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SDLA Modernized Job Description Draft

Teacher on Special Assignment—Digital Learning, Assessment, and Educational Technology

A contemporary HR development draft that updates a legacy district-office technology assignment for today’s instructional, data, privacy, accessibility, interoperability, cybersecurity, and AI environment.

Credentialed

Position Description

Under general direction, the Teacher on Special Assignment—Digital Learning, Assessment, and Educational Technology provides districtwide leadership at the intersection of instruction, assessment, data, and educational technology. The position partners with teachers, school leaders, Information Technology, Educational Services, assessment staff, and vendors to design equitable digital learning environments; strengthen staff capacity; improve the quality and use of assessment data; and support secure, accessible, interoperable systems that advance student learning. The assignment emphasizes coaching, implementation, change management, and continuous improvement rather than routine device repair or help-desk work.

Reporting Relationship

Reports to the district administrator responsible for Educational Services, Digital Learning, Assessment, or Technology, as determined by the district. Works in close coordination with Information Technology, Curriculum and Instruction, Special Education, Multilingual Education, site administrators, data and assessment personnel, and other departments whose work depends on instructional systems or student data. This position does not supervise employees unless specifically assigned by the district.

Salary / Benefits

Placement on the district’s certificated salary schedule, with work year, stipend, benefits, and any additional-duty compensation established by board policy, collective bargaining agreement, and the final scope of assignment. Insert district-specific language before publication.

Required Experience

  • Successful classroom teaching experience, preferably across multiple grade levels, programs, or student populations.
  • Demonstrated experience designing and delivering professional learning, coaching educators, or leading instructional improvement.
  • Experience implementing or supporting an LMS, SIS, assessment platform, rostering service, classroom application, or comparable districtwide digital system.
  • Experience analyzing student-learning, program, or implementation data and communicating findings to educators and leaders.
  • Experience coordinating projects across schools, departments, or vendors; managing timelines, testing changes, documenting decisions, and resolving implementation issues.
  • Experience supporting diverse learners through accessible and culturally responsive instructional practices.

Required Credentials / Licenses / Certifications

  • Valid California teaching credential appropriate to the assignment.
  • English learner authorization or equivalent authorization required by the district and assignment.
  • Valid California driver’s license and access to reliable transportation if travel between district locations is required.
  • District may identify relevant educational technology, coaching, assessment, accessibility, project-management, privacy, or cybersecurity certifications as desirable rather than mandatory.

Education Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
  • Graduate coursework or a master’s degree in education, instructional technology, curriculum and instruction, assessment, data science, educational leadership, or a related field is desirable.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

  • Co-develop and implement a district vision, roadmap, and evaluation cycle for digital learning, assessment, and instructional technology aligned with district goals and student needs.
  • Coach teachers and instructional teams in research-informed uses of digital tools, formative assessment, Universal Design for Learning, differentiation, collaboration, feedback, and student creation.
  • Design and facilitate sustained professional learning that includes modeling, guided practice, implementation support, follow-up coaching, and evidence of impact—not only one-time application training.
  • Support the design, administration, quality assurance, and continuous improvement of current district and California assessment programs, including secure test administration, data validation, reporting, communications, and instructional follow-up.
  • Help educators interpret assessment and learning data responsibly, identify instructional next steps, monitor progress, and avoid conclusions not supported by the available evidence.
  • Coordinate implementation of learning management, assessment, curriculum, classroom, and productivity platforms, including configuration decisions, pilot testing, acceptance criteria, communications, documentation, training, and post-launch review.
  • Partner with technical and data teams to define and test rostering, single sign-on, account provisioning, role permissions, data exchanges, APIs, and standards-based integrations such as OneRoster and LTI; document data ownership, sources of truth, dependencies, and exception-handling procedures.
  • Participate in educational technology review and procurement by documenting instructional need, accessibility, privacy, security, interoperability, implementation capacity, support expectations, total cost, data return or deletion, and measures of success.
  • Work with vendors and district teams to reproduce defects, gather evidence, submit actionable support cases, test corrections, communicate workarounds, and confirm that resolved issues meet instructional and operational requirements.
  • Support responsible, human-centered use of artificial intelligence through staff learning, approved-use guidance, privacy-aware tool evaluation, academic-integrity practices, transparency, and age-appropriate AI literacy.
  • Promote safe and ethical technology use, digital citizenship, media literacy, copyright awareness, appropriate records handling, and protection of student and employee information.
  • Review digital content and workflows for accessibility and inclusive use; collaborate on remediation and procurement requirements consistent with applicable district standards and accessibility obligations.
  • Develop and maintain implementation guides, knowledge-base articles, data dictionaries, process maps, training resources, inventories, change logs, and other documentation needed for sustainable operations.
  • Establish service and adoption measures; collect qualitative and quantitative evidence; identify participation or access gaps; and recommend changes based on outcomes, user experience, risk, and total cost.
  • Build representative advisory and pilot groups that include educators, students when appropriate, families, school leaders, specialized-program staff, and operational partners.
  • Maintain professional knowledge through current research, professional networks, conferences, standards organizations, and reflective practice; translate emerging developments into practical district recommendations.
  • Perform other related duties consistent with the purpose and classification of the assignment.

Required Skills

  • Instructional coaching, adult learning, facilitation, presentation, and change-management skills.
  • Project planning, requirements gathering, workflow analysis, pilot design, implementation, documentation, and evaluation.
  • Advanced use of spreadsheets, data visualization, collaborative documents, web-based content, learning platforms, assessment systems, and productivity tools.
  • Working literacy in data formats and system concepts such as CSV, JSON, APIs, webhooks, data validation, role-based access, single sign-on, identity provisioning, and secure file transfer; deep software-development expertise is not required unless locally assigned.
  • Clear technical and nontechnical writing, including procedures, training materials, executive summaries, issue reports, and user-facing web content.
  • Vendor and stakeholder communication, problem definition, troubleshooting, prioritization, and follow-through.
  • Responsible handling of confidential information and sound judgment when evaluating emerging technologies.

Knowledge of

  • Current instructional design, assessment literacy, learning sciences, adult learning, coaching, and continuous-improvement practices.
  • California curriculum, assessment, accountability, and student-data contexts relevant to the assignment.
  • Digital accessibility, Universal Design for Learning, assistive technology, and inclusive learning-environment principles.
  • Student privacy, records governance, data minimization, cybersecurity awareness, acceptable use, copyright, and digital citizenship.
  • Educational technology ecosystems, including SIS, LMS, assessment, curriculum, identity, rostering, collaboration, and analytics platforms.
  • Interoperability concepts and open standards, including OneRoster, LTI, secure APIs, and documented data-exchange processes.
  • Responsible AI concepts, including human oversight, bias and equity, hallucinations and verification, academic integrity, privacy, intellectual property, transparency, and approved-use boundaries.
  • Procurement and lifecycle considerations such as needs analysis, accessibility and privacy review, security-by-design, interoperability, implementation capacity, support, renewal, offboarding, and data disposition.

Ability to

  • Translate instructional and operational needs into clear system, workflow, training, and vendor requirements.
  • Learn unfamiliar platforms quickly while distinguishing product knowledge from sound instructional practice.
  • Facilitate collaborative decisions among educators, administrators, technical staff, families, and vendors with different priorities and levels of technical fluency.
  • Analyze data for completeness, validity, patterns, equity implications, and limitations; explain findings accurately to varied audiences.
  • Troubleshoot complex problems methodically, reproduce issues, isolate likely causes, document evidence, and coordinate escalation without exceeding assigned security privileges.
  • Create accessible web pages, documents, presentations, videos, and training resources using district-approved tools and standards.
  • Manage concurrent projects, deadlines, seasonal assessment and rostering cycles, interruptions, and districtwide communications.
  • Lead implementation through influence, coaching, credibility, and service when the position has no direct supervisory authority.
  • Protect confidential information and follow district authorization, change-control, procurement, records-retention, and incident-reporting procedures.
  • Evaluate whether a proposed technology use is educationally valuable, equitable, accessible, supportable, secure, privacy-conscious, and measurable.

Physical Requirements

The employee must be able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation. The assignment may involve extended computer use; speaking and listening in meetings and training sessions; moving between classrooms, offices, and district locations; and occasionally transporting or positioning presentation or instructional equipment. The district should complete an individualized job analysis and insert approved physical-demand language before publication.

Additional Information

This is a modernization and classification-development draft, not adopted district language. Human Resources should validate the title, bargaining-unit placement, credential requirements, essential functions, work year, exemption status, supervision, physical demands, accommodations language, evaluation criteria, and locally applicable law and policy. The scope should be calibrated to district size: highly technical administration, production coding, network security, legal determinations, and sole approval authority should remain with appropriately assigned specialists unless expressly included in the final classification.

Reference frameworks used for modernization

  • ISTE Standards for Education Leaders: equity and digital citizenship, visionary planning, empowering leadership, systems design, and connected learning.
  • California Department of Education guidance for safe, equitable, privacy-conscious, human-centered use of artificial intelligence in public schools.
  • CISA K–12 cybersecurity guidance and secure-by-design considerations for technology acquisition.
  • U.S. Department of Education FERPA guidance concerning school officials and third-party providers.
  • 1EdTech OneRoster and LTI guidance for secure, standards-based learning-system integration.
  • W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 as a current accessibility reference point.

ISTE · California AI guidance · CISA K–12 guidance · FERPA provider guidance · OneRoster · LTI · WCAG 2.2