Research Analyst, OSP

Position Summary: The New York City school system is the largest in the country, composed of approximately 1.1 million students and 75,000+ teachers in over 1,800+ schools. The Office of School Performance (OSP) is a group of talented problem-solvers driven to increase student achievement and inform families by designing and building innovative tools that empower educators, administrators, and community members to explore, understand, and improve school quality. The Office of School Performance handles the policy analysis, design, implementation, and communications for projects, including the School Quality Snapshot, School Quality Guide, School Performance Dashboard, New York City School Survey, and internal data tools. We follow user-focused design and agile project management principles. We believe in continuously examining our practices and assumptions in order to improve our work. We value a diversity of perspectives and ideas to inform decisions that will benefit students.

The Research Analyst will work with a team of data analysts and programmers in a collaborative, mission-driven environment. This work helps to shape school accountability policy in NYC. It also supports data-driven decision-making, as the DOE provides schools with tools to effectively analyze data to improve instruction and student outcomes. The Research Analyst will support this work by conducting quantitative research, statistical modeling and analysis, quality assurance, developing new reports and tools for educators and administrators, and presenting results to leadership. Performs related work.

Reports to: Director, Policy and Product Design

Direct Reports: N/A

Key Relationships: Works closely with Directors and other OSP staff, as well as with other DT&L staff members, including SAS, SQL, R, and Python programmers, web developers, data quality managers, data and policy analysts, policy makers, and the Division of Instructional and Information Technology (DIIT).

Responsibilities

• Analyze and improve upon measures of school performance to better account for student characteristics and more accurately measure student achievement.
• Conduct research and analysis to evaluate school accountability methodology, propose changes, and simulate results.
• Design and review data visualization tools to support schools and Field Support Centers
• Support the process of program and policy evaluations, including developing targeted research questions, data collection, data analysis, and synthesis of outcomes.
• Participate in the use of key analytics, using both descriptive statistics as well as more advanced statistical modeling, under the training and guidance of the Director, Policy and Product Design.
• Prepare internal reports for senior leadership.
• Collaborate with team members to ensure data accuracy and correct implementation of business rules when producing reports for schools.
• Collaborate with school leaders and field support leadership to solicit feedback and determine and refine usability requirements for new data tools.
• Serve as business owner for various projects, as needed.
• Draft communications based on updates to relevant policies and new product launches or improvements.
• Design and produce both ad hoc and regular reports to meet a variety of needs from diverse stakeholders who may include other teams within the Division of Teaching and Learning.
• Support the integration and interaction of OSP products and data with other DOE information systems.

Qualification Requirements:

Minimum

• A master’s degree from an accredited college in education, guidance, educational administration and supervision, or a related field; or
• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and one of the following:

(A) one year of full-time satisfactory professional experience in educational program administration, career or occupational program administration; or

(B) one year of full-time satisfactory professional experience as a state certified or licensed teacher; or

• A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent and five years of full-time satisfactory professional experience in educational program administration, career or occupational program administration; or
• A combination of education and/or experience which is equivalent to the requirements in "1," "2," and "3" above. However, all candidates must have at least an approved four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent.

Preferred

• Proficiency with R, Python, SAS, Stata, or other statistical/data management programming languages.
• Proficiency and experience working with SQL.
• Ability to translate broad policy guidelines into actionable data requirements and business rules.
• Ability to manipulate, organize, and analyze large datasets.
• Ability to collaborate with other programmers and analysts while also completing work independently.
• Ability to work on a number of projects simultaneously.
• Excellent problem-solving skills; a clear and logical thought process for analysis and programming.
• Excellent analytical skills; experience gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data.
• Ability to use independent judgment to design, adapt, and modify analyses and programming to the needs of specific projects.
• Ability to clearly communicate and document technical work, including coding methodology
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including public speaking.
• Excellent interpersonal skills in dealing with education and non-education personnel, internal and external to the DOE.
• Ability to troubleshoot, problem-solve, and anticipate issues needing resolution.
• Ability to develop thoughtful and creative approaches for addressing a wide range of analytic questions.
• Ability to provide constructive feedback to others on their research and analytic work.
• Strong attention to detail and extremely well organized, with the ability to meet frequent and changing deadlines.
• Ability to thrive in and enjoy working in a team-oriented, high-pressure environment.
• Experience or working knowledge of the public sector and/or demonstrated interest in public education.
• Experience communicating research and analyses to non-researchers/analysts.
• Strong presentation skills, including presentation design; proficient in PowerPoint.
• Internal candidates preferred.

Salary: $66,981+

(Internal candidates who are selected for this position and who currently hold comparable or less senior positions within the DOE will not make less than their current salary.)

Please submit a resume an cover letter with your application.

Applications will be accepted through May 25, 2018 until 3:00 p.m.

NOTE: The filling of all positions is subject to budget availability.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

It is the policy of the Department of Education of the City of New York to provide educational and employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, alienage and citizenship status, age, marital status, disability, prior record of arrest or conviction (except as provided by law), sexual orientation, gender (sex), and to maintain an environment free of discriminatory harassment, including sexual harassment, or retaliation as required by civil rights law. Inquiries regarding compliance with this equal opportunity policy may be directed to: Office of Equal Opportunity, 65 Court Street, Room 1102, Brooklyn, New York 11201, or visit the OEO website at http://schools.nyc.gov/OEO

Required Skills

Required Experience