Example Job Description
Director of College and Career Readiness
A leader who connects college and career readiness strategy, pathway coordination, counseling partnerships, and assigned secondary or postsecondary transition programs with trustworthy evidence, equitable opportunity, and accountable action.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Director of College and Career Readiness
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- Pathway enrollment rises but completion falls. How would you investigate?
Strong response indicators: Separates entry, persistence and completion cohorts; examines prerequisites, scheduling, supports, program quality and subgroup barriers before recommending changes.
- An advising tool gives an incorrect college-eligibility result. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Verifies current requirements and source transcripts with authorized staff, corrects affected advice, reviews other cases and requires acceptance tests and human confirmation.
- How would you evaluate dual-enrollment access?
Strong response indicators: Reviews eligibility, offers, applications, enrollment, costs, transport, completion and credit applicability; consults partners and students and examines unequal opportunity.
- How would you measure postsecondary success with incomplete outcome data?
Strong response indicators: Reports match and coverage rates, distinguishes missing from negative outcomes, considers student goals and selection effects, and uses lawful, validated linkage methods.
- A vendor claims its platform raises college enrollment. What evidence would you request?
Strong response indicators: Requests study design, comparison groups, population and outcome definitions, implementation, subgroup results, uncertainty, independent evidence and total cost.
- How would you assess the quality of work-based learning?
Strong response indicators: Examines learning goals, supervision, safety and applicable protections, accessibility, student experience, participation and sustained outcomes rather than placement counts alone.
- The college and career planning platform disagrees with source records. How would you resolve this?
Strong response indicators: Checks populations, dates, definitions, refreshes, joins and corrections for course access, pathway persistence and postsecondary outcomes; reconciles with accountable owners, documents fixes and adds preventive checks.
- What evidence would you require before recommending a pathway expansion?
Strong response indicators: Defines educational need, baseline, access and implementation measures, alternatives, cost and capacity; uses appropriate comparisons and uncertainty and specifies a review or exit decision.
- How would you protect sensitive records while helping teams act on course access, pathway persistence and postsecondary outcomes?
Strong response indicators: Defines purpose and authorized access, minimizes disclosure, protects small groups, uses approved systems and retention rules, and consults responsible privacy and legal owners.
- A vendor proposes AI to automate recommendations in this portfolio. How would you assess it?
Strong response indicators: Tests the proposed use against college and career readiness strategy, pathway coordination, counseling partnerships, and assigned secondary or postsecondary transition programs; reviews accuracy, subgroup errors, privacy, security, accessibility and cost, and preserves authorized human decisions and challenge procedures.
- How would you build staff capability to use course access, pathway persistence and postsecondary outcomes well?
Strong response indicators: Uses authentic cases, verifies sources and denominators, explains missingness and uncertainty, coaches interpretation and checks whether evidence leads to useful changes in practice.
- What would your first 90 days as Director of College and Career Readiness include?
Strong response indicators: Listens to affected students, families, staff and partners; maps authority and obligations, validates course access, pathway persistence and postsecondary outcomes, identifies urgent gaps and proposes a focused plan with owners and review dates.
Position Description
The Director of College and Career Readiness leads college and career readiness strategy, pathway coordination, counseling partnerships, and assigned secondary or postsecondary transition programs. The district or employing agency should define the final portfolio, delegated authority, and relationships with other program owners.
The position connects transcript accuracy, equitable pathway access, completion, and postsecondary evidence to decisions; evaluates readiness beyond participation counts and vendor claims.
Reports To
Illustrative reporting relationship: Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services or other designated administrator. Confirm the locally approved structure and delegated authority.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Illustrative district qualification for review: master's degree in educational leadership, secondary education, counseling, or a related field; confirm the local degree requirement and permitted equivalents.
- Hold a valid California Administrative Services Credential or other authorization appropriate to the actual assignment. District HR must verify current authorization and any additional credential requirements against the final duties.
- Complete district-required employment clearances and training in student privacy, nondiscrimination, accessibility, records, safety, and responsible use of technology.
Preferred
- Graduate coursework or sustained professional learning in applied statistics, program evaluation, improvement science, education data systems, or responsible AI for educational decision-making.
- Advanced preparation in educational leadership, secondary education, counseling, or a related field, inclusive leadership, family partnership, and coaching adults to use evidence effectively.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Illustrative minimum for local review: five years of successful secondary instruction, counseling, or pathway leadership with college and career program implementation; confirm experience thresholds and permitted equivalents.
- Experience supervising assigned staff, coordinating partners, managing resources, and implementing improvement across the assigned portfolio.
- Demonstrated use of course access, pathway persistence and postsecondary outcomes to investigate needs, verify records, evaluate action, and explain findings and limitations.
Desired Experience
- Experience with California district or regional program requirements, implementation monitoring, and improvement with diverse communities.
- Experience with a college and career planning platform, approved spreadsheets and tools such as Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, Tableau, or equivalents; applied data-science literacy sufficient to collaborate with analysts.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Pathways and Partnerships
- Lead coherent college and career planning with secondary schools, counselors, CTE leaders, colleges, employers, and student-support owners.
- Coordinate access to college-preparatory coursework, dual enrollment, career pathways, advising and work-based learning within the assigned portfolio.
- Review course sequencing, schedules, transportation and student costs; remove avoidable barriers while respecting student interests and multiple future pathways.
Readiness Data and Evaluation
- Validate course, transcript, pathway, completion and cohort definitions with registrars, counselors and reporting owners before publishing readiness results.
- Analyze eligibility, application, enrollment, persistence and completion separately; examine subgroup access, scheduling constraints and students missing from records.
- Evaluate pathway quality, learning, credentials, transitions and subsequent outcomes where lawfully available; disclose coverage gaps and selection bias.
Compliance and Responsible Products
- Verify current graduation, college admission, dual-enrollment, CTE, grant and work-based learning requirements with responsible specialists; maintain documented review routines.
- Coordinate agreements, student protections, accessibility, privacy and lawful data exchange with authorized legal, fiscal and partner offices.
- Evaluate advising, transcript-analysis and AI products for accuracy, interoperability, accessibility and human review; prohibit unsupported automated eligibility decisions.
Resources and Improvement
- Administer assigned staff, budgets, grants and partnerships; assess capacity, participation costs and educational value.
- Train staff to interpret readiness indicators and distinguish graduation, admission eligibility, pathway completion and broader preparedness.
- Report access, outcomes, limitations and improvement actions to authorized audiences and perform related duties within the classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Secondary pathways, advising, college access, CTE, dual enrollment, work-based learning and postsecondary transitions.
- Transcript and cohort data, access funnels, persistence, outcome matching, missingness and program evaluation.
- Applicable admission, graduation, articulation, student protection, grant and data-sharing requirements.
- College and career planning platforms, SIS/transcript workflows, dashboards and responsible AI advising tools.
Ability to
- Translate priorities in college and career readiness strategy, pathway coordination, counseling partnerships, and assigned secondary or postsecondary transition programs into feasible plans, clear responsibilities and measurable follow-through.
- Validate course access, pathway persistence and postsecondary outcomes using accurate sources, definitions, populations and denominators before making decisions.
- Evaluate implementation and outcomes, examine subgroup opportunity, and distinguish association from causation with qualified analytical support.
- Use approved modern systems and accessible visualizations; partner with data specialists on complex linkage, statistical methods or reproducible analysis.
- Protect confidential information, document consequential decisions, maintain professional judgment and escalate unresolved legal or policy questions.
- Lead staff and partnerships, communicate evidence and uncertainty clearly, and revise ineffective practices with affected communities.
Work Environment
- Work is performed in district offices, classrooms, school grounds, meeting rooms, and other professional settings, with remote participation as authorized.
- The position involves computer use, school visits, observation, facilitation, and detailed review of records, dashboards, assessments, reports, and communications.
- Work requires frequent coordination with school and district leaders, program specialists, students and families as appropriate, data and technology teams, fiscal and legal owners, and external partners.
- The employee encounters interruptions, competing priorities, sensitive student and personnel matters, and urgent concerns requiring calm, documented judgment.
- Workload may increase during planning and budget cycles, program transitions, monitoring and reporting reviews, public meetings, and urgent service concerns.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Maintain required credentials and complete district-assigned training in privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, nondiscrimination, mandated reporting, and workplace safety.
- Protect confidential student and employee records; follow approved access, sharing, retention, incident-reporting, and records-request procedures.
- Travel between district offices, schools, professional-learning locations, and community meetings as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver's license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function; confirm the district's actual travel requirements.
- Occasionally work evenings, weekends, or extended hours for school events, public meetings, reporting deadlines, or urgent student and operational matters.
- Perform office and school-based activities involving sitting, standing, walking, communication, and computer use; confirm any role-specific lifting or other physical requirements through local job analysis.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.