Middle School Social Studies Teacher - 26-27 School Year

Middle School Social Studies Teacher

Launch EL Charter School  |  Brooklyn, NY

About Launch

Launch EL Charter School serves middle and high school students from across Brooklyn, reflecting the vibrant diversity of our city. Rooted in the values of Crew, Excellence, and Equity, our mission is to prepare students in under-resourced communities to thrive in college and careers — through active learning experiences and powerful character development that develop learners, leaders, and changemakers.

Our model is built on EL Education's proven approach, and Launch has earned credentials in Mastery of Knowledge and Skills and Character — with High Quality Work in progress this year. Launch students consistently outperform NYS peers in both growth and achievement.

Our vision is to offer a world-class public education to students and families in Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, and surrounding communities — one that opens doors to the most competitive universities and careers, and empowers students to lead fulfilling lives of choice and purpose. At Launch, we are committed to engaging, rigorous instruction and strong character. We support the growth of smart, good people.

Why Launch

At Launch, you will not be handed a script and left alone to figure it out. This is a school where the adults model the same habits of learning and reflection we ask of students. Our families are deeply engaged: 96% approve of what we are doing, and they will hold us to it. If you are looking for a place where the work is serious, the community is real, and your growth as a teacher is treated as non-negotiable, Launch is that place.

The Role

Launch EL Charter School is seeking a Middle School Social Studies Teacher who believes that history is not a collection of dates and names to memorize — it is a living argument about power, identity, and what it means to be human. At Launch, social studies is the heartbeat of our expedition-based model. The big questions students wrestle with in ELA, science, and advisory find their grounding in the historical and civic work of this classroom. Your students will not just learn what happened. They will learn whose perspective shaped the telling, whose was left out, and what that means for the world they are inheriting.

Launch social studies students have organized and led the school's annual gun violence walkout — researching the history, building the argument, and standing in front of their community to deliver it. Sixth graders have investigated their own identities and family histories through Roots and Reflections: Exploring Identity and Humanity, producing work that connects the personal to the historical in ways that stay with students long after the expedition ends. You will use the Savvas curriculum as a core instructional resource to design learning experiences like these — centering culturally relevant history, developing students as critical thinkers and researchers, and culminating in public-facing projects that reflect genuine historical inquiry. The ideal candidate brings strong content knowledge, a commitment to teaching history through multiple lenses, and a deep belief that the stories of Black and Brown communities belong at the center of the curriculum, not in a footnote.

Who You Are

You bring more than content knowledge to this work. You believe that understanding history is an act of power — and that every student, particularly Black and Brown students, deserves to see their communities' stories treated as serious, rigorous, and central to the human record. You are the kind of teacher who does not just accept feedback but acts on it before the next lesson. You lead with care and hold high expectations at the same time.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate our Launch Habits of Responsibility:

• Integrity and Stewardship: You always work to do what is best and right for our community and inspire confidence in others through consistent honesty and care.
• Kindness and Collaboration: You make others feel like they belong through empathy and genuine care.
• Imagination and Spirit: You hold an unwavering belief that we can accomplish our goals, even when the work is hard.
• Dedication and Practice: You use each opportunity to support our mission and reflect on your actions with a focus on continuous improvement.
• Equity Commitment: You actively examine your own practice through an equity lens, name and address barriers that prevent students from thriving, and believe that creating an equitable classroom is ongoing, intentional work, not a checkbox.

What You Will Do

Instruction and Planning

• Develop and deliver standards-aligned social studies lessons using the Savvas curriculum as a core instructional resource
• Design and lead project-based learning experiences where students investigate authentic historical and civic questions, produce research-backed work, and present their findings to real audiences — exhibitions, community forums, and beyond
• Teach history through multiple lenses, ensuring students regularly examine events and systems from the perspectives of those who were marginalized, erased, or misrepresented in dominant narratives, and can articulate why those perspectives matter
• Guide students through close reading of complex primary and secondary sources — including documents, images, maps, speeches, and data — using transferable questioning strategies to build content knowledge and historical thinking skills
• Provide explicit writing instruction across the forms social studies demands: argumentative essays, historical narratives, research papers, op-eds, and document-based responses that require students to construct and defend claims with evidence
• Facilitate structured Socratic seminars, evidence-based discussions, and EL Education protocols that develop students as thinkers who can hold and interrogate multiple perspectives at once
• Differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all learners, including students in ICT settings, students with IEPs, English Language Learners, and extension groups, using small group instruction, flexible grouping, and targeted intervention and enrichment
• Use formative and summative assessment data to drive small group work, adjust whole-class instruction, and adapt your teaching before it is too late to matter
• Prepare students for Social Studies assessments through targeted, data-informed preparation that builds disciplinary literacy and historical reasoning without narrowing the broader program

Classroom Community

• Establish consistent expectations and routines in a student-centered classroom that is organized, welcoming, and celebratory, using a restorative justice framework to build relationships, repair harm, and keep students connected to the community rather than removed from it
• Teach from a culturally responsive and sustaining framework that honors the identities and experiences of all students, so that the history they study in your classroom feels connected to who they are and where they come from
• Lead a Crew, EL Education's student advisory structure, serving as a consistent, trusted adult who guides a small group of students in their academic growth, character development, and sense of belonging

Collaboration and Growth

• Plan and analyze student work alongside colleagues in department and grade-level meetings, using data to ask hard questions and make better instructional decisions together
• Engage in quarterly coaching cycles built on an asset-based approach — you will be observed, given feedback, and supported to grow, with the expectation that your practice improves and students feel it
• Prepare students to lead their own Student-Led Conferences and Passages, putting student voice at the center of the learning community
• Build and sustain genuine relationships with students and families, communicating honestly and regularly about growth, challenges, and what students are capable of

Qualifications

• Unwavering commitment to equity, Launch's mission, and the EL Education model
• Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree preferred
• Valid New York State Teaching Certification in Social Studies preferred
• Strong content knowledge in history, civics, and social studies with a demonstrated ability to teach through culturally relevant frameworks
• Familiarity with primary source analysis, document-based questioning, and disciplinary literacy in social studies
• Teaching experience in an urban setting preferred; middle school social studies experience preferred
• Documented success moving student achievement, with clear evidence of growth over time
• Comfort differentiating instruction across a range of learners including students with IEPs, ELLs, and advanced learners

Benefits and Compensation

Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401(k) and/or Roth IRA with employer match; flexible spending accounts (Health Care FSA, Dependent Care FSA, Transit); short- and long-term disability; Employee Assistance Program with mental health, family, and wellness support; professional development funding and ongoing coaching; parental leave; summer benefits.

Compensation: $65,000 - $115,000 annually, commensurate with experience. Salaries at Launch are set through a lens of equity and based on an individual's skills, education, and years of relevant experience.

Equal Opportunity Employment

Launch is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any individual or group for reasons of race, color, creed, sex, age, culture, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or mental or physical disability. We actively recruit, hire, and retain a diverse and inclusive staff because we believe our team should reflect the communities we serve.

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