Research & Data Analyst, OSP - 25708

Position Summary: As part of the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) Office of Policy and Evaluation (OPE), the Office of School Performance (OSP) conducts analyses and creates interactive, web-based tools and visualizations that help educators, administrators, and community members analyze student, school, and district-level data to target interventions and improvements for organization and operational priorities. These tools – such as the School Quality Reports – are part of an integrated support system that enables educators and administrators to best serve NYCPS’s almost 1 million students and 75,000 teachers, across 1,600 schools.

Our culture is friendly but demanding. We follow agile management principles, and we want curious people who can work together to generate and test ideas and learn from failures in order to arrive at a successful solution. The Research & Data Analyst conducts scientific and applied research within a collaborative, mission-driven team of policy analysts, UX designers, project coordinators, and web developers. The Research & Data Analyst assists with literature reviews, field studies, and data analysis that is geared toward investigating social and environmental problems, which enables NYCPS to develop equitable policies and programs that advance student achievement and socioemotional learning. This role will help shape NYCPS Citywide local accountability policies and contribute to administrative studies that will benefit NYCPS as a whole, as many offices and divisions use our data as part of their internal benchmarking and evaluation. The Research & Data Analyst contributes to a body of scientific and applied research utilized across NYCPS (in planning, instruction, evaluation) through effective analysis and visualization of results from investigative studies and experiments.

The Research & Data Analyst interprets results from field studies, surveys, performance data, and other experiments using advanced analytics methods such as statistical modeling and predictive analysis. Performs related work.

Reports to: Director, Performance Policy

Direct Reports: N/A

Key Relationships: Works closely with directors and other OSP staff, as well as with other OPE staff members, including SAS, SQL, R, and Python programmers, web developers, project managers, analysts, policy makers. Works frequently with internal teams in the Office of Student Enrollment (OSE), Division of School Leadership (DSL), Office of Safety and Youth Development (OSYD). Engages with external stakeholders including the New York State Education Department and members of research-practice partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Manage the implementation of quantitative data analyses of confidential student data through the use of both descriptive statistics, as well as more advanced statistical modeling related to policy development and implementation, student outcomes, and school performance.
• Utilize scientific and applied research methods in a collaborative environment to execute administrative studies designed to analyze the impact of NYCPS policies and programs and develop recommendations for local, state, and Federal accountability measures.
• Advise the Director of Performance Policy on outcomes and make strategy recommendations pertaining to evaluation of student and school performance.
• Execute administrative studies that develop and test predictions and interventions that can directly improve practices Citywide (e.g., test alternate academic programming procedures and study, analyze, and report their impact on achievement and matriculation for marginalized groups).
• Conduct literature reviews and field studies to surface specific problems related to social and environmental factors that impact student performance. Create comprehensive reports, charts, graphs, and other visualizations to illustrate results from scientific and applied research such as analysis decks and recommendation memos.
• Conduct analyses to evaluate principal performance and ratings according to the NYCPS Annual Professional Performance Review plan per Education Law 3012-d.
• Perform research and quantitative analysis to prepare reports about principal assessment categories to include Measures of Leadership Practice (MOLP) Rating and Measures of Student Learning (MOSL) Rating.
• Support in the development of new metrics and web tools used to evaluate school, personnel, and student outcomes; conduct related research and analysis, engage stakeholders, provide recommendations to office leadership.
• Summarize internal research on scientific and applied research projects and conduct presentations.
• Maintain a working knowledge of New York State Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan and NYC local accountability policies. Conduct trainings on both, as needed.
• Utilize and continuously improve automated systems and tools to support research, analysis, and data quality control.
• Collaborate with team members to improve efficiency of scientific and applied research, ensure accuracy, and correct implementation of research and business rules.
• Serve as business owner for various projects, as needed.
  
  

Qualification Requirements

Minimum

• A doctorate degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and one year of full-time experience in a responsible supervisory, administrative or research capacity in the appropriate field of specialization; or
• A master's degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and three years of responsible full-time research experience in the appropriate field of specialization; or
• Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least a master's degree in an appropriate field of specialization and at least two years of experience described in "2" above. Two years as a City Research Scientist Level I can be substituted for the experience required in "1" and "2" above.
  
  

Preferred

• Proficiency with R, Python, SAS, Stata, or other statistical/data management programming languages.
• Proficiency and experience working with SQL.
• Ability to manipulate, organize and analyze large datasets; experience gathering, analyzing and interpreting data.
• Ability to clearly communicate and document technical work, including coding methodology.
• Experience with machine learning algorithms, prompt engineering, or other skills related to artificial intelligence.
• Experience communicating research and analyses to non-researchers/analysts.
• Experience developing thoughtful and creative approaches for addressing a wide range of analytic questions.
• Ability to translate broad policy guidelines into actionable data requirements and business rules.
• Ability to collaborate with other programmers and analysts while also completing work independently.
• Ability to work on a number of projects simultaneously and prioritize work appropriately.
• Ability to troubleshoot, problem-solve, and anticipate issues needing resolution by employing a clear and logical thought process for analysis and programming.
• Ability to use independent judgment to design, adapt and modify analyses and programming to the needs of specific projects.
• 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.
• High standards for personal excellence, including receptiveness to feedback.
• Excellent interpersonal skills in dealing with education and non-education personnel, internal and external to NYCPS.
• Ability to thrive in and enjoy working in a team-oriented, high-pressure environment.
• Experience collaborating with various stakeholders to gain new perspectives.
• Understanding of racial equity and willingness to engage in conversations about race.
• Experience or working knowledge of the public sector and/or demonstrated interest in public education and its role in advancing equity.
• Experience or degree in public policy, public administration, education policy, or related field.
  
  

Salary: $87,743 – $100,904

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

Please include a resume and cover letter with your application.

NOTE: The filling of all positions is subject to budget availability and/or grant funding.

• New York City Residency is NOT Required *
  
  

We encourage all applicants from the New York City tri-state area to apply.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

DOE Non- Discrimination Policy

The Department of Education of the City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's actual or perceived sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or pregnancy. For more information, please refer to the DOE Non-Discrimination Policy.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education's website at https://studentaid.gov/pslf/.