Design and Dissemination Intern

The Primary School is creating a new school model that brings together all of the adults in a child's life, including parents, educators, and medical and mental health providers, starting from a very early age. We recognize the entrenched racism that exists within our public systems and the unjust impact this has had on families of color. Our aim is that children and families most impacted by systemic poverty and racism receive the multidisciplinary support they deserve to be well, learn, and thrive. 

Long-term, we hope to create a game-changing model that can be replicated across the country. As we continue to learn and grow, we plan to share what we've learned and pursue policy and systems change on a local, state, and national level. We are supported by a growing coalition of philanthropic partners, building on the generous support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Our approach has three defining characteristics:

• We start early. We start working with children as young as 12 months and provide full-time school starting at age three to reach them at a critical stage in development. 
• We partner with parents. We believe that when parents thrive, children thrive, so we support the wellness and growth of parents alongside the growth of their children.
• We integrate services. Our unique model unites health care and education, building a multi-disciplinary team and holistic system of care around a child's full needs.

In 2016, we opened our flagship school in East Palo Alto, California, with our first class of four year olds. We have grown to serve over 400 children and their families through a birth to three program, parent wellness program, full-day preschool, and elementary/middle school, which will grow through eighth grade. In 2021, we opened our second site in the East Bay.

We are continuing to grow our East Palo Alto site and are excited to launch 7th grade for our 2024-2025 school year. In our school program, we currently serve over 400 students across two preschool grades (3 and 4 year olds) and kindergarten through sixth grade. Integrated into our program are the other core components of our model including our parent program - partnering closely with parents throughout their child's development and providing wellness programming for caregivers; our birth to 3 program - coordinating early developmental screenings and intervention services; and our medical home partnerships - working with existing health care providers in the community to coordinate care for children.

We opened our second site with a founding class of four-year-old children and families who started preschool in August 2021, and continue to serve preschool students in our year round, full day school program. We also added a birth to three program in 2023. Drawing on key learnings from our first site, core components of the model include our parent program - partnering closely with parents throughout their child's development and providing wellness programming for caregivers; our birth to 3 program - coordinating early developmental screenings and intervention services; and our medical home partnerships - working with existing health care providers in the community, including Kaiser Permanente in the East Bay, to coordinate care for children. 

The Design and Dissemination Intern will work closely with our Research, Design, Dissemination and Policy team, completing work that also supports our Birth to Three Program, Parent Program, and Medical Home Partnership model.  As the Design and Dissemination Intern , you will focus on helping our team execute on pilot programs, and capture learning and codify practices as we look to influence other service agencies, health care systems, early childhood systems, and education systems with our model.  You may also participate in learning and design work with our Kaiser Permanente, East Bay Medical Home Partnership around early intervention, addressing health barriers to learning, and whole child health. You will  gain experience in program codification and project management. This is a great opportunity for a student seeking to learn more about program design, execution, codification, and model sharing work in early education, whole child settings and what it looks like to partner with different stakeholders to accomplish our goals.

This role reports to the Senior Manager of Design and Dissemination and will be a part of the Research, Design, Dissemination and Policy team. This position is available into the summer of 2024 with a flexible end date.

• Support with documenting learning from partnership projects, including the Parent Program in San Francisco. 

• Participate in partnership or design meetings with various stakeholders in our medical home partnerships

• Collaborate with our program teams to codify our parent program, medical home partnership model, and Bridge to Preschool program

Support with special projects (documentation, identifying best practice, creating systems/processes, creating presentations, operations support for codification and piloting of programs).

• You believe in the mission of The Primary School and that all children and families are capable of extraordinary things.
• You are excited to learn more about innovative education models and are interested in early education.
• You have great oral and written communication skills.
• You embrace diversity,  engage confidently across differences, and are unafraid of ambiguous environments.
• You work independently, and are organized and detail-oriented.
• You are kind, humble, and collaborative.
• You are excited to build a new model to deliver excellent outcomes for children and are passionate about constantly improving our work to get closer to this vision.
• You are currently enrolled in a 2-/4-year college or university in the United States or are in a Masters program.
• You are able to complete a 4 to 6 month program beginning in February or March 2024.

• You are based in, or lived in the San Francisco Peninsula or Oakland - East Bay Area and understand the context of the communities we serve.
• You are a bilingual Spanish, Cantonese, Tongan, or Samoan speaker in addition to English.

Hourly salary range begins at $17/hr up to $20/hr; compensation is commensurate with qualifications and experience. Please note that in order to be considered for this position, you must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. We are unable to offer sponsorship. 

To ensure fair and equitable compensation for all of our employees, The Primary School has a no-negotiation policy on all offers extended. Final offers are determined using role descriptions, job market data, internal parity, and semi-annual benchmarking. Our goal is  that this policy, paired with ongoing transparency in our compensation process, will make TPS a more fair, inclusive, and diverse workplace. 

TPS values diversity (please see our commitment to DEI); people of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Please complete the online application and submit your most recent resume. These short-answer questions are designed to replace a cover letter, so take your time with them and copy in your answers from a separate document. If you feel that the questions do not accurately capture what you have to offer The Primary School, you are also welcome to attach a cover letter. Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis so we encourage you to submit yours soon. We look forward to reading your application!

The Primary School provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.The Primary School complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the organization has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.