K-8 Curriculum Development Director/Managing Editor

# K–8 CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR / MANAGING EDITOR ### Major Human Skills + Academic Curriculum Publishing Initiative **Project Type:** Long-Term Curriculum Development / Educational Publishing **Initial Focus:** Grade 3 ELA and Mathematics, expanding K–8 **Potential Engagement:** Multi-phase / long-term **Experience Level:** Expert **Industry:** K–12 Education / Curriculum Development / Educational Publishing ## About the Project We are developing an original K–8 academic curriculum ecosystem that integrates rigorous standards-based instruction with the intentional development of transferable Human Skills. The initiative is being developed in connection with the Edison Human Skills Research Institute and an established educational framework called the 9 Pathways of Success™. This is not a request for someone to simply write worksheets. We are building a complete, scalable curriculum publishing system designed to eventually include: • K–8 Language Arts • K–8 Mathematics • Student consumable workbooks • Teacher resources • Assessments • Human Skills integration • Research and measurement components • Digital curriculum components • Professional development resources The initial flagship development work is focused on **Grade 3 Language Arts and Grade 3 Mathematics**. These two products will establish the master production model that future curriculum teams will use to develop the remaining grade levels. We are seeking an exceptional **Curriculum Development Director / Managing Editor** who can help turn an established vision and curriculum architecture into a disciplined, high-quality publishing operation. ## This Is a Leadership Position The founder and project lead will remain responsible for the vision, intellectual framework, Human Skills methodology, and major creative decisions. Your responsibility will be to help translate that vision into an executable curriculum-development system and keep a team of writers, editors, and specialists moving toward clearly defined production milestones. You should be comfortable working with a highly involved founder who develops the conceptual architecture while you help manage the curriculum-development and production process. ## Primary Responsibilities The Curriculum Development Director will help: • Manage the development of Grade 3 ELA and Mathematics flagship products • Translate approved curriculum maps into writer-ready production assignments • Develop and maintain production calendars, deadlines, milestones, and quality-control procedures • Manage curriculum writers and content specialists • Review lessons for alignment with approved curriculum architecture • Ensure accurate CCSS alignment • Maintain vertical and horizontal standards alignment • Monitor consistency across lessons, units, and future grade levels • Review instructional rigor and developmental appropriateness • Ensure consistency in lesson structure and instructional language • Coordinate revisions between writers, editors, curriculum specialists, and project leadership • Maintain master curriculum documentation • Track page counts and production targets • Develop writer guidelines and editorial standards • Prevent unnecessary duplication or gaps in standards coverage • Help create repeatable production processes that can scale from Grade 3 to K–8 • Participate in weekly curriculum-development meetings • Identify production problems before they become expensive publishing problems ## Curriculum Philosophy Our approach begins with rigorous academic standards. The academic standards determine what students must learn. We then examine the cognitive demands naturally embedded within the academic skill and identify transferable Human Skills that students are exercising while completing the academic work. Our emerging instructional logic can be summarized as: **Academic Skill → Cognitive Demand → Human Skill → Observable Learning Behavior → Transfer** Examples of Human Skills may include: • Critical thinking • Evidence-based reasoning • Cognitive flexibility • Executive functioning • Perspective-taking • Empathy • Attention control • Persistence • Communication • Collaboration • Metacognition • Emotional regulation • Self-awareness • Organization • Decision-making The Human Skills component must never feel artificially attached to an academic lesson. The connection must emerge naturally from the cognitive and behavioral demands of the academic task. Additional proprietary details regarding this methodology will be provided to selected candidates after confidentiality requirements have been completed. ## Who We Are Looking For The ideal candidate has substantial experience in one or more of the following: • K–8 curriculum development • Educational publishing • ELA curriculum development • Mathematics curriculum development • Standards alignment • Curriculum editing • Instructional design • Assessment development • Managing curriculum writers • Elementary education Strong preference will be given to candidates who have worked for or contracted with: • Major educational publishers • Curriculum companies • Assessment companies • State or district curriculum departments • Large educational nonprofits • Research-based curriculum organizations Experience developing commercially published student workbooks or comprehensive curriculum products is especially valuable. ## Required Qualifications Please apply only if you have significant professional curriculum-development experience. Candidates should demonstrate: • Deep understanding of K–8 curriculum development • Strong knowledge of Common Core State Standards • Understanding of scope and sequence development • Experience reviewing standards-aligned instructional materials • Excellent editorial judgment • Strong project-management ability • Ability to manage multiple writers simultaneously • Ability to distinguish between strong instructional design and generic worksheet creation • Exceptional attention to detail • Ability to receive and implement a clearly established creative vision • Ability to maintain consistency across hundreds of pages of curriculum ## Highly Preferred We are especially interested in candidates with: • 7+ years of curriculum or educational publishing experience • Master's degree or doctorate in education, curriculum and instruction, literacy, mathematics education, educational psychology, or related field • Former curriculum director, managing editor, senior curriculum specialist, or content director experience • Experience developing elementary ELA and/or mathematics products • Knowledge of gradual release of responsibility and explicit instruction • Experience with assessment design • Experience supervising freelance curriculum-development teams • Familiarity with educational research • Experience building curriculum across multiple grade levels ## Intellectual Property & Confidentiality This project involves proprietary curriculum architecture, unpublished educational materials, research concepts, trademarks, instructional frameworks, and other confidential intellectual property. Finalists may be required to execute a confidentiality/NDA agreement before receiving access to detailed proprietary materials. Individuals hired for the project will also be required to comply with applicable confidentiality and intellectual-property provisions governing work created for the project. All submitted work must be original. Plagiarism, unauthorized copying, or reproduction of third-party curriculum materials will not be accepted. ## Initial Assignment The first major assignment will involve helping finalize and manage production of our flagship Grade 3 curriculum architecture. Once the Grade 3 model is successfully established, the production system will be used to expand the curriculum vertically across additional grade levels. This means we are looking for someone who can think beyond one workbook. We are building the **production system behind an entire curriculum family.** ## How to Apply Please include the following: 1. A brief description of your K–8 curriculum-development experience. 2. Your specific experience with ELA and/or mathematics. 3. Any experience working with major educational publishers or curriculum companies. 4. Examples of curriculum products you have helped develop. Please do not provide confidential materials belonging to previous employers or clients. 5. Describe a curriculum project where you managed multiple writers or contributors. 6. Explain how you would maintain consistency across a 300+ page student workbook developed by multiple writers. 7. Describe your experience with CCSS alignment and standards mapping. 8. Tell us how you distinguish a strong curriculum lesson from a collection of activities or worksheets. 9. Describe your experience managing deadlines and curriculum-production schedules. 10. Provide your hourly rate or preferred project-based structure. ### REQUIRED APPLICATION QUESTION Please begin your proposal with the words: **“ACADEMICS + HUMAN SKILLS”** Then answer this question in no more than 200 words: **When an academic task requires a student to reconsider an initial answer after examining new evidence, what transferable human capacity do you believe the student is practicing, and why?** We are using this question to identify candidates who understand the deeper thinking behind this project. Generic or AI-generated applications that do not directly address the requirements above will not be prioritized. ## Long-Term Opportunity The right person could become a central member of the curriculum-development leadership team as the project expands from the Grade 3 flagship into a larger K–8 curriculum ecosystem. We are looking for someone who wants to help build something substantial—not simply complete an assignment.