E3 Alliance: Research Analyst - Early Education

Job Overview

E3 Alliance is looking for a Research Analyst to conduct statistical analysis of state, regional, and local education data sets — with a focus on early education research — under the guidance of E3’s Senior Director of Research. The Research Analyst will work with a collaborative team to execute our research and analysis agenda to leverage data and drive action to address disparities and help every child reach their potential. This is a dynamic position with responsibility for contributing to longitudinal research projects, as well as hands-on programming, data analysis, research, visual representations, and communication of complex information related to student educational outcomes to influence stakeholder decision-making and policy.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Research Design

•Provide analytic support and act as a thought partner for other research staff in the execution of large- and small-scale research studies, data queries, and grant deliverables with a specific focus on early childhood education (pre-K through grade 2), specifically early literacy.

•Manage estimates, timelines, and deliverables for large- and small-scale research projects.

•Contribute to the drafting of research and analytics project definitions, including needs analysis, research questions, literature reviews, and analytical methods for both quantitative and qualitative studies.

•Collaborate with the Sr. Director of Research, Community Engagement Manager, and others in drafting grant proposals.

•Propose and implement data collection strategies where data is not available from other sources.

•Contribute to drafting, implementation, and review of data sharing agreements for the purpose of accessing data to answer research questions.

Data Analysis

•Utilize an equity lens when analyzing, visualizing, and sharing education data.

•Conduct statistical programming, data analysis, and data manipulation in R or Python (Pandas), and potentially in SAS.

•Conduct data analysis, aggregation, and tracking for ongoing early education research projects and initiatives

•Serve as first-line reviewer for data analysis completed by other research and data analysts on the research team.

•Develop expertise in relevant datasets available at the University of Texas Education Research Center, other state and federal data sources, and those sourced directly from local school districts and institutes of higher education.

Data Storytelling

•Provide analytic support and collaborate with stakeholders, including E3 leadership, staff, and partners to ensure that actionable data and information are available to support the work of E3 Alliance.

•Collaborate with the Communications team and other staff to develop charts, graphs, infographics, tables, maps and interactive data displays that communicate information clearly for a variety of external audiences, effectively telling a story to drive decision-making and behavior change with an emphasis on equity.

•Collaborate with community-based partners on research projects, provide data, data presentations, visualizations, specific data aggregations, etc.

•Present research findings to diverse audiences including school districts, partners, and other stakeholders.

Collaboration

•Partner with E3’s other internal teams to co-design actionable research with partner districts and campuses, as well as community-based organizations.

Qualifications:

Education

•Master’s or Ph.D. in education or the social sciences or Bachelor’s and five years of experience in research or data analytics.

Required Qualifications

•Programming experience in R or Python with up-to-date applied technical skills, including creating visualizations

•Strong statistical background in addition to experience in managing and conducting research projects using mixed methodologies

•Experience working with large-scale education datasets, specifically in early education related fields

•Experience in Microsoft Office 365 (especially Excel), Outlook/Exchange, project management tools, team data sharing, and web presentation tools

•Demonstrated ability to leverage data and research to help address racial and income disparities in community outcomes

•Experience with maintaining confidentiality of work-related information and materials

Preferred Qualifications

•Direct experience with the use of data from the Texas Education Agency (or district data reported to TEA through Student Information Systems), Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and Early Childhood Intervention (ECI)

•Experience with data and research focused on pre-K enrollment, pre-k eligibility, and kindergarten readiness

•Knowledge and/or experience with TPEIR, Early Reading Indicator Codes, mCLASS data, T-KEA data and Early Childhood Data System (ECDS), universal screener data

•Demonstrated experience working with diverse stakeholders in the education community (e.g., school district personnel; community-based organizations)

•Knowledge of and connectivity to the Central Texas education ecosystem

•Familiarity with SQL and relational databases (data upload and extraction)

•Experience with data sharing agreements in an educational research context

Skills:

•Ability to prioritize and multi-task in a small team environment, manage multiple projects, and adhere to and support timelines and deliverables deadlines

•Exhibit attention to detail and ability to deliver high-quality, tested analytic results

•Strong written & verbal communication skills

•Excellent interpersonal skills

Compensation and Benefits

Employment with E3 Alliance requires residency in the Austin Community College regional area. E3 Alliance is supported by founding partner Austin Community College District (ACC), and through this partnership utilizes ACC payroll and human resource systems. Through ACC, E3 Alliance staff have access to ACC compensation and benefits systems, including generous vacation and sick leave, insurance, and other benefits.

Salary Range: $75,000-$82,000

• Salary based on experience and expertise

•Health care and dental insurance, TRS retirement benefits, disability insurance, and other standard ACC benefits

•E3 Alliance is unable to support candidates who require sponsorship to work in the United States

•This position is grant-funded, but does not have a defined timeframe and is intended to be a full-time, ongoing position