chemical sciences to real-world applications. You won’t be authoring scripts, but your pedagogical expertise and creative vision will guide those who do. This is a highly collaborative and creative role where you’ll validate and enhance curriculum modules before, during, and after they’re written – maintaining academic accuracy, aligning to NGSS standards, and keeping the experience engaging and cross-disciplinary. If you’re excited about making science meaningful beyond the textbook and being part of an innovative, growing team, this role is for you. Key Responsibilities • Standards Alignment: Ensure all instructional content tightly aligns with national and state science standards (especially NGSS) as well as internal learning goals. Maintain up-to-date alignment documentation, including standards mapping, vocabulary lists, and learning goal trackers for each product., • Instructional Accuracy: Review and vet lesson scripts, storyboards, and slide decks for conceptual clarity, correct pacing, and pedagogical soundness. Identify any gaps or inaccuracies in content and propose improvements or stronger instructional techniques to address them., • Hands-On Kit Integration: Collaborate with our kit engineer to evaluate and shape hands-on activities and science kits for each module. Make sure each experiment or build directly supports the lesson objectives and standards. Provide feedback on prototypes and suggest refinements to improve student understanding, usability, and excitement., • Curriculum Design Blueprint: Develop high-level instructional blueprints for lessons and modules. Outline essential questions, learning objectives, and the session flow — for example, mapping out a 30-slide lesson in a concise 5–7 slide framework that guides our scriptwriters. Ensure the planned flow is logically sound and engaging from start to finish., • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with curriculum writers, editors, and media/content developers at every stage of development. Serve as a strategic partner during planning meetings and content review sessions, ensuring the instructional intent is clear and consistently carried through in the final product. (You’ll actively participate in creative brainstorming and “rip-and-tear” sessions to help solve challenges and refine ideas in real time.), • Real-World Connection: Infuse real-world context and cross-curricular links into every module. Help design activities and examples that connect science concepts to everyday life and, where possible, to other subject areas (math, ELA, social studies), so that learning is interdisciplinary and relevant., • Quality Assurance: Lead the final academic quality checks on each curriculum module. Before a lesson goes live, confirm that all content is scientifically accurate, terminology is correct and age-appropriate, and the material meets our high standards for rigor and creativity. Ensure that every student-facing experience delivers on its promise and aligns with our discovery-based learning framework., • Innovative Curriculum Development: Contribute to the broader curriculum strategy by bringing new ideas and insights. You’ll be involved in evolving our curriculum beyond traditional models – brainstorming new approaches, improving our methods, and ensuring we stay ahead of the curve in science education. Your expertise will help shape the future direction of our products in a meaningful way. Workload & Process: • Standards Review & Instructional QA (35%): Roughly one-third of your time will be spent auditing existing content for standards alignment. You’ll identify whether standards are fully or partially met, break down which components are addressed, evaluate the Depth of Knowledge (DOK), and assess overall academic rigor. All findings will be documented in our standards tracking system for future reference and decision-making., • Script and Storyboard Collaboration (35%): Another third of your time will be dedicated to working closely with content writers and editors to ensure new scripts and storyboards align with standards. You’ll help determine the extent of alignment, clarify instructional intent, and support the development of assessments that accurately measure student understanding., • Kit Instructional Support (30%): The remainder of your time will focus on partnering with the kit engineer to review and shape new hands-on activities. Your goal will be to evaluate how well proposed activities meet educational standards and build out a bank of instructionally sound experiences that can be deployed when new content demand arises. Qualifications: • 5+ years of full-time classroom teaching experience in grades 7 – 9, or 5+ years of experience in standards-based curriculum development and/or instructional design, • Strong understanding of how students learn best, especially when connecting academic concepts to real-world applications., • Deep understanding of NGSS national standards, and how to interpret them into classroom instruction., • Proven ability to collaborate across departments, particularly with kit designers, script writers, and instructional designers., • Comfortable giving and receiving feedback, vetting instructional materials, and pushing for instructional clarity., • (Bonus) Experience with content QA, curriculum development, or working with education product teams., • (Bonus) Proficient with digital tools (Excel, Airtable, project tools, ChatGPT/AI Tools) Team & Collaboration: • Reporting: Report directly to the Content Team Manager, ensuring regular 1:1 meetings, direct support, and clear guidance as you navigate your responsibilities. You will receive structured feedback, mentorship, and the tools needed to succeed in your role., • Collaboration: Partner closely with internal content creators, Education team, and kit developers to ensure content is properly tested and verified before final releases.Company DescriptionNOLA Education LLC is an innovative curriculum provider for academically at-risk students. Our solution, Star Academy, is an accelerative program proven to advance middle school students, who are at least a year behind, by two grade levels in a single year while dramatically improving grades and standardized test scores. We've achieved a 95% retention rate among at-risk cohorts from which 90% were expected to drop out. Our unique STEM approach to core curriculum re-engages disengaged students by combining hangs-on project based learning with workforce readiness skills.NOLA Education LLC is an innovative curriculum provider for academically at-risk students. Our solution, Star Academy, is an accelerative program proven to advance middle school students, who are at least a year behind, by two grade levels in a single year while dramatically improving grades and standardized test scores. We've achieved a 95% retention rate among at-risk cohorts from which 90% were expected to drop out. Our unique STEM approach to core curriculum re-engages disengaged students by combining hangs-on project based learning with workforce readiness skills.