The D.C. Policy Center is looking for a motivated and organized analyst to support the work of its Education Policy Initiative. Established in 2017, the Education Policy Initiative has created a data-rich landscape of D.C.’s traditional public and public charter schools, with research on the transition from high school to college or career, what an at-risk preference would mean in the common lottery, and an annual report of the State of D.C. Schools. The analyst will support upcoming work to produce briefings and research connected to the impact of the pandemic on D.C.’s students, maintain a periodic D.C. Voices publication, disseminate findings at events, and facilitate meetings with school leaders, parents, teachers, students, and other key stakeholders.
This is an intermediate level position primarily focused on research, with additional communication and coordination duties. The ideal candidate will have strong analytical and writing skills, excellent attention to detail, and a demonstrated interest in the District of Columbia and its public education system.
Experience: At least three years of previous experience in a similar position.
Salary: $70,000-80,000
Priority deadline: April 21, 2023
Work environment: This is an on-site position that requires in-person work.
Responsibilities
- Support the Director of the Education Policy Initiative by carrying out research tasks such as acquiring data from local or national data sources, conducting literature reviews, and analyzing trends or patterns in large datasets.
- Independently draft blog posts and articles, contribute to larger reports, and collaborate on research findings and report drafts.
- Create and format high-quality data visualizations (including maps), tables, and infographics.
- Prepare essays, reports, and briefings for publication in WordPress and print.
- Write quarterly blog posts for D.C. Voices and engage community members such as parents, teachers, students, and school leaders to contribute.
- Initiate and maintain relationships with local community organizations to engage parents, students, teachers, and other education stakeholders throughout the research process.
- Guide the process for qualitative focus groups, listening sessions, and semi-structured interviews to inform research priorities and report findings.
- Assist in the planning and execution of report launch events, both in-person and virtual.
- Manage projects independently to meet deadlines.
- Additional duties as necessary.
Experience and qualifications
Required
- At least three years’ experience (or education) in economics, public policy, education, statistics, demography, or related fields.
- Experience with education and demographic data sets, such as the American Community Survey (ACS), D.C. educational data files, geospatial data, and survey results. For example, the applicant should feel comfortable downloading ACS estimates and linking them to data from other sources.
- Ability to design and implement analyses of local education data, such as how public school enrollment has changed over time by Ward or local subdivision.
- Strong writing and communication skills for policy, practitioner, and general audiences.
- Strong editing skills to review reports and blog posts prior to release.
- Excellent time management skills, with an ability to take initiative, work independently and collaboratively, and meet multiple deadlines in a fast-paced work environment.
- Sensitivity to diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, especially in D.C.’s specific education landscape
Strongly preferred
- Bachelor’s degree and three years’ experience OR master’s degree and at least one year of experience in economics, public policy, education, statistics, demography, or related fields.
- Robust understanding of D.C.’s local education policy or practice.
- Familiarity with statistical packages and/or programming languages (e.g., Stata or R), including experience with large-scale datasets in applied research setting outside of the classroom.
- Experience in mapping and data visualization (e.g. Tableau).
- Experience writing and editing publications for wide audiences.
- Experience coordinating virtual and in-person events with 50 or more attendees.
About the D.C. Policy Center
The D.C. Policy Center is a non-profit (501(c)3) think tank focusing on local policy issues in the District of Columbia and the surrounding region. Through data-driven and action-oriented policy research, the D.C. Policy Center’s mission is to bring together policymakers, employers, industry leaders, community advocates, and other stakeholders to advance comprehensive policies that support a strong and growing local economy for all District residents.
The D.C. Policy Center is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status, or any other protected status under federal or District law.
Application instructions
Send a resume, cover letter, one writing sample, and one data visualization sample as a single PDF to jobs@dcpolicycenter.org with the subject line “Senior Education Analyst”.
Priority deadline for applications is April 21st, 2023.