Senior Research Analyst

The Senior Research Analyst (SRA) will be part of a growing team at the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University. CEPR seeks to transform education through the power of research and evidence. CEPR and its partners believe all students will learn and thrive when education leaders make decisions using evidence, rather than hunches and untested assumptions. In pursuit of this end, CEPR both conducts cutting-edge quantitative research on critical topics for the field and develops new and faster models of education research that can better support education leaders. The SRA will be a critical part of the CEPR team, helping education leaders around the country to learn what’s working and what’s not in education. 

The Senior Research Analyst develops, manages, and contributes to research on important educational topics, such as college and career preparation and long-term success, literacy coaching, literacy tutoring, high quality curriculum and instructional materials, charter school effectiveness, and educational technology. The research agenda carried out by the SRA will provide a foundation for decisions that improve student achievement and generate a growing demand for data analysis that fundamentally alters the way decisions are made in education. The SRA’s responsibilities may include developing analytic plans, proposing projects, independently pursuing analytic objectives with minimal guidance, contributing to written products for non-technical audiences or leading partner-facing technical presentations, contributing to grant applications and grant reporting, training and mentoring junior staff, and contributing to reusable program code and utilities. 

Job-Specific Responsibilities:

SRAs hired under this posting may support projects with the Research Initiatives for College and Career Success team, working with K-12 districts, community and technical colleges, and state education agencies to strengthen students’ preparation for, transitions into, and long-term outcomes in college and career pathways; the States Leading States team, working with state education agencies to evaluate policies and disseminate those that are effective; or the Charter Hub team, evaluating long-term effects of charter schools. 

Duties & Responsibilities:

 Analysis:

• Lead the development of new analyses, including proposing research questions, identifying policies poised for evaluation, and determining appropriate analyses;
• Writing pre-analysis plans detailing planned analyses, key variables, and deliverables to coordinate workflows and enable alignment with open science principles;
• Gather and act on feedback and suggestions from faculty, principal investigators, and senior researchers; 
• Assembling, cleaning, and managing large longitudinal datasets; 
• Evaluating data quality, and identifying outliers and anomalies that require resolution prior to analysis; and 
• Performing literature reviews in support of CEPR projects. 

 Programming:

• Perform complex programming tasks; and
• Ensure code is appropriately quality controlled and documented.

Partner Relations and Communications:

• Supporting development of projects with external partners and stakeholders; 
• Participate in presenting key research findings to internal and external academic and non-academic audiences; and
• Draft reports and presentations for partners , including state education leaders, school boards, superintendents, principals, and grantors.

 Teamwork and Management:

• Develop draft workplans; 
• Research operations, including DUAs, IRBs, and project reporting; 
• Train, develop and supervise junior staff; and
• Maintain open and clear communication with PI / project director.