Data and Policy Analyst – Education Funding Equity Initiative

New America•Washington, DC

11d•Hybrid

About The Position

New America is seeking a Data and Policy Analyst to join the Education Funding Equity Initiative. The initiative aims to inform advocates, policymakers, and thought leaders about the negative impacts of current school funding policies and equip them with the necessary data and policy knowledge to advocate for improved systems that ensure equitable education in diverse schools. The Data and Policy Analyst will collaborate with the Project Director on analytical projects, interpret and communicate findings, update publications and data products, and engage with relevant communities. The role requires a collegial and collaborative individual who can translate policy and research questions into data project plans for non-technical colleagues, understanding how to use data to communicate social and policy issues. Technical skills, moderate programming knowledge, and some experience in policy analysis (education, housing, taxation, or public finance) are essential. New America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute focused on addressing national challenges through new thinkers and ideas. The Education Policy Program provides objective analysis and innovative ideas on critical education problems.

Requirements

Strong analytical skills, with the ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy
Comfort with the process of extracting, loading, cleaning, analyzing, and reporting data
Familiarity with modern databases and cloud infrastructure.
Experience managing and manipulating large data sets, with adherence to standard data management principles such as data quality and/or profiling and data governance
Moderate experience with scripting languages (e.g. R, Python)
Experience with or exposure to spatial analysis, econometrics, or causal inference methods
Experience employing data and analysis to answer research questions and support public policy recommendations
Experience communicating findings and analyses through writing and data visualization
Ability to engage with academic research in education policy, economics, and related social sciences
Interest in policy issues related to education equity
Ability to work independently in a hybrid work setting, effectively managing time and communicating activities to a team or supervisor
A bachelor’s degree in data science, political science, education, economics, or another related field
At least 2 years of professional experience or masters/doctoral degree in relevant field

Nice To Haves

Experience working with government data sources
Professional experience with policy issues related to education equity
Experience with data journalism and associated tools (e.g. Datawrapper, Tableau, Mapbox, Looker)
Experience with or knowledge of housing policy
Master of Public Policy degree or similar academic preparation of the role

Responsibilities

Collect, maintain, and analyze data and information related to issues of education funding equity, including public education data, housing data, census data, public finance data, and other open source data
Implement techniques for quality data collection to ensure adequacy, accuracy, and legitimacy of data
Create and execute plans for data-analytical projects focused on education funding equity
Create compelling written and visual presentations of research findings, including maps, charts, and graphs that make data more accessible, understandable, and usable
Maintain and update existing interactive data products and visualization tools
Synthesize existing academic research and policy analysis through authoring literature reviews and policy scans.
Work to develop a moderate level of subject-matter expertise in school finance
Monitor current events and research developments in school finance to be conversant in the issues
Perform other duties as assigned