About Achievement First

Achievement First (AF) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization supporting 41 public charter schools across New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. For more than 25 years, AF has been recognized as one of the top tuition-free public charter school networks in the country. We are committed to creating schools of academic excellence within nurturing environments — schools that prepare students to be college-ready and to pursue and succeed in whatever paths they choose in life.

The majority of AF students are Black and Latinx children from low-income families, many of whom will be the first in their families to graduate from college. Across our network, we employ more than 2,200 staff members — 64% of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color — who collectively educate nearly 15,000 students in Brooklyn and Queens, NY; New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford, CT; and Providence and Cranston, RI.

Our mission is to prepare every student to excel in college, career, and life; deepen their understanding of self and community; and lead lives of purpose. We believe in the limitless potential within our students and their power to shape a more just society. That belief drives our deep commitment to student achievement: we aim to set a high bar for learning and create warm, demanding classrooms where rigorous instruction is paired with the care, encouragement, and consistency every student deserves.

We are looking for a strategic and dynamic Senior Associate, Community Outreach to join our Student Recruitment and Enrollment team.

Summary: 

Achievement First seeks a Senior Associate, Community Outreach to drive outreach and recruitment efforts for our Connecticut schools and help keep families engaged in the AF community long after they enroll. Acting as a key liaison between Achievement First schools and the local community, this person will build strong partnerships with neighborhood institutions and prospective families, and will support families through the full arc of their journey from first awareness of AF, through application and enrollment, to persistence and matriculation in later grades.

This is a goal-driven, metrics-accountable role: the Senior Associate is responsible for hitting specific enrollment targets each cycle and is expected to bring real rigor, urgency, and follow-through to that work. Success requires strong organization and follow-through (keeping a multi-month recruitment campaign on track against milestones and deadlines), sharp data analysis (using enrollment and pipeline data to know where to focus effort and what's working), and excellent communication and stakeholder engagement (building trust with families, community organizations, and school leaders, and bringing them along as true partners in AF's mission).

 

Responsibilities of the Senior Associate, Community Outreach will include, but are not limited to:  

Build Community Partnerships & Stakeholder Engagement

• Manage relationships with a portfolio of community organizations, daycares/early childhood centers, schools, and community leaders across the neighborhoods where we serve our students, through regular, structured touchpoints.
• Coordinate and represent Achievement First's Connecticut schools at external events, presentations, and school visits, and plan and execute AF's own recruitment events end to end.
• Conduct outreach to school leadership through one-on-one meetings and site visits, building genuine enrollment buy-in — not just transactional contact.
• Try out and refine outreach approaches, in partnership with the Director of Student Recruitment, based on where families are, what they need, and what has worked before.
• Cultivate long-term relationships with school counselors and local educators that translate into sustainable, repeatable enrollment pipelines year over year.
• Support schools with in-school recruitment events and with offer management to help each school reach its enrollment targets.

Data Analysis & Reporting

• Monitor and analyze recruitment and enrollment data — including lead generation, application conversion, event attendance, and re-enrollment/persistence rates — to track progress and flag what's working.
• Maintain and deliver regular, accurate reports on progress toward targets to the Director of Student Recruitment and school leaders.
• Organize recruitment and enrollment data so it can inform future campaigns and be handed off cleanly across the team.
• Help keep the recruitment and enrollment calendar on track: maintain timelines, monitor milestones and deliverables, and flag risks to hitting targets to the Director of Student Recruitment.

Support the Full Enrollment Cycle: Recruitment Through Matriculation

• Work toward specific K–12 recruitment and enrollment targets set by the Director of Student Recruitment and school leaders, and be accountable for results each cycle.
• Guide and support prospective families throughout the full recruitment process — from first inquiry, through application and offer, to registration.
• Support families beyond initial enrollment: monitor persistence, identify students or families at risk of disengaging, and carry out outreach that supports year-over-year re-enrollment and matriculation into later grades.
• Share persistence and attrition trends with the Director of Student Recruitment and school teams to help inform retention efforts.

 

Skills and Characteristics

• Excellent interpersonal and stakeholder-engagement skills; able to build trust with families, community partners, and school leaders alike.
• Excellent presentation and public-speaking skills.
• Strong data analysis skills — comfortable pulling, interpreting, and acting on recruitment and enrollment data, and translating it into clear recommendations.
• Strong organizational skills — able to juggle multiple relationships, deadlines, and events at once without dropping details.
• Detail-oriented, highly organized, and able to prioritize multiple tasks at once.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills; Spanish language skills preferred.
• Highly motivated, self-directed, and results-oriented; comfortable being held accountable to concrete targets and seeing projects through from beginning to end.
• Strong work ethic and a “roll-up-my-sleeves” attitude.
• Excellent computer skills, including Microsoft Office (especially Outlook, Word, and Excel), Google and Canva.
• Experience with CRM tools/platforms (Hubspot or the equivalent).
• Demonstrated commitment to education, low-income communities, and communities of color; prior knowledge of AF communities a plus.

Educational Background and Work Experience

• Minimum of a Bachelor's degree 
• Two to three years of work experience required, ideally including K–12 student recruitment and enrollment.
• Two years of organizing, community engagement, or campaign experience strongly preferred.
• Experience building, expanding, and maintaining strong partnerships within or outside of the education sector.
• Familiarity with the full student or customer lifecycle 

Work Location & Schedule 

This is a hybrid role based out of the Hartford Schools & Community as well as the Achievement First's New Haven, CT office. Up to two days per week may be worked remotely; the remaining days each week are spent on-site — in Hartford Schools, or out in the community building partnerships and relationships, or at the New Haven office — as the work requires. Candidates must live within a commutable distance of Hartford and New Haven, CT. Evening and weekend work is required during peak recruitment season.

Compensation

Achievement First sets salaries through a lens of equity, and based on the requisite skills, education, and experience relevant to the role. The salary for this position is $85,295 with no flexibility. In order to uphold our commitment to equity, Achievement First does not negotiate pay. Achievement First offers to all regular, full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid time off, medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, a 403(b) retirement benefit package with match, and paid Family Leave.