Part-Time Founding Teaching Position · Reports to the Principal · Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s preferred in Biology, Biological Sciences, or Science Education · Illinois Professional Educator License in high school science preferred and National Board Certification a major plus · 3+ years of secondary (grades 6–12) teaching experience preferred; high school (grades 9–12) teaching experience highly preferred · College-preparatory, independent, Jewish day or faith-based school experience is a plus. Being Jewish is not a requirement for this role. Fewer years but exceptional craft? We hire for mastery, not seat time. Are you a biology teacher who makes living systems fascinating and rigorous at the same time? Do your students work like practicing scientists, at lab benches and with real data? Are you excited to teach the founding science course of a new college-preparatory school? If so, Davis School Chicago wants to hear from you. The Dream Team Davis School Chicago is a proudly Jewish, college-preparatory high school opening in fall 2027 in downtown Chicago, in a state-of-the-art building at the heart of a great city for learning. Every adult at Davis Chicago is an educator and a culture-builder. We hold two expectations at the same time: deep human warmth and uncompromising intellectual excellence. High health and high results, never one at the cost of the other. This is a summary of the characteristics that describe our dream team. Please read the full Profile of the Ideal Davis Chicago Educator and more information about our opportunities before you apply. To thrive here you are: • Warm and intellectually formidable. Genuinely kind and seriously bright. We hire for intellectual horsepower; only sharp minds grow students to their full potential. • You bring the room to life. Passion people feel, loud or quiet, with the range to teach, support, and lead. • A builder who owns it. Startup grit, a real growth mindset, open about mistakes, gives the gift of feedback, and the drive to create what doesn’t exist yet. • Teach how to think, not what to think. Rigor, evidence, and a love of hard questions, including the controversial ones. Students reach their own conclusions. • Rooted in tradition, built for what’s next. Ancient wisdom and modern tools, AI included, aimed at today's problems. • Unapologetically Jewish. Israel has a right to exist; that is not up for debate. Everything else is fair game, including spirited debate about Israel’s actions. You’re excited to help build a proudly Jewish, pro-Israel school. What Davis Chicago Needs Davis Chicago is hiring a part-time Biology Teacher for the founding year. Biology and Biology Honors anchor the ninth-grade science experience and open the school’s clean science ladder: Biology, then Chemistry, then Physics, with Honors and Advanced Placement variants at each step. If you are interested in a full-time role and have the ability to teach mathematics in addition to science, Davis School Chicago is also hiring a founding STEM Department Chair. This role is a teacher-leader who builds our mathematics, science, and engineering program and teaches in it every day. Who Thrives in This Role • Warm, Relational, and High-Performing – Kind, emotionally intelligent, intellectually rigorous, and committed to excellence. • A Lab-First Scientist – Students work with equipment and questions as close as possible to those used by practicing scientists. • A Wonder-Builder – Makes living systems fascinating and rigorous at once. • An Entrepreneurial Builder – Thrives in ambiguity, solves problems, and creates programs, systems, and traditions from the ground up. • A Curious and Courageous Thinker – Embraces learning, evidence, critical thinking, and meaningful debate. • Rooted and Forward-Looking – Honors tradition while embracing innovation, technology, and AI. • Committed to Jewish Life and Community – Values Jewish identity, the diversity of Jewish thought, and meaningful engagement in Jewish life. • A Collaborative Culture-Builder – Balances accountability, care, and results while elevating everyone around them. The Role The Biology Teacher is responsible for delivering engaging, rigorous, and student-centered instruction in Biology and Biology Honors, the founding courses of the Davis Chicago science ladder. This educator will develop students’ laboratory habits, scientific reasoning, and love of the discipline, so that students work like practicing scientists from the first week. The successful candidate will design inquiry-based, laboratory-rich learning experiences built on real data and real questions. As a founding faculty member, the Biology Teacher will help shape curriculum, establish traditions, contribute to school culture, and collaborate closely with colleagues across disciplines to create a vibrant and integrated educational experience. 1. Instruction and Curriculum • Teach sections of Biology and Biology Honors as assigned. • Design and implement engaging, standards-based, laboratory-rich lessons that build scientific reasoning and quantitative literacy through real data collection and analysis. • Teach in the spirit of the accomplished-practice standards for science teaching (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards): students investigate, explore, and work with equipment and resources as similar as possible to those used by practicing scientists. • Maintain laboratory safety standards and protocols in every session. • Promote inquiry-based learning, laboratory research, field and data-driven investigation, and project-based experiences, including immersive and experiential approaches where they deepen mastery. • Build toward the Advanced Placement frameworks that anchor the science sequence — AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics — and teach so that students meet or exceed them. At Davis Chicago, top AP scores are the byproduct of rich, rigorous instruction, never of test-prep culture. • Differentiate instruction to sup