Summary

This job involves leading and supervising programs focused on social sciences education in Washington's public K-12 schools, working to ensure fair access and high-quality learning for all students.

You'll collaborate with school districts, develop resources, and support educators in closing achievement gaps.

It's a great fit for someone passionate about education equity with experience in curriculum development and team leadership.

Key Requirements

Bachelor's degree in education, social sciences, or a related field (advanced degree preferred)
At least 5-7 years of professional experience in K-12 education, particularly in social sciences or curriculum
Strong knowledge of educational equity, diversity, and inclusion principles
Supervisory or leadership experience in managing programs or teams
Excellent communication and collaboration skills for working with districts and stakeholders
Ability to work in Olympia, WA, with hybrid telework (initial in-office training required)
Commitment to OSPI's values like equity, continuous improvement, and focus on the whole child

Full Job Description

WASHINGTON MANAGEMENT SERVICE

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

Program Supervisor, Social Sciences
$84,914 – $99,900 annually

Closes March 25,2026

The Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) seeks to fill a Program Supervisor, Social Sciences. This full-time position is based in Olympia, Washington.

This position may be eligible for partial to near full-time telework. Telework is a combination of in-building and off-site days.

During your initial training period you will be required to be in the office 3 days a week.

After you’ve completed your initial training, you may have the option to work from home on a flexible telework schedule.

While we’re happy to offer this balance of in-office connection and telework flexibility, this isn’t a fully remote position.

We encourage interested candidates to visit the OSPI website to gain insight into our agency.

About OSPI and our initiatives

OSPI is the primary agency charged with overseeing public K–12 education in Washington state.

Working with the state's 295 public school districts and 7 state-tribal education compact schools, OSPI allocates funding and provides tools, resources, and technical assistance so every student in Washington is provided a high-quality public education.

At OSPI, we recognize that our employees are the key to the success of the agency. We are committed to our work but value the balance with our personal lives.

We demonstrate our commitment to employees by providing an environment that stimulates professional growth and values them for their expertise.

OSPI is a great place to work and has several initiatives to help create a great working environment, including:

We support a healthy work/life balance by offering flexible/alternative work schedules and mobile and telework options. (Depending on job duties and work location.)
We have an Infant at Work Program that is based on long-term values of newborns and infant-parent bonding. Eligible employees who are new parents or legal guardians can bring their infant (six weeks to six months) when returning to work. (Depending on job duties and work location.)

We value and are actively involved in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within OSPI by way of cross-divisional, collaborative committee.

The focus of the committee includes employee engagement and education; reinforcing OSPI values; and maximizing the value of diversity and identifying strategies for inclusion.

Vision, Mission, and Values Vision: All students prepared for post-secondary pathways, careers, and civic engagement.

Mission: Transform K-12 education to a system that is centered on closing opportunity gaps and is characterized by high expectations for all students and educators.

We achieve this by developing equity-based policies and supports that empower educators, families, and communities.

Values: Ensuring Equity, Collaboration and Service, Achieving Excellence through Continuous Improvement, Focus on the Whole Child

Equity

Each student, family, and community possesses strengths and cultural knowledge that benefits their peers, educators, and schools. Ensuring educational equity:

Goes beyond equality; it requires education leaders to examine the ways current policies and practices result in disparate outcomes for our students of color, students living in poverty, students receiving special education and English Learner services, students who identify as LGBTQ+, and highly mobile student populations.
Requires education leaders to develop an understanding of historical contexts; engage students, families, and community representatives as partners in decision-making; and actively dismantle systemic barriers, replacing them with policies and practices that ensure all students have access to the instruction and support they need to succeed in our schools.

Position Overview:

The primary responsibility of the Program Supervisor, Social Sciences is to provide leadership, guidance, technical assistance, professional and resource development for the state’s secondary education system for social sciences to encompass social studies and various other disciplines such as history, geography, political science, economics and sociology.

This position is responsible for managing the state-adopted learning standards for social studies, which are part of Washington’s graduation requirements.

This position will also engage with educators to support students in the use of critical thinking, data literacy, cultural awareness, and civic responsibility.

This position works closely with the Program Supervisor for Civic Engagement and serves as a liaison to community organizations in the social sciences arena.

This position will oversee the revision and implementation of the K–12 learning standards for social studies and supports the agency’s anti-racist objectives; participate and engage in changing systems and delivering proactive guidance focused on breaking down and removing barriers to those we serve.

Key Responsibilities

Provides statewide leadership and support for social studies and social sciences aligned to responsibilities outlined in RCW and to the agency’s strategic goals and initiatives in the following ways:

Program Leadership:

Proactively identify areas of improvement within systems and processes to support closing opportunity gaps, aligning with the agency’s strategic goals and meeting or exceeding compliance requirements to mitigate the agency’s exposure to risks.
Maintains the highest standard of personal, professional, and ethical conduct; and supports the goals for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Provides leadership and implementation support ofinitiatives to support K-12 access to learning for social sciences education.
Develop and lead statewide initiatives and professional development opportunities based on Local Educational Agency and school needs to support implementation of Social Studies standards and requirements, effective instructional practices in social sciences based on current research, instructional assessment including best practices for supporting students with disabilities, English language learners, migrant, highly capable students and students eligible for learning assistance.
Provide instructional materials guidance and professional learning that supports district adoption of bias-free, standards-aligned curriculum and materials, increasing the confidence and capacity of schools, educators, families and interest-holders to create culturally responsive learning experiences for students.
Facilitate and participate in cross-disciplinary integration work.
Recommend and inform state-level policies for legislative bills and procedures impacting social studies implementation. Provide bill analysis and testimony for legislative bills as needed.
Overall project planning and oversight for major bodies of work that identify key activities and projects, anticipated timelines, and evaluation (including proviso or legislative reports).
Maintain the highest standard of personal, professional, and ethical conduct; support the goals for diversity and inclusion.

Learning Standards:
Execute the statewide revision and implementation of revised learning standards for social studies, including partnerships with internal and external interest holders.
Provide leadership for building statewide capacity for implementation of the revised social studies learning standards.
Build and deliver professional learning and technical assistance in support of the social studies standards.
Support models of instructional practice aligned to the learning standards and offer resources and guidance that ensure graduates are prepared for postsecondary success.
Offer expertise in determining dual-credit and equivalency to social studies/sciences courses in the service of post-secondary success.
Manage, develop, and curate resources aligned to learning standards.

Collaboration and Partnerships:
Cultivate partnerships between both internal and external interest-holders to further the development of the K-12 education systems to enable continuous improvement and the fulfillment of state requirements.
Collaborate with the OSPI Professional Certification, the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB), and the State Board of Education (SBE) in support of state-level policies impacting social sciences.
Serve as agency liaison or representative with key content-specific national and state education associations and agencies, as well as specific departments within OSPI identified as key collaborations necessary to accomplish position expectations.
Facilitate or participate in advisory committees and workgroups for program planning and oversight per legislative or agency directive.
Cultivate partnerships between both internal and external stakeholders to further the development of the K-12 education systems to enable continuous improvement.
Organize, facilitate, and support educator groups and workgroups as necessary in support of agency initiatives.
Collaborate with internal partners across departments and divisions to develop and support cross-disciplinary integration work and resources.
Maintain frequent and ongoing collaboration with members of the elementary and secondary education teams and especially with the Program Supervisor for Civic Engagement to ensure consistent and clear communication and support.

Communication:
Maintain, revise, and develop content web pages, resources and regular statewide communications.
Provide timely responses to interest-holder emails and executive correspondence requests.
Complete legislative reports, proviso, bill analysis and annual work plan within established timelines.
Demonstrate and promote individual and group interpersonal skills including but not limited to listening for understanding, influencing, mediation, consensus building and collaboration.

Strategically and effectively communicate with media by providing responses and/or talking points to frequently asked questions about social studies/social sciences education, issues and state regulations such as high school graduation requirement under the direction of supervisor and in collaboration with agency departments (e.g.

governmental relations, communications).

Assessment, Data Analysis & Reporting:
Serve as a content advisory for social studies with the assessment development, support and system-wide policy issues, including content related matters with partners such as SBE and PESB.
Develop and support implementation of content-related guidance and policies for content assessment.
Use OSPI data to inform policy and programmatic continuous improvement.
Support assessments aligned to learning standards in alignment with legislative requirements.

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in social studies, Social Sciences, or education, educational administrator or related area.
A minimum three (3) years of K–12 experience in Social Studies/Social Sciences as a teacher and/or within the educational system in a position with related skills or tasks (a combination of education and related professional work may be considered year for year).
Demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion and commitment to provide public sector leadership around the agency’s anti-racist objectives.
Demonstrated good judgment and empathy in order to communicate and collaborate across cultures effectively.
Demonstrated ability to use critical thinking skills to address and resolve complex, unprecedented issues.
Experience writing and developing curriculum, instructional resources, or professional development modules related to Social Studies/Social Sciences and Civics Education, assessment, graduation requirements or relative educational topics.
Knowledge of:
- Current research, procedures and best practices in K–12 social studies content area education, including curriculum, program evaluation, assessment for classroom and large-scale applications.
- Sound management practices, professional staff development, program planning, individual and group decision making strategies.
- Relevant state government, laws, and legislative process.

Desired Qualifications:

Master’s degree or higher in area related to Social Studies/Social Sciences/education, educational administration or related area.
Experience teaching Social Studies/Social Sciences in a formal secondary education system.
Experience with relevant state government, laws, and legislative process.
Experience working in a diverse school setting.
Broad practical experience in leadership, personnel management, collaborative problem solving and conflict management.
Ability to provide long and short-term strategic planning and program development goals.
Experience with data analysis and reporting.
Strong oral and written communication skills, and ability to adapt tone and message to context, audience and need.

CompensationThe annual compensation for the position is $84,914 – $99,900 per year and depends upon experience, educational background and qualifications.

Geographic differentials may be applied based on work location of successful candidate.

Washington State offers a generous benefit package including health, dental and life insurance, retirement and an optional deferred compensation program.

Please visit Health Care Authority for information regarding health benefits and the Department of Retirement Systems for retirement plan information.

This position serves at the pleasure of the Superintendent and is Civil Service Exempt. This position is not represented by a bargaining unit.

Application Process

Those interested in this position must apply through Careers.wa.gov. Applications must include the following documents in MS Word or PDF format:

A letter of interest specifically addressing the qualifications listed in this announcement;
A current résumé, and;
A list of three or more professional references.

NOTE: Your resume and letter of interest must be attached to your application. Please confirm they are attached before you submit.

Please address any questions to:

Sal Salazar, Human Resources

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
600 Washington Street Southeast
Olympia, Washington 98504-7200

360-725-6278: sal.salazar@k12.wa.us

Persons needing accommodation in the application process or this announcement in an alternative format may contact the Human Resources Office at (360) 725-6270 or (360) 725-6066, or e-mail hroffice@k12.wa.us.

New Jobs Alert Service

OSPI offers a subscription service, which regularly notifies subscribers of new OSPI employment opportunities on careers.wa.gov. Subscribers are notified via text or email alert. If you are interested in this service, then please subscribe at this location.

OSPI is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from job seekers who will contribute to our diversity.

OSPI provides equal access to all programs and services without discrimination based on sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation including gender expression or identity, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability.

If you would like, please include your name and gender pronouns in your application, to ensure we address you appropriately throughout the application process.

Persons needing accommodation in the application process or this announcement in an alternative format may contact the human resource consultant listed in “Application Process.”

✓ Fresh Listing

Program Supervisor, Social Sciences

Job Description

Summary

Key Requirements

Full Job Description

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