Policy Area Director

Policy Area Director
K-12 Education

MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research firm, seeks an experienced professional to lead its , which evaluates strategies to improve the academic outcomes of low-income students. MDRC’s K-12 Education Policy Area is working with school districts across the country to conduct path-breaking studies of educational reforms for the federal government and private foundations. Our project portfolio focuses on strategies to improve reading and math instruction in the early elementary grades, high school reform (with a special focus on initiatives to help students entering high school with low skills), and teacher and principal professional development efforts throughout the K-12 system. This body of work places MDRC at the forefront of research on reforms to improve teaching and learning in elementary schools and in structural and instructional reforms in high schools. We are positioned to provide vital information to policymakers and practitioners, who are an eager audience for our findings. In addition, we are at the cutting edge of efforts to develop new methods to study program implementation and impacts on teacher practice and student achievement, from the fielding of random assignment designs in new settings, to the use of regression discontinuity designs, to the use of instrumental variables to understand our implementation and impact findings.

Our K-12 Education Policy Area is staffed by approximately 20 individuals with quantitative and qualitative research skills, a dedication to conducting rigorous research that is useful to practitioners and policymakers, and a commitment to working in a collegial team environment. One hallmark of our group is a blending of research and practitioner perspectives, with many staff having previously worked as teachers and/or administrators in the K-12 system. We typically undertake studies that include both an analysis of program implementation and impacts (rather than just implementation-only studies) and use rigorous research designs (especially but not exclusively random assignment) that allow us to zero in on the causal links between reforms and changes in student performance. We currently are conducting 18 projects in K-12 education with an annual budget of $5 million.

Background on MDRC

MDRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor. We design and study new approaches to address the problems confronting public education; low-income children, families, and communities; and low-wage workers and people with serious barriers to employment. MDRC’s special niche is conducting rigorous evaluations of the implementation and effectiveness of reforms and providing accessible and useful findings for practitioners and policymakers. In a time of tight government and foundation budgets, this information is invaluable, and staff at MDRC can make a real difference in policy and practice.

Established in 1974, MDRC currently has 225 employees in offices in New York City and Oakland and an annual operating budget of approximately $70 million. Our projects include evaluations of existing innovative approaches and the development, fielding, and testing of new strategies. They are led and conducted by staff in five policy areas, which are within the Policy Research and Evaluation Department (PRED).

These policy areas play a central role in developing priorities in their field of study, developing the skills of staff within the area, conducting the projects, and communicating with the users and funders of our work. In effect, the policy areas are where the action is, and the leaders of these units play a central role in shaping our overall strategy, maintaining and enhancing the quality of our projects, and representing MDRC as national leaders in evaluation research. Our Development and External Affairs Department supports policy area project development and communications efforts.

Responsibilities of the K-12 Policy Area Leader:

The K-12 Policy Area Leader will report to the Vice President and Director of the Policy Research and Evaluation Department (PRED), who also supervises the work of MDRC’s four other policy areas. The K-12 Policy Area leader will also have frequent, direct access to the President of MDRC. She or he will be a member of the MDRC’s Strategy Group, the organization’s leadership team. The K-12 Policy Area Leader would also work closely with MDRC’s Chief Social Scientist, academic experts, and MDRC Board members to advance the scope and quality of our work. Our K-12 Policy Area Leader is in a unique position to inform education policy and practice because of our extensive body of work; its concentrated focus on key, high-stakes issues; and the unusual reliability of our evaluations.

Key responsibilities of the K-12 Policy Area Leader include:

• Providing intellectual leadership of the K-12 Education Policy Area and working collaboratively with the K-12 staff and others to update and revise the K-12 Education Policy Area Strategic Plan, which identifies key contributions to the field we wish to make, desired types of projects, project development strategies, and plans to communicate with the field about our work.
• Assuring the quality of the policy area’s projects by serving as a senior reviewer on projects and an adviser to project directors.
• Leading major projects in the policy area, including research design, work plan development, site recruitment, supervision of staff, production of deliverables, communication of findings, and funder relations.
• Developing new projects for the policy area either through responding to requests for proposals or developing ideas for new projects and building a funding collaborative of public and private funders.
• Serving as the key communicator with the users and funders of our K-12 education work about the scope and status of our existing body of work, project findings, and possibilities for new projects. This communication role involves the maintenance of relationships with the stakeholders in our work and is, therefore, broader and more continuous than periodic releases of findings coincident with the publication of reports.
• Developing the skills of staff in the policy area to help them take on new responsibilities and broaden their roles in projects.
• Managing the policy area by leading processes to provide additional training to staff, to deploy them appropriately on projects, and to review their performance on an annual basis.
• Serving on MDRC’s Strategy Group, which addresses major strategic issues facing the organization.
• Bringing the knowledge, perspective, and research techniques of the K-12 Education Policy Area to MDRC’s work in other policy areas by reviewing their strategic plans and serving as a reviewer on key related projects.

Qualifications:

• In-depth understanding of education policy issues and an interest in conducting rigorous research to inform the choices of policymakers and practitioners.
• Graduate training in a relevant discipline (education, economics, sociology, public policy, etc.) and an in-depth knowledge of the research methods used to conduct program evaluations.
• Substantial and successful experience designing, managing, and conducting large-scale, complex program evaluations addressing questions of program implementation and impacts and using many different data sources.
• Substantial and successful experience managing demonstration projects that develop, field, and evaluate promising new strategies to improve academic outcomes for low-income children.
• In-depth knowledge and substantive experience designing and managing studies of the effects of education initiatives using random assignment research designs and quasi-experimental research methodologies.
• Substantial and successful experience working with teams of skilled researchers in a collegial environment.
• Track record of supporting the development of staff members’ skills to undertake increasing responsibilities.
• Outstanding communication skills, both written and verbal.

Salary is commensurate with experience, and MDRC provides comprehensive fringe benefits.