(5/20/08) Research Opportunity as Research Fellows, DC or NC

RESIDENT RESEARCH FELLOW
POSITION DESCRIPTION
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Harvard University's Project for
Policy Innovation in Education (PPIE) seek candidates to serve as Resident
Research Fellows. New Resident Fellows will serve in one of two districts:
the District of Columbia Public Schools or the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School
District in North Carolina. Resident Fellows will serve for two years and
play a critical role in improving the use of data in school districts.
First, Resident Fellows will provide senior district leadership with
critical new capacity to analyze data and translate findings into action.
They will perform analyses to inform district leadership's policy decisions
and, through this, make concrete the transformative potential of data.
Second, Resident Fellows will play an important role in a new PPIE-led
project to create a set of district performance diagnostics. Resident
Fellows will ensure data and communication flow appropriately between the
district and PPIE.
Third, Resident Fellows will keep track of district data strategies and data
gaps - identifying potential concerns from both research and district
leadership perspectives. During their fellowship Resident Fellows will help
the research team at Harvard stay grounded in the critical issues the
districts are facing as well as the local political and cultural context.
Finally, Resident Fellows will become part of a new network of
sophisticated, data-driven policy analysts shaping the next wave of school
improvement.
Major responsibilities:
.
Policy Analysis (50%). Resident Fellows will serve as policy analysts for
senior district staff, providing districts with additional capacity for
data-driven decision making at the district's highest levels. In this role
Fellows will:
-
Work with senior district staff to identify critical policy issues that
data, appropriately analyzed, could answer;
-
Assemble appropriate data from multiple data sources;
-
Perform "quick turnaround" analyses of the assembled data on the issues
identified above;
-
Leverage the PPIE Cambridge research team for methodological advice and
(potentially) analytic support in these analyses;
-
Report results and implications of the analyses - to the foundation, PPIE,
and the district;
-
Identify critical gaps in existing data and work to create possible
solutions;
-
Help ensure alignment across the district's various data and accountability
initiatives.
.
District Diagnostic (40%). Resident fellows will contribute to the creation
of district performance diagnostics. In this role Fellows will:
-
Identify data sources and owners within the district and collect the data
needed for the diagnostics;
-
Provide quality control on the data collected;
-
Understand nuances of the data that may not be obvious to the PPIE research
team (e.g., many high schools neglect to enter appropriate leave codes,
etc.), and ensure that the PPIE team is aware of any data or data
interpretation issues;
-
Understand senior district leadership concerns, priorities, and constraints
and ensure that the diagnostic work is aligned to these priorities;
-
Explain and represent the diagnostic process to stakeholders in the
district;
-
Perform some of the diagnostic analyses (generally the more methodologically
simple analyses);
-
Communicate intermediate findings back to district staff and ensure that
staff understands the implications of the findings for policy.
.
Community of Fellows (10%). Resident Fellows will be expected to participate
actively in building a community of Resident Fellows across the districts
and contribute to a new national-level, data-driven policy sector in
education. In this role Fellows will:
-
Travel to Cambridge and Seattle to participate in periodic meetings and
workshops sharing progress, analyses, and issues that have arisen with one
another;
-
Serve as support for Fellows in the other districts;
-
Identify critical policy areas in need of longer-term research projects.
Required skills and experience. Resident Research Fellows should be strong
in analytic problem solving, comfortable working with databases, and have at
least some experience with quantitative analysis. Equally important is
presence, the ability to quickly build credibility with senior district
staff, and the ability communicate complex research findings to a lay
audience.
Leadership, project management, and communication abilities are more
important in this job than knowledge of particular analytic techniques
(e.g., Bayesian shrinkage estimators). Thus EdDs and PhDs, but also MPPs,
MBAs, or EdMs, with strong analytic skills and proven leadership skills
should consider themselves appropriate candidates for this fellowship.
Specific skills/experience include:
-
Master's level exposure to quantitative analysis;
-
Prior experience in a school setting highly desirable;
-
Project management experience in commercial or nonprofit settings helpful;
-
Prior business consulting experience helpful;
-
Ability to thrive in a fluid environment with little explicit guidance and
multiple superiors (i.e., the superintendent, PPIE).
Resident Research Fellows will earn salaries of $80,000 - $90,000 per year.
Application process and deadlines. If you are interested in applying, please
submit a resume and cover letter describing your interest and what you would
bring to the fellowship. In your cover letter, please explicitly address
whether you would be available to serve the fellowship in Washington, DC,
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, or both.
Applications are due by Friday, May 30th. Please send applications to:
Isis Randolph-McCree
c/o Alberta Garvin
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
P.O. Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102
Cover letters and resumes may also be emailed to
alberta.garvin@gatesfoundation.org. To ensure appropriate processing, please
use "Resident Research Fellow" as the subject line of the email.
First round interviews will occur on a rolling basis. Final interviews with
the districts will occur in the second half of June. Fellows are expected to
begin at the districts in July or August.