2026-27 Elementary School Counselor

Position Overview

KIPP Nashville seeks a highly dedicated school counselor who will bring a “whatever it takes” attitude to its team. The School Counselor will work directly with students and families to provide effective, high quality interventions that are data-driven. The Counselor will work directly with teachers to cultivate their knowledge of students’ social and emotional development. To ensure that we are meeting the social and emotional needs of all students and families we educate, our School Counselor will be a key driver of our schools’ student culture vision of creating safe, inclusive, and character building culture for every child. The School Counselor provides the following core services: prevention, intervention, assessment, and collaboration.

Responsibilities of a KIPP Nashville School Counselor include, but are not limited to:

Prevention Build relationships and collaborate with external education and social services professionals to develop appropriate agency services for students and families

Participate in weekly intervention meetings to thought partner with teachers around social and emotional supports

Facilitate workshops and other learning opportunities for families

Conduct home visits that support families to meet KIPP Nashville College Prep Elementary expectations and increases student/family involvement

Participate on school staff teams to develop policies and practices to proactively build school culture including opportunities for team-building and collaboration among students

Help drive a school-wide atmosphere that suits the needs to our students, teachers, and families

Facilitate professional development for teachers to help them understand child development and how it affects student performance academically and social/emotionally

Intervention Drive social and emotional intervention plans for our most high need students

Run individual and group counseling sessions with research-based social and emotional practices

Assist students, teachers, and families to develop solutions to family and community factors that influence students’ capacity or ability to learn

Assessment Complete high-quality progress notes for all students receiving counseling services weekly

Conduct interviews with a student, family members, and KIPP staff members to gather information about each student’s social, emotional and behavioral needs; help all constituents integrate information to best meet the student’s needs

Conduct observations to gather data in order to determine best options for interventions

Collaboration Create professional learning goals each year and implement feedback towards these goals

Offer support to and receive constructive feedback from colleagues in order to create a professional working atmosphere that is conducive to growth and improvement

Family Engagement Establish and maintain strong communication lines with all parents and share progress

Be available for open houses, parent teacher conferences and other events involving parents

Make oneself available to students, parents and other staff members

Growth Mindset Pursue challenging professional goals each year

Willing to offer support and receive constructive feedback from colleagues in order to create a professional working atmosphere that is conducive to change and improvement

Participate in school-wide and individual professional development, including pre-service training over the summer and weekly during the academic year (held during school hours)

Requirements and Desired Experience

Valid Tennessee professional school counselor license or license eligible (required)

Bachelor’s degree (required), Master’s degree (preferred)

Pass Criminal Background Check (required)

At least two years of counseling experience (preferred)

Experience and demonstrated success teaching students from educationally under-resourced communities (highly preferred)

Desired Characteristics

Unwavering commitment to KIPP Nashville’s mission, students, families, and community

Demonstrates excitement in growing students into their highest selves and believes that providing students with an excellent education is our largest lever as educators to wholly improve student outcomes

Passionate about data-driven instruction

Superb personal organization skills to keep on top of deadlines and measures of accountability

Team player: demonstrates maturity, growth mindset, strong work ethic, follow-through and flexibility

Compensation and Benefits

Starting salary for first year teachers begins at $56,171; those with a conferred advanced degree begins at $61,909. Salary is commensurate with experience. Staff members receive up to a 2% yearly raise. To establish consistent salary practices, the compensation package is derived from the regional KIPP Nashville Public Schools pay scale. This position is exempt and will follow a 10-month work schedule.

Robust benefits package including medical, dental, vision, disability, supplemental insurance, and life insurance …