Remote Meta Research Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

We are seeking a ResearchAnalyst to join our Education and Employment team. Research analysts contributeto quantitative and qualitative research and analysis that examines theeffectiveness and implementation of policies and programs. Analysts help assessthe strength of study designs, summarize existing research through literaturereviews, evidence reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, support thedesign and implementation of evaluations, and help disseminate findings throughaccessible reports, briefs, presentations, websites, and other tools.

This is a general analystposting, and analysts may support a range of project activities. We areespecially interested in candidates with strong quantitative skills who canwork with survey, administrative, or program data; support data cleaning andanalytic specification development; conduct descriptive and impact analysesusing appropriate statistical methods and communicate quantitative findingsclearly to technical and non-technical audiences.

Analysts typically work on morethan one project at a time and are matched to projects that suit theirinterests and skills and offer opportunities for professional growth. Analystswork under the guidance of researchers, statisticians, data scientists, andproject leaders while building expertise in new methods and topic areas.

Our current and recent work includes projectssuch as:

• Helping states, school districts, workforce agencies, and other organizations build capacity to use data and strengthen supports for students, educators, job seekers, workers, and families.
• Working collaboratively with human services, education, and workforce agencies to test implementation strategies and gather information on their success, using approaches such as rapid cycle evaluation and continuous improvement.
• Conducting systematic reviews, evidence reviews, and meta-analyses to determine what works and assess the effectiveness of interventions, programs, policies, and practices in education, employment, training, family support, and related policy areas.
• Supporting rigorous evaluations of programs and policies through study design, study recruitment, data collection, data quality assessment, analysis planning, and dissemination of actionable findings.
• Developing analytic products, technical assistance resources, dashboards, reports, and briefs that help clients and partners interpret evidence and use data for program improvement and policy decisions.

Responsibilities:

Quantitative analysis and programming

• Assist with quantitative analyses, including summarizing data quality issues, cleaning and preparing survey or administrative data, defining analysis specifications, and developing output formats.
• Write, review, or modify code to conduct data extraction, cleaning, manipulation, descriptive analyses, table production, and data visualization.
• Apply or support statistical and quantitative methods appropriate to the project, such as descriptive statistics, regression, weighting, power calculations, performance measurement, longitudinal analysis, or quasi-experimental methods, under the guidance of senior staff.
• Develop specifications, user manuals, reproducible documentation, and other materials for reporting systems, dashboards, analytic tools, and programming workflows.

Research and evaluation

• Participate in interviews, site visits, focus groups, surveys, or other data collection activities to assess implementation, outcomes, costs, and participant experiences in education, employment, and related social programs.
• Conduct literature reviews, environmental scans, evidence reviews, and systematic reviews; apply evidence standards to assess study quality and synthesize findings.
• Support the design and implementation of evaluations, including helping to develop evaluation plans, logic models, research questions, study protocols, instruments, and data collection procedures.
• Provide technical assistance to grantees, state and local agencies, school districts, workforce organizations, and other partners to support evaluation, evidence building, and program improvement.

Communication and project support

• Draft client memos, issue briefs, literature review summaries, technical appendices, chapters of analytic reports, presentations, and proposals for new projects.
• Communicate analytic findings, data limitations, and methodological decisions to internal project teams, clients, policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders.
• Assist with timeline management, cost tracking, meeting preparation, note taking, budget estimates, quality assurance reviews, and coordination across project teams.