di: looking for 5 of the best DI thinkers/designers/writers in the world

[Sean Geraghty]

Hi everyone,

1. My name is Sean Geraghty, and I'm Chief Academic Officer at Bridge
International Academies.

Bridge opens and operates several hundred primary schools in low and middle
income countries. My team leads on instructional design (we use highly
prescriptive teacher guides) and teacher training.

Bridge is a complicated operation trying to solve a complicated problem -
what the World Bank has termed the "Learning Crisis
<http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2018>" - or the fact that 800
million kids worldwide are either (i) not in school or (ii) in school and
not learning much.

We've had some wins and losses along the way. Some of the controversy we've
attracted will feel familiar to DI proponents
<https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/10/is-it-okay-to-make-teachers-read-scripted-lessons/381265/>
.

2. Bridge children tend to learn more than their counterparts, by
non-trivial margins. But it's not enough; they're still far behind where
they should be.

This is a failure of our program, and we're committed to fixing it.

To that end - I've long thought that we've borrowed heavily from the
principles of Direct Instruction - only to realize, after digging in
extensively over the past 4 months (and by using the brilliant "How to
Teach your Child to Read" with my 4 year-old), that we fall far short.

As part of our next Instructional Design reboot, we're determined to
implement the principles of DI, as fully as possible.

3. How?

First, with people.

We are looking to hire several Director-level people on my Instructional
Design and Teacher Training team, and I'd love to hire from the DI pool.

These would be from the best thinkers/designers w/in the Direct Instruction
space, and have them come work (or consult for) Bridge, and bring their
talents to bear on populations that would benefit it from it most.

Specific roles would be -

a. Director, Instructional Design.

A superstar in design/thinking who can lead a team of 4 people in a reboot
of our current Instructional Materials. Ideally a decade of experience
writing materials with some clear, empirical WINS in underserved contexts.

Note that Bridge is massively constrained by instructional material
budgets; i.e. simply using "Corrective Mathematics" would not be possible -
too pricey. So we'd need to develop, from scratch, leaner materials in line
with Direct Instruction.


b. Associate Director, Instructional Design. (3 of them.)

Would work under Director on a specific program. Ideally has a niche -
maybe early grade Literacy, or high school math, or middle school writing.


c. Associate Director, Teacher Training.

Would work on designing induction and ongoing trainings for teachers on DI
principles. Our training is highly practical - practice-driven, focused on
specific instructional practices.


4. Other things of interest -

We are pretty flexible on location, and have offices all over the world.
You'd probably travel 4-8 weeks per year, though that's negotiable (in
either direction). Compensation is competitive for ed sector.

Do any names/contacts come to mind, about where I might start?

Thank you very much.

Best,
Sean

-- 

*Sean Geraghty*
Chief Academic Officer
+14018645809
Skype: sgbridge1
[image: Bridge International Academies]
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