Research and Policy Senior Research Associate
Job Description
ExpandED Schools is dedicated to closing the learning gap by increasing access to enriched education experiences. We give children more hours in the school day, bring more role models into the classroom, and infuse their learning with enrichments in literacy, STEM, arts, and sports and opportunities to build character and leadership skills. In our first decade, we created the nation’s first citywide system of K-12 after-school programs and leveraged more than $500 million in private and public funds. Today, we continue to reimagine learning time – in school, after school and during the summer – developing scalable and sustainable models that provide more quality learning. Since our founding in 1998, we have reached more than one million students and trained more than 30,000 educators and teachers. We:
- EXPAND the school day: Adding 2.5 hours each day; closing the learning gap by 450 hours/school year.
- ENGAGE the community: Bringing additional role models – tutors, coaches, college students and teaching artists – into the classroom.
- ENHANCE the learning: Balancing the curriculum with the arts, sports, STEM and character-building enrichments.
Opportunity
ExpandED is looking for a Senior Research Associate, who will be responsible for managing a portfolio of research and evaluation projects to drive policy and practice that improves the quality of learning experiences for children in New York City. Reporting to the Director of Research, the Senior Research Associate plays a key role in managing and implementing both internal and external evaluation projects, leading the development and implementation of field research activities and translating evaluation findings into useful practitioner-focused information and recommendations. The Senior Research Associate works collaboratively with the research team and practitioners to advance educational equity.
Duties & Responsibilities
- Develop and implement multi-method research designs and identify analyses to answer targeted programmatic and policy questions; proactively ensure that all data collection tools align to research questions.
- Manage all data collection activities for multiple external evaluations concurrently.
- Develop, test, and use data collection tools and protocols (survey instruments, interview guides and observation protocols).
- Manage relationships with evaluation clients, internally and externally, including progress toward goals, making sense of research findings, and developing steps for improvement
- Assist in the submission of Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications and take responsibility for ensuring that all evaluations are conducted according to appropriate human subject’s regulations.
- Conduct interviews and site visits/observations with city and organization leaders, program administrators, program staff, youth participants, and other key stakeholders.
- Analyze, write, and disseminate evaluation results in a variety of formats to funders, policymakers, practitioners, and education researchers through written reports and oral presentations in meetings and at conferences
- Contribute ideas for new projects based on finding from prior evaluations.
- Conduct quantitative data analyses, as needed.
- Supervise staff and manage cross-departmental project teams, as appropriate
Required Qualifications
- Passion for research and connections to policy and practice.
- Deep commitment to ExpandED Schools’ vision of an equitable public education system that prepares young people for long-term success in the 21st century economy.
- Experience in social sciences or education (Master’s degree preferred, but experience will be evaluated for a similar level of knowledge and skills).
- Experience and interest in evaluating programs in the fields of youth development, after-school and/or education, including meeting administrative requirements.
- Knowledge of field research, qualitative and quantitative research techniques.
- Strong working knowledge of SPSS or other statistical package, advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, vlookup), and data visualization tools such as Tableau.
- Ability to balance multiple projects and meet multiple, fast-pased deadlines.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills to appeal to a variety of audiences (lay, practitioner experts, and scientific/academic audiences).
- Demonstrated sensitivity to conduct research in diverse communities and the ability to relate to program staff.
- Willingness and ability to travel within New York City via public transportation as well as occasional national/overnight travel.
Benefits
ExpandED Schools offers a generous benefits package which includes:
- Full-time and eligible part-time employees receive medical, dental and vision plans for employees and dependents, largely subsidized by ExpandED Schools
- Health, dependent care and transit pre-tax accounts
- Employer-paid life insurance and supplemental disability coverage
- A generous paid time off package which includes 20 vacation days, 8 sick days, 4 personal days and 12 paid holidays (prorated for part-time staff)
- 403b retirement plan with eligibility for employer contribution of 5% of annual compensation after one year of employment (no match requirement)
- Commitment to work-life balance
- Partial tuition reimbursement offered to employees after one year of service
- Professional development opportunities, including funds to participate in external training and coaching opportunities
