About this role
Job Title: Executive Instructional Officer Reports to: Superintendent of Schools Dept./School: Central Administration Office Wage/Hour Status: Exempt Pay Grade: Instructional 9/240 Days Date Revised: 07/24/2026 Primary Purpose: The Chief Academic Officer of WFISD serves as the district's senior instructional leader and is responsible for ensuring that every campus operates with effective instructional systems, strong leadership practices, a positive culture, and consistent compliance with district, state, and federal requirements. The Chief Academic Officer develops principals' instructional leadership capacity through direct training, modeling, feedback, coaching, and accountability. A primary responsibility of the position is to ensure that principals can accurately assess the quality of classroom instruction, provide teachers with clear and actionable feedback, establish effective campus systems, and build a culture of high expectations, professional growth, and collective responsibility for student success. Works closely with the Executive Director of Elementary and Secondary Schools and other members of the Leadership Team to ensure that efforts are aligned and strategic. Qualifications: Education/Certification: Master's degree in educational leadership, curriculum and instruction, education administration, or a related field from an accredited institution required. Valid Texas Principal or Mid-Management Administrator Certification preferred or enrollment in a principal certification program. Valid Texas Superintendent Certification preferred. Valid Texas teaching certificate required. Experience: Successful experience as a campus principal required. Demonstrated success improving classroom instruction, campus culture, student achievement, and accountability outcomes. Experience coaching, supervising, developing, or evaluating campus principals. Experience designing and implementing districtwide instructional systems. Experience leading quality-assurance, compliance-monitoring, or campus-review processes preferred. Special Knowledge/Skills: Extensive knowledge of effective classroom instruction, instructional coaching, observation, feedback, and adult learning. Ability to train principals to conduct high-quality classroom walkthroughs and formal observations. Ability to distinguish between compliant implementation and effective implementation. Ability to provide principals with direct, specific, actionable, and evidence-based feedback. Knowledge of effective campus systems, including professional learning communities, intervention systems, data meetings, lesson internalization, student monitoring, and leadership-team structures. Ability to design and implement quality-assurance processes, rubrics, monitoring tools, and corrective-action plans in collaboration with Executive Directors of Instruction. Ability to analyze academic, operational, perception, and compliance data to identify root causes and leadership needs. Ability to establish clear expectations, monitor execution, and hold leaders accountable for measurable results. Excellent communication, presentation, facilitation, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. Ability to balance support and accountability while maintaining strong professional relationships Major Responsibilities and Duties: Principal Training and Leadership Development
• Provide leadership in coordination with the Executive Directors of Elementary and Secondary Schools to develop and lead a comprehensive districtwide principal-development system focused on instructional leadership, campus systems, organizational culture, compliance, and student achievement.
• Provide direct, ongoing training for principals and assistant principals on how to observe classroom instruction, identify instructional strengths and gaps, and provide teachers with meaningful feedback.
• Train principals to distinguish between feedback that is general or procedural and feedback that is specific, actionable, evidence-based, and likely to improve teacher practice.
• Model effective classroom walkthroughs, observation conferences, coaching conversations, data meetings, professional learning communities, and leadership-team meetings.
• Conduct side-by-side classroom walkthroughs with principals to calibrate expectations for instructional quality.
• Review the quality of feedback principals provide to teachers and coach principals on how to improve the clarity, rigor, timeliness, and impact of that feedback.
• Develop principals' ability to identify the highest-leverage instructional action needed to improve teacher practice and student learning.
• Provide training on difficult conversations, performance management, staff accountability, conflict resolution, and change leadership.
• Collaborate with Executive Directors of Elementary and Secondary Schools when a differentiated development is needed based upon established differentiated development plans for principals based on experience, campus needs, performance data, and demonstrated leadership competencies.
• Create opportunities for principals to practice leadership skills, receive feedback, reflect on performance, and apply learning within their campuses.
• In coordination with the Executive Directors of Elementary and Secondary Schools, develop leadership pipelines and succession plans for aspiring principals, assistant principals, and other instructional leaders
• Contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of principal training based on changes in leadership behavior, instructional quality, staff culture, and student outcomes.
Instructional Feedback and Coaching
• Establish districtwide expectations for classroom walkthroughs, formal observations, instructional feedback, and follow-up coaching.
• Ensure principals maintain a consistent presence in classrooms and use instructional evidence to guide campus decisions.
• Train principals to collect objective evidence during classroom observations rather than relying on general impressions.
• Ensure instructional feedback is aligned with district curriculum, high-quality instructional materials, instructional expectations, and student-learning objectives.
• Coach principals in conducting effective post-observation conferences that promote reflection, ownership, urgency, and professional growth.
• Monitor whether principals follow up after providing feedback to determine whether teacher practice has improved.
• Review campus walkthrough data, teacher feedback records, observation trends, and instructional action plans to contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of principal instructional leadership.
• Provide direct coaching to principals whose walkthroughs, feedback, or follow-up practices do not meet district expectations.
• Help principals develop coaching systems that clearly define the roles of assistant principals, instructional coaches, department chairs, and teacher leaders.
• Ensure campus leadership teams provide consistent instructional messages and avoid conflicting expectations for teachers.
• In collaboration with the Executive Directors of Elementary and Secondary Schools, build principals' capacity to use student work, assessment results, classroom evidence, and teacher practice data together when determining instructional next steps.
Ongoing Principal Coaching and Accountability
• Establish a consistent coaching cycle for every principal that includes goal setting, observation, evidence review, feedback, action planning, implementation, and follow-up.
• Meet regularly with principals to review academic progress, instructional quality, campus systems, and leadership priorities.
• Provide differentiated coaching based on each principal's strengths, areas for growth, campus context, and performance outcomes.
• Maintain written coaching records that identify evidence reviewed, feedback provided, agreed-upon actions, timelines, and measures of success.
• Conduct follow-up visits to determine whether principals have implemented agreed-upon actions and whether those actions are improving campus effectiveness.
• Provide principals with timely, candid, and constructive feedback regarding their leadership performance.
• Help principals identify root causes rather than responding only to symptoms or immediate problems.
• Coach principals to develop solutions, establish ownership, and build the internal capacity of their campus leadership teams.
• Recognize and reinforce effective principal leadership practices and share successful systems across the district.
• Increase the intensity and frequency of coaching for principals or campuses that are not meeting expectations.
• Work with the principal supervisors to develop formal principal-support or improvement plans when coaching alone has not resulted in sufficient progress.
• Work with the principal supervisors to hold principals accountable for completing required actions, improving leadership practices, maintaining compliance, and achieving measurable campus outcomes.
• Provide the Superintendent with periodic evidence-based analysis of how each school-based leadership is progressing regarding principal development, evaluation, assignment, recognition, support, or intervention.
Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
• Ensure principals understand the instructional materials deeply enough to monitor implementation and provide accurate feedback.
• Support the implementation of districtwide expectations for lesson internalization, instructional planning, student engagement, differentiation, intervention, and acceleration.
• Monitor the quality and consistency of curriculum implementation through campus visits, classroom observations, student work, assessment data, and teacher feedback.
• Ensure professional learning communities focus on standards, lesson preparation, student work, assessment results, instructional response, and student mastery.
Organizational Leadership and Collaboration
• Serve as a member of the Superintendent's executive leadership team and contribute to districtwide planning and decision-making.
• Collaborate with Human Resources, Student Services, Special Programs, Operations, Finance, Technology, Communications, and other departments to ensure coordinated campus support.
• Ensure district departments understand their role in supporting principals and communicate the district's academic vision, leadership expectations, quality standards, progress, challenges, and results.
• Present academic, leadership, quality-assurance, and school-improvement reports to the Superintendent and Board of Trustees.
• Build productive relationships with principals, teachers, trustees, parents, students, community partners, higher education institutions, and external agencies.
• Represent the district at professional meetings, state conferences, community events, and official functions as assigned.
Key Performance Indicators Performance will be evaluated based on measurable progress in the following areas:
• Quality and frequency of principal instructional feedback
• Principal effectiveness in conducting classroom observations and coaching teachers
• Consistency and effectiveness of campus instructional systems
• Implementation of professional learning communities, intervention systems, lesson internalization, and progress monitoring
Working Conditions: Mental Demands/Physical Demands/Environmental Factors: Frequent districtwide and occasional statewide travel; occasional prolonged and irregular hours. Travel may be required to attend district and/or state meetings and conferences and school related events.