About this role
Science Facilitator of Learning
Job Title: Facilitator of Learning, Science / Interdisciplinary STEM Reports To: Chief Academic Officer / Head of School Job Classification: Full-Time, Exempt Date Revised: June 30, 2026
Position Summary
YouthBuild Preparatory Academy is seeking a Science Facilitator of Learning who can help students understand science as a tool for inquiry, problem-solving, health, environmental awareness, innovation, and real-world change.
At YBPA, we are not looking for an educator who only teaches facts, vocabulary, or textbook chapters disconnected from students’ lives. We need a science educator who can help students ask questions, investigate problems, analyze evidence, make meaning from data, and understand the world around them. Science instruction at YBPA must be rigorous, hands-on, accessible, and connected to students’ communities and future goals.
The Science Facilitator of Learning serves as a teacher, advisor, project coach, assessor of mastery, and member of an interdisciplinary academic team. This role is grounded in YBPA’s commitment to competency-based learning, project-based learning, culturally responsive instruction, and liberatory education.
The ideal candidate understands that science should not feel distant from students’ lived experiences. Science should help students understand their bodies, their environment, their communities, the systems around them, and the power they have to solve problems.
About YouthBuild Preparatory Academy
YouthBuild Preparatory Academy is a competency-based, project-based, interdisciplinary learning community rooted in liberatory education. We serve students who deserve more than a traditional school model built around compliance and memorization.
Our work is grounded in four core commitments: Growth, Relationships, Agency, and Belonging. We believe students learn best when they are known well, challenged with purpose, and given meaningful opportunities to demonstrate mastery.
Key Responsibilities
• Design and facilitate competency-based science learning experiences aligned to YBPA’s curriculum, competencies, graduation expectations, and applicable Rhode Island academic standards.
• Teach scientific thinking, inquiry, observation, experimentation, modeling, evidence-based reasoning, data interpretation, and technical communication.
• Develop project-based learning experiences that connect science to real-world issues such as community health, environmental justice, sustainability, technology, food systems, energy, construction, design, and everyday decision-making.
• Design safe and meaningful labs, investigations, fieldwork, simulations, research tasks, and hands-on learning experiences.
• Assess student learning through demonstrations of mastery, including lab reports, science notebooks, performance tasks, projects, written explanations, presentations, portfolios, exhibitions, and student reflection.
• Provide clear feedback, coaching, and revision opportunities so students understand what they have mastered and what they need to strengthen.
• Use student work, data, and observation to adjust instruction and provide targeted academic support.
• Create a classroom culture rooted in respect, belonging, curiosity, safety, productive struggle, and high expectations.
• Support students with varied academic needs, including students with IEPs, ILPs, multilingual learners, and students needing additional intervention.
• Collaborate with colleagues to design interdisciplinary projects and support exhibitions of learning, portfolios, and other public demonstrations of mastery.
• Communicate regularly with students, families, colleagues, and school leadership regarding student progress, strengths, concerns, and next steps.
Required Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Current and active Rhode Island educator certification in Science required, or eligibility to pursue certification through an approved pathway where permitted by Rhode Island requirements and school needs.
• Current B.C.I. required.
• Experience working with high school students or young adults required.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to design and facilitate student-centered, inquiry-based, project-based, interdisciplinary, and competency-based learning experiences.
• Ability to maintain safe learning environments for labs, hands-on activities, equipment use, and field-based learning.
• Ability to build strong relationships with students while maintaining clear expectations and academic urgency.
• Commitment to the mission, values, and educational model of YouthBuild Preparatory Academy.
Preferred Qualifications
• Rhode Island Secondary Science certification, including General Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth and Space Science, Environmental Science, or a related science certification.
• Three or more years of relevant teaching, youth development, STEM education, science intervention, or science-related experience.
• Experience working in urban school communities or with students who have experienced barriers in traditional school settings.
• Experience with competency-based learning, project-based learning, inquiry-based science, portfolio assessment, exhibitions of learning, advisory models, restorative practices, or culturally responsive pedagogy.
• Experience supporting students with lab investigations, field research, environmental studies, health science, engineering design, data analysis, or community-based science projects.
• Dual certification in Multilingual Learner education, Special Education, Reading, or another high-need area.
• Bilingual or multilingual ability.
What Success Looks Like
• Students build confidence, curiosity, and skill in scientific thinking.
• Students demonstrate mastery through meaningful investigations, projects, presentations, research, and applied problem-solving.
• Science learning is rigorous, hands-on, relevant, and connected to the real world.
• Students receive clear feedback, support, and opportunities to revise and improve.
• The classroom reflects Growth, Relationships, Agency, and Belonging.
• Students begin to see science not as a distant subject, but as a tool they can use to understand, question, and change the world around them.
Equal Opportunity Employer Statement
YouthBuild Preparatory Academy is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and learning community. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable law.
Closing Statement
This role is for an educator who believes science should help students understand the world, not just memorize it. At YouthBuild Preparatory Academy, the Science Facilitator of Learning is not simply delivering content. They are helping students build curiosity, skill, confidence, purpose, and power.
If you are looking for a traditional teaching job where the curriculum does the thinking for you, this may not be the right fit. If you are ready to help build a school rooted in mastery, relationships, inquiry, student agency, and real-world learning, this is the work.