• Chicago, IL, USA; Employees can work remotely
• Full-time

Apply here: https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/EducationDevelopmentCenter/743999719739854-research-associate-ii?trid=837433bf-3e56-43f4-9d11-9eac9c851dfe 

Company Description

EDC is one of the world’s leading nonprofit research and development firms.  EDC designs, implements, and evaluates programs to improve education, health, and economic opportunity worldwide. Collaborating with both public and private partners, we strive for a world where all people are empowered to live healthy, productive lives.

EDC has a commitment to promoting equity and access to high quality education and health services that contribute to thriving communities where people from diverse backgrounds learn, live, and work together. EDC expresses its commitment to increasing equity through its strategies, services and products, which contribute to building capacity and transforming lives.

Job Description

The School Improvement Portfolio in the US Division has an opening for an Research Associate (II), reporting to a Research Scientist in Waltham, MA, Chicago, IL, or as a telecommuter.

We provide expertise in formal and informal education through designing and conducting research, evaluation, research syntheses, and secondary data analysis. We also provide technical support related to data and evidence use, and apply evidence to inform policies on a wide range of issues including school-based, community-based, and out-of-school time educational programs. We are devoted to supporting learners from communities and contexts with persistent, systemic opportunity gaps.  We are looking for candidates who share EDC’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and who understand the importance of cultural responsiveness in today’s educational context.  Candidates with lived experience of marginalized populations are encouraged to apply.

We are currently seeking a full or part-time researcher with expertise in one or more of the following content areas: multilingual learner policies, K-12 online or blended learning, and/or implementation research. Ideally the researcher has experience conducting quantitative research as well as experience working with school, district and state stakeholders. We encourage applicants who have experience with cost-analysis to apply. The researcher will join existing research studies and technical assistance projects, and will be expected to contribute both substantive and methodological expertise.

The Research Associate (II) independently provides support to complex or multiple qualitative &/or quantitative and/or qualitative investigation efforts, including:

• research & analysis, with increasing methodology expertise and independent judgment
• communicating with school staff or staff at local or state education agencies about data and research
• supporting stakeholders with evidence-based decision-making.
• drafting proposals; coordinating proposal development or execution
• assisting Principal Investigator with key deliverables
• maintaining records
• drafting, revising project plans
• writing, editing materials
• disseminating research finding in a user-friendly format

The Research Associate (II)

• Coordinates administrative and logistical tasks
• Coordinates quality assurance
• Facilitates project teamwork and feedback exchanges
• Troubleshoots complex problems, proposing initiatives and recommending or negotiating solutions
• Trains, supervises, and provides guidance or administrative direction to junior staff; often coordinates work of less experienced staff
• May be responsible for parts of diverse, small to mid-size  projects or coordinate sections of larger projects
• May travel when travel resumes

Qualifications

This position requires educational achievement; excellent writing skills; methodological expertise, demonstrable initiative, creativity, and flexibility; ability to work independently and effectively in groups; and strong interpersonal & organizational skills. Specific requirements:

• PhD in a related field
• With PhD, 0–3 years related experience (as above)
• Prior project leadership or supervisory experience preferred
• Experience with quantitative analysis
• Experience using statistical analysis software, such as R, Python, or Stata

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Apply here: https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/EducationDevelopmentCenter/743999719739854-research-associate-ii?trid=837433bf-3e56-43f4-9d11-9eac9c851dfe 

Evaluation Coordinator, Metro Chicago’s Good Food Purchasing Initiative Chicago Food Policy Action Council

Scope of Work

About the Good Food Purchasing Initiative (GFPI) of Metro Chicago

Coordinated by the Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC), Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), and Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH), the Good Food Purchasing Initiative (GFPI) of Metro Chicago aims to ensure that institutional food purchasing advances an equitable, healthy, fair, local, humane, and sustainable food system and creates good food access for all.

GFPI is based upon on the implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP), which is a metric-based framework that supports institutional food buyers to direct their buying power, make informed decisions, and measure impact towards five core value categories: local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare and nutrition. GFPI posits that effective implementation must be intentional in ensuring equity for the producers and supply chain actors that are positioned to meet the GFPP’s growing demand for local, sustainable, and fair food in public institutions. Without targeted resources and investment, outreach, and technical assistance to small producers and food businesses in low-to-moderate income communities and communities of color, it is likely that inequitable power dynamics present in the industrial food system, with concentrated control and wealth in the hands of a small number of firms, would replicate itself within the GFPP supply chain. Food justice and food sovereignty inform central tenets of the GFPI: to improve equity, affordability, accessibility, and consumption of high quality, culturally relevant good food for all communities with the Chicago regional food system.

GFPI’s Key Objectives:

1. Ensure procuring City of Chicago and Cook County departments, agencies, and institutions fully implement the Good Food Purchasing Program.

2. Foster a racially and socially equitable food system that will supply City of Chicago and Cook County departments, agencies, and institutions with healthy, fair, local, humane, and sustainable food.

3. Advance a values-based procurement culture that supports the demand and availability of good food.

About the Position

The GFPI Evaluation Coordinator will oversee the implementation of a robust evaluation plan to study the impacts of GFPI on achieving a more healthy, humane, fair, local, and sustainable food system while ensuring that good food is accessible for all.

Activities

• Convert the GFPI Evaluation Framework into a timebound evaluation plan

• Coordinate monthly GFPI Evaluation Team meetings and participate in Midwest Consortium on Equity & Research in Food (MCERF)

• Identify which evaluation partners in GFPI’s Evaluation Team will take on which pieces of GFPI evaluation work, and establish timelines for execution.

• Ensure evaluation of planned GFPI activities in 2020/2021, including but not limited to:

  • Evaluating reach & response of new GFPP Producer Manual (Fall 2020)

  • Evaluating knowledge gained and impacts of three GFPP producer trainings (Fall/Winter 2020)

  • Evaluating relationships built, new supply chain connections, and knowledge gained from two Buyer/Supplier Mixers (Winter 2020-1)

  • Evaluating attendance and receptiveness of GFPI Institutional Summit (Spring 2021)

  • Support GFPI Project Manager and GFPI Project Associate in systematizing data collection for both process and outcome evaluation questions; help ensure GFPI

  • Coordination Team has streamlined and effective technology solutions for workflow.

  • Explore opportunities to publish evaluation research in both peer-reviewed journals and popular media outlets

Required Skills and Experience

• At least 5 years of experience in evaluation roles on similar complex projects that involve more than one organization or research entity

• Familiarity with both quantitative and qualitative research methods

• Familiarity with developmental evaluation approach

• Familiarity with participatory evaluation processes

• Strong attention to detail and demonstrated organizational project management skills

• Ability to delegate out and supervise pieces of evaluation work to multiple evaluators in a collaborative approach

• Familiarity with the food systems field and emerging research on institutional good food procurement, values-based procurement, equitable food-oriented development (EFOD), regional food systems development, and “farm-to-institution” or “farm-to-school” a plus

Time Commitment & Compensation Rate: 20 hours/week; $30-40 hourly rate commensurate with experience; 12 months: July 2020 - July 2021

TO APPLY: For individual consultants:please send a cover letter and resume; For evaluation consulting organizations or academic research centers:please send a 1-page proposal with anticipated budgetary needs and the resumes of associated key staff. For all applicants:send materials with subject line “GFPI Evaluator Application”to rcooley@chicagofoodpolicy.com by June 28th, 2020.

Right now, and in the very near future, program evaluators and evaluation researchers will be asked to explore many questions related to the current coronavirus pandemic. RFPs are already being prepared to study the effects of COVID-19 on specific populations and issue areas. We will be responsible for setting the evaluation agenda for years to come. If we harness the full potential of our influence and power, we can help secure a fundamentally different society, one that is firmly rooted in social justice and celebrates the full scope of our humanity and the sacredness of this planet.

While COVID-19 exacerbates the cruelties of our economic and political systems on a global scale, it also makes the environment ripe to continuously critique capitalist values and frameworks in both the programs we aim to understand and our evaluation practice. We ask: How can we work toward the liberation of ourselves and others if we are capitalist evaluators (un)intentionally serving a profit-over-people agenda? What would it look like to investigate unregulated capitalism in your next evaluation or explore data metrics related to the impact of privatization on the people you serve? What would it look like to build a responsive evaluation?
In solidarity, we hope to:

1. Explore, unpack, and name the values you hold and bring with you to the evaluation project with regard to the size and scope of a democratic government, public goods, and unregulated capitalism. Part of this process is to explicate the logic of capitalism and how this logic has become conventional wisdom embedded in our social policy and programs. This section will break down key terms.

1. To detect the free market ideology, the elite, and corporate-run government “dog whistles” and mechanisms underpinning program development, financing, implementation, and evaluation. In addition to the current crisis, we will review examples from neighborhood reinvestment efforts, public-private partnerships, and collective impact.

1. To discern tangible ways to build an evaluation design that is responsive to a pro-public, pro-democracy values system, and resists racialized and gendered capitalist encroachment on evaluation methodologies. Many thought leaders of color have interrogated American capitalism and our evaluations can benefit from their work. Our evaluation colleagues at AfREA, through the Made in Africa (MAE), initiative have already linked global capitalism and imperialism with monitoring and evaluation methodologies, as did proponents of decolonizing research methodologies under the tutelage of Linda Tuhiwai Smith. We extend that discourse with this skills-based session.

1. To practice warriorship we are drafting a Hard Questions handout to work through a hypothetical evaluation RFP using this macro lens. We are working on the format for this aspect of the webinar as we figure out logistics and the possible use of virtual breakout rooms.

• Since 2011, ¡Milwaukee Evaluation! Inc. has provided emancipatory field development, networking, and capacity building for evaluators serving Wisconsin and works toward a diverse, representative, and responsive evaluation workforce. It values social justice and centers people of color and underrepresented groups in its strategy. It works closely with an ever-expanding network of evaluators in the state and midwest region. We began preparing this webinar pre-pandemic as a continuation of the work started with members of the Young African Leaders Initiative in the summers of 2018 and 2019 on capitalism and evaluation. 

• In the Public Interest is a nonprofit research and policy center committed to the democratic control of public goods and services. We help citizens, public officials, advocacy groups, and researchers better understand the impacts of government contracts and public-private agreements on service quality, democratic decision-making, and public budgets.

This webinar is a centering space to help get you started on your next evaluation design using this macro lens, whether your next evaluation is an after-school arts program, neighborhood reinvestment, or an assessment of pharmaceutical bundling of COVID-19 medications. Evaluators amplify voices and set knowledge agendas. We cannot be silent or neutral on the adverse consequences of unregulated capitalism. Capitalism is no longer too big, abstract, or immaterial. Disaster capitalism is already here and evaluators must respond to this.

This original content and material for this webinar was spearheaded by ¡Milwaukee Evaluation! Inc. with the help of In the Public’s Interest, which has written extensively about conservative attacks on government and the impact of privatization on universal access to public goods.

We don’t know what May 2020 holds so we plan to record the session and offer the recording to all registrants at some point after the webinar.

This session is for evaluators, evaluation researchers, funders, government staff, and most importantly, the evaluand – the everyday warrior. To help diffuse this information throughout your organization we encourage entire teams to participate. 

If you have already directly confronted capitalism in your evaluation and would like to share a past evaluation product and your brilliant mind with the field, please contact us at milwaukeeevaluation@gmail.com.

The full announcement and background details can be found here.

Job posted here: https://ama-assn.csod.com/ats/careersite/JobDetails.aspx?site=2&id=1192

"The American Medical Association (AMA), a nonprofit, is the nation's largest professional Association of physicians. We are a unifying voice and powerful ally for America's physicians, the patients they care for, and the promise of a healthier nation.  To be part of the AMA is to be part of our Mission to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health. 

As an employer, we are dedicated to many efforts, including employee learning and development, social responsibility, diversity and inclusion and wellness.   

Our well-defined culture has strongly impacted the prosperity of our organization.  Our foundational values of Respect, Integrity, Innovation, Impact, Collaboration, Agility and Trust are at the core of our efforts and continue to shape the success of the AMA. 

We have an opportunity at our headquarters in Chicago for a Director, Health Equity Data Use & Research on our Strategy team. As part of the team, you will support building a Center for Health Equity which will be an organizational home designed to elevate the importance of and to sustain the AMA’s health equity efforts. The role of the Center for Health Equity is to embed health equity across the AMA so that health equity becomes part of the practice, process, action, innovation, and organizational performance and outcomes. The best measure of our long-term success and most desired outcome is meaningful, relevant, and impactful inclusion of health equity into the strategic and operational objectives of the AMA.  You will be responsible for providing leadership and direction for multiple data and research related projects focused on establishing AMA reputation as a trusted source of data and knowledge of Health Equity.  Identify and manage relationships with key collaborators and external stakeholders who can provide access to large public and private health databases and reporting capabilities relevant to Health Equity’s strategic plan.  

Responsibilities:

Provide leadership and build the roadmap for Health Equity data, research, and evaluation related projects:

• Define and lead the overall development and infrastructure of Health Equity’s data and technical roadmap
• Build a team to support data, research, and evaluation needs that will inventory existing enterprise-wide health equity data, evaluation, and research efforts; work with the VP to assess data resources and gaps in the context of the VP’s organizational goals/vision and the AMA’s strategic goals, and develop and implement an evaluation and research agenda that advances the work of the unit and the AMA at large
• Develop an overall strategy and manage enterprise standards for identifying, assessing, accessing, analyzing and publishing relevant information from data sources
• Lead efforts to develop and publish relevant manuscripts, fact sheets, and data reports
• Translate and use data to strengthen advocacy/policy opportunities

Data collection, analysis, and technical support:

• Build a database to house, track, and evaluate progress on enterprise-wide efforts to embed equity in metrics and performance plans
• Provide technical assistance in implementing an equity lens for Enterprise-wide multiple data-related projects involving large public and private health databases 
• Provide technical and analytical expertise on epidemiologic and statistical methods to lead the development and implementation of multivariate statistical analysis to evaluate the social, system, and structural level drivers of Health Equity
• Conduct ‘data for equity’ trainings to build and strengthen organizational capacity of other data, research, and evaluation staff across the enterprise
• Lead and carry out multiple data-related projects involving large public and private health databases in support of Health Equity’s strategy by gathering requirements, developing solutions, building reports, sharing findings and providing support to Health Equity project teams, AMA senior management and external collaborators

Identify and manage relationships with key collaborators:

• Identify and manage relationships with key collaborators, external stakeholders and consultants relevant to Health Equity
• Develop relationships with internal groups to embed health equity across the AMA focusing on data use, analysis and reporting

Staff Management:

• Lead, mentor and provide management oversight for professional staff 
• Responsible for setting objectives, evaluating performance and developing staff
• Identify opportunities for advancing staff skills and expertise 

 Requirements:

• Master’s degree (MA/MS) or PHD with specialization in public health, social epidemiology, health economics or other related field required
• Minimum 10 years of experience in the field of data analytics, with knowledge of healthcare and/or public health information required; minimum 5+ years in health equity data, research and/or evaluation; must have a social and structural analysis to advance health equity withspecific expertise in race, gender identity, and sexual orientation data collection and analysis
• Minimum 5 years of managing people and all facets of complex solution development projects to timeline and budget, including resource allocation management and resource modeling.
• Substantive experience in the analysis of complex health related studies, including, panel, cross-sectional, uni-variate and multivariate statistical techniques
• Substantive experience analyzing primary and secondary data, and a variety of data modalities (eg, surveillance data, claims, registries, electronic health records, survey responses, patient reported outcomes, observational studies and clinical trials, and national public health and/or health care databases)
• Proven track record in organizational leadership - preferably in complex, multi-disciplinary organizations and team-building and collaboration
• Experience establishing and maintaining collaborations with national stakeholders
• Ability to demonstrate understanding of machine learning and artificial intelligence in relation to predictive models.
• Experience with Big Data trends, tools, analytic, and modeling methodologies; experience with Big Data cloud based solutions a plus.
• Comfortable with presenting to others in a clear, concise, convincing manner.
• Excellent time management and organizational skills, including ability to accurately gauge project duration, deliver on deadlines, and manage a workload with possible conflicting priorities.

The AMA offers competitive salaries, including an incentive plan; excellent benefits and progressive technology.  Our office is a business casual environment and we respect work-life balance.  The American Medical Association is located at 330 N. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 and is convenient to all public transportation in Chicago. "

Available jobs for Chicagoland Evaluators:

Evaluator Advocate/Evaluation Project Lead @ BECOME

Location: Chicago, IL
Job Posting: Evaluator Advocate position_BECOME.pdf

Senior Manager Research & Evaluation @ Weikart Center

Location: Ypsilanti, MI
Job Posting: Senior Manager Research Evaluation job description FINAL.pdf

Consulting Opportunity with OneGoal

"OneGoal is a national postsecondary access and success nonprofit. In 2017, OneGoal staff consulted internal stakeholders and external literature to identify nine non-cognitive / socio-emotional learning skills (Pillars) that we believed to be essential in supporting students (Fellows) throughout their postsecondary journeys.

The selection of these Pillars of Fellow Success guided our decision to embark on a program overhaul aligned with Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP).

Two years into the CRP program overhaul, we have learned that the array of socio-emotional / non-cognitive skills we are focusing on may not be sufficiently narrow to effectively guide practitioner focus, curriculum design, partner communication, and measurement.

We are therefore seeking a consultant who can provide expert guidance in education psychology (theory and measurement) as we refine the set of nine Pillars to a  smaller subset that is meaningful, measurable, and malleable, aligned with the content and structure of our program, and proven to support the long-term outcomes our program is designed to foster.

Please reach out to me directly at suzanne.wulach@onegoalgraduation.org if you are interested in this opportunity. Thank you!"

Scope of work for Evaluation Consultant for Instructional Equity Working Group Change Ideas funded by the McDougal Family Foundation

If interested, please reply to this scope of work to equity@cps.edu with your resume, rate, and cover letter detailing relevant experience by January 28, 2020. Please use email subject line “Change Idea Evaluation Consultant - Your Name”. The maximum compensation for this project is $4,500.

Background

Chicago Public Schools’ Instructional Equity Working Group (IEWG) is composed of teachers, school administrators, partners, and central office staff. In 2019, the IEWG designed high impact change ideas (or shifts in practice) based on their experiences as equity champions at their schools and/or organizations. Students were consulted as to the feasibility and relevance of these change ideas.

In September 2019, the CPS Office of Equity partnered with the McDougal Foundation, which granted $60,000 to support the implementation of change ideas at schools. Six schools were awarded grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. The CPS Office of Equity would like to engage a consultant to document the implementation of six change ideas at six CPS schools across Chicago.

Reporting and Work Relationships

The consultant will work in close collaboration with the CPS Office of Equity and the six change idea designers to determine location, dates, and methodologies.

Deliverables and Estimate of Days

The time period for this contract would be from February 1 to July 15, 2020. This project is estimated to take 12 days of work time.

Deliverable/Month (Estimated Number of Days)	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul
Documentation of subgrant selection process (1 day)	X
Baseline assessment capturing student and teacher voice (3 days)	X
Monitoring follow-up visits  (3 days)		X
Endline interviews capturing student and teacher voice (3 days)			X	X
Monitoring and evaluation report (1 day)					X
Co-present findings at change idea convening (1 day)						X

Additional meeting times with CPS Office of Equity team and writing time expected to take no more than 3 days.

JUF is hiring an Evaluation and Data Manager. This new position will work in coordination with the Assistant VP of Evaluation and Quality Improvement to support and expand external data and evaluation efforts for JUF’s partner agencies, individually and collectively, in addition to supporting internal JUF evaluation and ongoing research activities. Please share this job posting with any interested candidates. https://lnkd.in/gXwERju

Assistant/Associate Professor Faculty Position in Evaluation
Department of Educational Psychology – College of Education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, announces a position for an outstanding emerging or established scholar in evaluation.  The successful candidate will have a strong record of intellectual contributions to evaluation, substantial field experience as an evaluator, and expertise in qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods. For more information, please go to www.education.illinois.edu/cbo/human-resources/available-positions. 

To ensure full consideration, we ask that applications be submitted by October 10, 2019. The University of Illinois conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer. The U of I is an EEO Employer/Vet/Disabled. www.inclusiveillinois.illinois.edu.

The Lindau Lab at the University of Chicago is hiring for the following positions:
JR05888 (Research Assistant);
JR05884 (Research Assistant);
JR05882 (Research Analyst);
JR05923 (Director of Operations)

To learn more type the JR codes above in the search bar here: https://uchicago.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External 

About the Unit: The Lindau Laboratory at the University of Chicago is an interdisciplinary, fast-paced laboratory performing human-level observational, interventional (clinical trials), health services, geospatial and computational/simulation research motivated by a fundamental concern for the principle of justice or fairness in health and health care. The lab is actively growing, presently with 3 concurrent NIH-funded studies (two are new 5 year, R01-funded clinical trials) and funding from AHRQ and other sources. The Lab, funded predominantly and continuously by agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services along with private philanthropy for more than 15 years, currently employs about 15 full and part-time researchers across disciplines including epidemiology, gerontology, anthropology, public health, and health care communications. The lab routinely and widely collaborates across disciplines, University of Chicago units, and with investigators at other institutions including experts in the fields of computer science, social services administration, psychology, geriatrics, oncology public health and other medical and social science fields. In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Lindau is a practicing gynecologist with specialized expertise in prevalence, prevention and treatment of sexual disorders in women. The work of the lab focuses in two main areas: 1) urban health and population health improvement, with a particular concern for women and older adults living in high-poverty communities and 2) preservation and treatment of female sexual function in the context of aging and cancer and other common diseases. The two main programs of research include the South Side Health and Vitality Studies (CommunityRx, MAPSCorps, Feed1st) and the Program in Integrative Sexual Medicine (PRISM) (Bionic Breast Project, WomanLab, Scientific Network on Female Sexual Health and Cancer). SSHVS is a >10 year collaborative effort led by the Lindau Lab including university researchers and community members that aims to understand how community assets and information and communication technologies can be used to improve health and vitality. The Lab has spun out two companies: NowPow, LLC and MAPSCorps, 501c3, both based in Hyde Park, that are active collaborators with the Lab’s research program.

The Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) has reached out to request volunteers to serve as reviewers for proposals submitted through its Chicago Early Learning RFP. The RFP invited current funded Delegate Agencies and Partners to apply for a continuation of funding to serve children and families birth-5 across a variety of program models.

In short, DFSS is asking for assistance in reviewing and “rating” proposals submitted. There is no compensation involved; this is purely an act of good citizenship. Both experienced and novice proposal reviewers are welcome to participate. This is an opportunity for you to learn more about the proposal review process and to better understand the landscape of early childhood services in Chicago.

Volunteers will need to set aside time to:

• View a recorded DFSS-led training on the scoring matrix
• Sign a confidentiality agreement form 
• Score between 4 to 10 proposals before 7/19 

If you would like to volunteer (or learn more), please reach out to Rima Malhotra, Manager of Family Support Programs at rima.malhotra@cityofchicago.org.

Many thanks for considering this opportunity to support DFSS's investments in the city.