Department of Defense

Professional Practice and Improvement Specialist

Fort Buchanan, Guaynab, Puerto Rico Full time

Professional Practice and Improvement Specialist

Department: Department of Defense

Location(s): Fort Buchanan, Guaynab, Puerto Rico

Salary Range: $124531 - $161889 Per Year

Job Summary: About the Position: This position is located in the Americas Office of the Director, Field Centers for Instructional Leadership, with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) with duty at Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico.

Major Duties:

  • Implement and sustain a collaborative coaching approach for district and school leaders to become more reflective practitioners and support their roles as instructional leaders.
  • Provide opportunities to optimize curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices through professional networks.
  • Promote standards-driven instruction, innovative practices and professional growth within professional learning communities.
  • Conduct root cause analysis and identify discrepancies between goals and current status and develop solutions in order to stimulate achievement.
  • Identify training and education gaps, and provide guidance and direction for the development of intervention strategies and professional learning opportunities.
  • Conduct program evaluations using formative and summative assessment tools to ensure quality and degree of implementation, inform continuous improvement efforts, and analyze professional learning needs.
  • Conduct face-to-face, blended, virtual professional development to build capacity of district staff, principals, and teacher leaders.
  • Engage and support district and school leaders in collaborative learning communities to foster continuous learning, productive interaction, and support transfer of the learning to practice.

Qualifications: Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job. You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected. See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities Current Competitive Service Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Civilian Employee Current Excepted Service Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Employee Current Excepted Service Department of Defense Employee Current Excepted Service Employee Current Permanent Department of Defense (DoD) Civilian Employee Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality (NAFI) Non-Department of Defense (DoD) Transfer Postal Service/Peace Corps and Other Unique Authorities Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Reserve (MR) and National Guard (NG) Technician Eligible Priority Placement Program, DoD MR and NG Preference Eligible Tech Receiving Disability Retirement Priority Placement Program, DoD Retained Grade Preference Eligible In order to qualify, you must meet the education and experience requirements described below. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Basic Requirements for Professional Practice and Improvement Specialist: Education: A master's degree in the field of education is required. The course work must have been completed at or accepted by a regionally accredited U.S. college or university. ***(NOTE: Copies of ALL transcripts must be uploaded, including at a minimum, Bachelors and Masters. EDS and/or doctorate transcripts may need to be submitted as well depending on if these are needed to prove you meet the education requirement. See other supporting documents section for more information.) And General Experience: At least 5 years of general experience teaching, educational research, development of curriculum and instructional materials, education assessment and evaluation, professional development, special education, educational administration, or comparable experience which clearly demonstrated success in applying the principles, methods, and techniques of education, and provided familiarity with current developments in teaching, learning, instructional leadership, and professional development. The general experience must have been gained while employed in a K-12 setting or K-12 administrative/headquarters office. And Specialized Experience: At least 2 years of specialized experience above school level (district, central office, region, state, etc.) providing coaching and developing/designing professional learning (e.g. Instructional Specialist/Designer) for K-12 district or school leaders/administrators; OR demonstrated school or above school level leader/administrator experience supervising K-12 educators in professional growth and administering and supporting K-12 instructional programs. *One year of experience is defined as 365 days or 52 weeks of full time experience, whichever comes first. You will be evaluated on the basis of your level of competency in the following areas: Accountability Creativity and Innovation Education Consultation, Coaching and Collaboration Instructional Delivery and Learner Development Learning and Program Evaluation Oral Communication

How to Apply: To apply for this position, you must complete the online questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on 12/17/2025 to receive consideration. To begin, click Apply to access the online application. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account to apply. If you do not have a USAJOBS account, you will need to create one before beginning the application (https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12839417). Follow the prompts to select your resume and/or other supporting documents to be included with your application package. As a reminder, your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration. For additional information, refer to the 'Required Documents' section. You will have the opportunity to upload additional documents to include in your application before it is submitted. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process. After acknowledging you have reviewed your application package, complete the Include Personal Information section as you deem appropriate and click to continue with the application process. You will be taken to the online application which you must complete in order to apply for the position. Complete the online application, verify the required documentation is included with your application package, and submit the application. Your resume selected in USAJOBS will be included, but you must re-select other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application may be incomplete. It is your responsibility to verify that your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) is complete, accurate, and submitted by the closing date. Uploaded documents may take up to one hour to clear the virus scan. Additional information on how to complete the online application process and submit your online application may be found on the USA Staffing Applicant Resource Center. To verify the status of your application, log into your USAJOBS account (https://www.usajobs.gov/applicant/profile/dashboard/), all of your applications will appear on the Welcome screen. The Application Status will appear along with the date your application was last updated. For information on what each Application Status means, visit: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to/application/status

Application Deadline: 2025-12-17