Administrative Consultant (Performance and Analytics)

State of Iowa•Des Moines - 50319 - Polk County, IA

21h•Onsite

About The Position

The Iowa Department of Education is seeking a highly qualified leader to serve as the Department’s Administrative Consultant and NAEP State Coordinator in the Bureau of Performance and Analytics. This role provides key leadership and oversight for the Department, ensuring all students experience a world-class education. The position involves coordinating the administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) within Iowa, including managing participation agreements, recruiting schools, and liaising with the NAEP contractor. The consultant will also develop and implement NAEP work plans, analyze and report NAEP results, and disseminate information about the assessment. A significant part of the role includes providing technical assistance, promoting assessment literacy, and preparing annual work plans and reports. The position requires a deep understanding of state and federal regulations related to education and assessment, particularly NAEP, and involves attending meetings with NAEP and the National Center for Education Statistics.

Requirements

Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university, and experience equal to five years of full-time, professional-level work in program administration, development, management, or operations.
A combination of a total of nine years of education and full-time experience (as described in number one), where thirty semester hours of accredited college or university course work may substitute for one year of full-time experience.
Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Master's degree in social work, law, education, engineering, or public or business administration, and experience equal to three years of full-time, professional-level work in program administration, development, management, or operations.
Current, continuous experience in the state executive branch that includes two years of full-time work as an Education Program Consultant.
Requires experience with remote meeting software (ex. Zoom, Teams, etc.), Windows, Microsoft Suite, and Google Workspace to confidently complete spreadsheets, presentations, and documents and communicate with internal and external clients.
Passion for accomplishing common goals in pursuit of public service
Ability to work collaboratively on, and provide leadership for, high-performing teams
Ability to work independently, moving projects forward with minimal supervision
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Ability to interpret and break down highly technical and regulatory language, and present information in an understandable manner
Conflict resolution and interpersonal skills
Desire to work with diverse teams and stakeholders

Nice To Haves

Experience in large-scale testing/assessment design, sampling, administration, analysis and/or reporting.
Experience in testing/assessment coordination and/or evaluation.
Experience in professional communication on topics of critical importance with an executive level audience.
Experience in presenting complex statistical results in an understandable format using charts and graphs to an executive level audience.
Moderate knowledge of statistics to understand metrics and analysis to explain results and create moderately complex visualizations to accompany results.
Knowledge and experience with coordinating the development of legislation, administrative rules, and legislative proposals

Responsibilities

Coordinate the administration of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) within Iowa in accordance with the NAEP requirements including: coordination of submission of the state participation agreement; recruiting schools for the NAEP sample; and coordinating state activities with the NAEP contractor, such as assessment administration in schools.
Coordinate the development and implementation of the NAEP work plan using deep knowledge of NAEP and assessments generally.
Analyze, report and disseminate NAEP results.
Disseminate information about the NAEP assessment.
Coordinate the analysis and interpretation of NAEP data and the preparation of state-level reports that permit state officials to draw implications for policies and/or programs at the state and local level including working with NCES to coordinate the release of state and national results, coordinating the reporting and dissemination of state NAEP results and preparing special NAEP reports that draw implications for policies and programs.
Provide technical assistance to the state and LEAs and other target audiences as it relates to NAEP.
Promote assessment literacy by promoting a better understanding large-scale assessment using NAEP and NAEP resources and promoting understanding about NAEP and its relevance to the state.
Prepare annual work plans and final project reports.
Know, understand, explain, communicate, and learn complex state and federal regulation as it applies to education and assessment broadly as well as NAEP specifically.
Attend meetings convened by NAEP and the National Center for Education Statistics on assessment, including state administration meetings, training and professional development, orientation sessions, among others.