Lead research and advocacy to advance school readiness, college and career readiness and educational equity, supervising Associate Policy Fellow. Essential duties are predominantly intellectual in character and include work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment.
- Work with the Executive and Advocacy Directors to develop and implement goals for early care and education research and analysis and to develop and advance advocacy priorities related to equitable opportunity for all children, including advancing a high quality early care and education, system, assuring equitable distribution and adequacy of educational resources, improving college and career readiness and driving racial and socioeconomic equity within Connecticut’s education system.
- Manage and conduct, in partnership with other staff, all quantitative and qualitative early care, K-12 education and workforce development research and analysis,
- Develop, in partnership with other staff, a policy agenda and strategies to enable all children to enter school ready to learn, to advance college and career readiness for all children in Connecticut and to reduce racial and socioeconomic disparities in access to high-quality education.
- Develop and write reports, briefs, fact sheets, presentations, and other content to disseminate research and policy proposals to a variety of audiences, including policymakers, service providers, advocacy organizations, and news media.
- Monitor, analyze and write on state and federal budget proposals and legislation as they relate to early care and educational equity and education funding.
- Work with existing early care alliance to create more powerful voice in support of an integrated system of high quality early care and education.
- Convene roundtables, forums, and meetings to share research related to educational equity, collect feedback from stakeholders, and strategize with partners to progress research and policy related to educational equity and college and career readiness.
- Work with national organizations to advance equity-focused policy at both state and national levels.
- Represent Connecticut Voices for Children in advocacy coalitions.
- Assist in identifying and obtaining funding for this work, including preparing grant applications and grant reports.
- Manage, evaluate and mentor associate policy fellows.
- Five or more years in public policy research and advocacy; two or more years supervisory experience.
- Quantitative data analysis using spreadsheets (Excel), statistical analysis software (Stata, R, SPSS, etc.), and interactive data visualization (Tableau Public, Google Fusion Tables).
- Familiarity with state and federal policy analysis, state budget processes, and state and federal data sources.
- Familiarity with key education equity related lawsuits in Connecticut (CCJEF v. Rell, Sheff v. O’Neill, etc.) and around the country a plus.
- Familiarity with legislative and municipal education funding mechanisms a plus.
- Excellent written and verbal communications skills, including ability to communicate complex information to non-expert audiences.
- Experience with lobbying or similar advocacy experience.
In addition, successful candidates must have demonstrated commitment to social justice and equitable opportunity for all children, a flexible mindset, ability to think strategically, ability to work on multiple tasks in a time sensitive manner, comfort collaborating with diverse groups internally and externally, self-motivation, attention to detail, strong project management skills and a commitment to credible and independent analysis.
This is a full-time, salaried position. Salary is commensurate with experience. Excellent benefits package. Generous vacation and holiday schedules
Please send an email with the subject “CT Voices Educational Equity Policy Fellow 2017” to Lauren Ruth at [email protected]. Attach your cover letter, resume or curricula vitae, two writing samples (one about a policy issue geared toward a general audience and a technical research paper), undergraduate and graduate college transcripts (unofficial accepted), and four references (with contact information).
Deadline
Friday, November 10, 2017 or until the position is filled. No phone inquiries please.