Example Job Description
Director of Expanded Learning
A leader who connects assigned before-school, after-school, intersession, and summer expanded learning programs and provider partnerships with trustworthy evidence, equitable opportunity, and accountable action.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Director of Expanded Learning
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.
- A provider bills for students who rarely attend. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Reconciles signed source records, dates, agreements, and payment terms; investigates discrepancies with fiscal owners, protects records, and documents corrections.
- Enrollment is full but access is inequitable. What would you examine?
Strong response indicators: Reviews outreach, application methods, waitlists, selection criteria, transportation, language access, accommodations, and attendance persistence; consults affected families.
- How would you distinguish program quality from high attendance?
Strong response indicators: Combines observation, engagement, student experience, staff preparation, actual activities, safety, and improvement evidence rather than treating attendance as quality.
- A new site cannot meet its promised schedule. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Verifies funding-specific obligations, staffing and provider capacity, addresses student safety and family communication, and coordinates authorized corrective action.
- How would you evaluate a summer expansion?
Strong response indicators: Defines demand, target access, delivery, learning and enrichment goals, staffing, cost, and suitable comparisons; checks actual participation and implementation.
- A registration platform excludes families without email. How would you respond?
Strong response indicators: Provides accessible assisted and alternative enrollment channels, investigates affected groups, and requires inclusive design and acceptance checks.
- The expanded learning attendance dashboard disagrees with source records. How would you resolve this?
Strong response indicators: Checks populations, dates, definitions, refreshes, joins and corrections for program access, attendance, provider delivery and quality; reconciles with accountable owners, documents fixes and adds preventive checks.
- What evidence would you require before recommending this expanded learning 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 program access, attendance, provider delivery and quality?
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 assigned before-school, after-school, intersession, and summer expanded learning programs and provider partnerships; 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 program access, attendance, provider delivery and quality 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 Expanded Learning include?
Strong response indicators: Listens to affected students, families, staff and partners; maps authority and obligations, validates program access, attendance, provider delivery and quality, identifies urgent gaps and proposes a focused plan with owners and review dates.
Position Description
The Director of Expanded Learning leads assigned before-school, after-school, intersession, and summer expanded learning programs and provider partnerships. The district or employing agency should define the final portfolio, delegated authority, and relationships with other program owners.
The position connects student access, attendance, actual program delivery, quality, and spending to continuous improvement; distinguishes school attendance from expanded-learning participation.
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 education, youth development, public administration, or a related field; confirm the local degree requirement and permitted equivalents.
- Hold the California credential, permit, professional license, or other authorization required by the actual assignment. HR must verify whether administrative, pupil-services, clinical, or other authorization is needed; the management title alone does not authorize professional practice.
- 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 education, youth development, public administration, 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 expanded learning or youth-program administration, provider oversight, and multi-site 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 program access, attendance, provider delivery and quality 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 an expanded learning attendance dashboard, 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
Program Design and Access
- Lead engaging expanded learning plans with school staff, students, families, and providers; connect enrichment and academic support to student needs.
- Coordinate enrollment, outreach, transportation, accessibility, language access, and safe transitions between school and program settings.
- Establish service expectations and quality-improvement routines with providers while maintaining clear district accountability.
Participation and Quality Evidence
- Validate rosters, attendance dates and times, program calendars, waitlists, and provider records; distinguish enrollment from actual participation.
- Analyze access, attendance persistence, unmet demand, staffing, and delivery across sites and groups; investigate barriers and missing records.
- Evaluate program quality with observations, student experience, implementation, and appropriate outcome evidence; avoid unsupported claims from self-selected participants.
Funding and Safeguards
- Maintain current program plans, operating requirements, attendance evidence, spending records, and audit documentation for each assigned funding stream.
- Coordinate provider agreements, clearances, supervision, emergency procedures, accommodations, and incident response with responsible district owners.
- Review registration and attendance systems for interoperability, privacy, accessible family use, and human verification of AI-generated records or summaries.
Leadership and Improvement
- Supervise assigned personnel, provider performance, budgets, and professional learning; resolve service gaps using verified site evidence.
- Connect corrective actions to observed practices, recheck implementation, and review expansion against staffing and sustainable cost.
- Communicate participation, quality, costs and limitations and perform related duties within the classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Expanded learning design, youth development, enrichment, provider partnerships, and continuous quality improvement.
- Current funding-specific operating, attendance, audit, safety, staffing, accessibility, and records requirements.
- Waitlist and participation measures, program calendars, service verification, selection bias, and quality evaluation.
- Registration and attendance platforms, provider evidence systems, fiscal records, and responsible AI.
Ability to
- Translate priorities in assigned before-school, after-school, intersession, and summer expanded learning programs and provider partnerships into feasible plans, clear responsibilities and measurable follow-through.
- Validate program access, attendance, provider delivery and quality 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.