Chief Learning Officer | Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Job Title: Chief Learning Officer
Location: OH | Hybrid
Organization: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Description:
The Fordham Foundation has created the new role of Chief Learning Officer (CLO) to strengthen its capacity for sophisticated instructional leadership in support of the schools it authorizes and its approach to sponsorship while building on Fordham’s strong reputation as a high-quality authorizer. Fordham seeks a dynamic, systems-minded, and results-driven leader to help shape and define this role from the ground up.
The CLO is Fordham’s lead architect for instructional clarity, authorizer capacity, school-facing feedback, professional learning strategy, and renewal/application alignment. The role should help Fordham define what strong instruction, knowledge-rich curricula, and high-quality professional learning look like, train its own staff to see and evaluate those practices, give schools clear and actionable feedback, connect schools with outside exemplars, and ensure that the IEF (see below) becomes part of site visits, application review, renewal decisions, and accountability—not a separate instructional initiative.
Central to this work is Fordham’s Instructional Excellence Framework (IEF). The IEF sits within Fordham’s broader authorizing model, including HQIM, citizenship, academic excellence, governance, and financial sustainability. It defines rigorous, cognitively demanding instruction and aims to ensure that student growth translates into consistent, grade-level mastery.
The CLO will integrate the IEF into core authorizing functions, including site visits, application review, renewal decisions, and accountability systems, while working closely with school and network leaders to set clear expectations, provide evidence-based feedback, facilitate shared learning, and connect schools to external expertise.
Salary: $150,000+