Early Childhood Research & Data Specialist

Oakland Unified School District; Oakland (CA); On-site; USD 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Oakland Unified School District invites applications for a Research Associate in Early Childhood within the Research, Assessment, & Data Department. The role supports research and evaluation on birth to 8 years topics, designs studies, manages projects, and collaborates with stakeholders district-wide.

Responsibilities include data cleaning, report writing, and dissemination of findings to varied audiences, with a 261-day work year and an exempt, 7.5-hour day schedule.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and at least four years of training or research experience in a related content area such as child development, child psychology, early childhood education, sociology, public policy, or anthropology.
• Knowledge of infant and early childhood development, child/adolescent development, assessment of early childhood academic, social and emotional learning, and/or pre‑K‑12 educational research strongly preferred
• Master’s degree preferred
• Experience in urban education context preferred
• Experience working with analysis of underserved populations, particularly those reflected in District student demographics
• Demonstrated experience writing research reports suitable for publication for lay audiences
• Expertise in using Microsoft Office software: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint
• Experience in using data processing and statistical software such as STATA, SPSS, and/or qualitative data analysis software such as Atlas.ti or NVivo

Responsibilities

• Participate in planning, designing and conducting quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research and evaluation.
• Conduct ongoing research on promising practices in OUSD that contributes to the knowledge base of effective practice, emphasizing priority areas identified in district strategic plans and School Quality Reviews.
• Conduct case study analyses of effective strategies and practices that can be scaled up for use in the District.
• Design methods, data collection processes, research instruments (including scale development), and analytic approaches for each research project.
• Stay abreast of relevant research early childhood education and child development from birth to 8 years old, and on transitions from preschool to kindergarten; analyze applicability of research to OUSD; continually gather information related to assigned research topics.
• Engage in fieldwork interfacing with a wide variety of OUSD stakeholders including, students, parents, teachers, administrators, other staff, and community partners.
• Engage in data cleaning and data management for all studies.
• Prepare and analyze historical data about the District, schools, and local communities and neighborhoods.
• Engage in report writing and editing, contributing to the development of meaningful reports, policy briefs and presentations of findings appropriate for a variety of internal and external audiences and purposes.
• Prepare assessment data on the 0-8 continuum of student performance for principals and teachers.
• Gather observational data, such as from Instructional Rounds across Transitional Kindergarten sites and Balanced Literacy sites, to identify shifts in teacher practice and site leadership practice.
• Develop tools and protocols to facilitate use of data and research findings by central office staff, school leaders, and teachers.
• Present and disseminate project results to internal and external parties.
• Engage in collaborative research with internal and/or external research partners.
• Plan and coordinate research activities, including maintenance of a timeline for completion and dissemination of results.
• Provide cross-training to other staff members within the department.
• Perform related duties as assigned.

Skills

Quantitative and qualitative research

Data analysis

Report writing

Project management

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree with 4+ years of related research experience

Master’s degree preferred

Urban education context experience (preferred)

Tools

STATA

SPSS

Atlas.ti

NVivo

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint)

Job description

Oakland Unified School District invites applications for a Research Associate in Early Childhood within the Research, Assessment, & Data Department. The role supports research and evaluation on birth to 8 years topics, designs studies, manages projects, and collaborates with stakeholders district-wide.

Responsibilities include data cleaning, report writing, and dissemination of findings to varied audiences, with a 261-day work year and an exempt, 7.5-hour day schedule.