Policy Analyst: Quantitative

Who We Are:

The Stanford University Graduate School of Education (GSE) is a top-ranked school of education, known for its prestigious faculty, rigorous graduate degree programs, and its impact on the quality of education across the world. The GSE is committed to developing leaders in education research, practice, and policy. Our community includes over 60 faculty, 400 students, 200 staff, 14,000 alumni and countless people from the local and global communities we work with and impact.

The Gardner Center was founded in 2000 as an expression of John W. Gardner’s vision for vibrant civic participation and civic life, and within that, his conviction that we have collective responsibility—as individuals, institutions, and communities—to promote and sustain civic vitality. Our multi-disciplinary team advances this vision by conducting rigorous, actionable, and capacity-building research and evaluation in partnership with agencies dedicated to improving positive and equitable community outcomes.

The John Gardner Center in the Graduate School of Education seeks a Policy Analyst to join our multidisciplinary team. The new Analyst will play a key role on teams conducting research on policy-relevant topic areas related to supporting positive and equitable youth, family, and community outcomes. The Analyst will collaborate with researchers to conduct studies including but not limited to needs assessments, landscape analyses, and program evaluations. They will also collaboratively develop actionable findings and deliver them to our partners via a range of products, including policy briefs, presentations, and peer-reviewed articles. They will supervise graduate level research assistants and potentially other staff members; work collaboratively with other Gardner Center staff; and report to a Deputy Director.

The vast majority of our work is conducted in collaborative research teams using multiple or mixed methods approaches to research and policy analysis. The incumbent for this position will be expected to contribute to mixed-methods policy analysis, so we prefer candidates who demonstrate prior experience or formal education in both quantitative and qualitative research methods employed in the social sciences as applied to the study of complex public organizations in the U.S. (e.g., schools and school districts) and community-based organizations and agencies. The Analyst must also possess a commitment to making a difference in the lives of youth, families, and communities through community-engaged research.

 
What You’ll Do:

Collaborate with Gardner Center staff and community partners to design and carry out rigorous, actionable, and capacity building research that responds to partners’ needs and enables them to make research-informed decisions that advance their efforts to improve the lives of youth, families, and communities. Specifically, you will:

• Develop and carry out research designs that utilize the most robust methods possible given project parameters (e.g., timeline, budget).
• Ensure quantitative and qualitative dimensions of a study are seamlessly integrated from initial design through final reporting.
• Meet with partners on an ongoing basis to review research activities, discuss interim findings, and evolve analyses.
• Communicate research findings to a variety of interested, invested, and impacted parties, including academic and community audiences. This may include writing and presenting interim research updates as well as final reports via academic articles, research and policy briefs, executive summaries, and conference papers. It may also include sharing findings in community forums (e.g., school board meetings and various forums for public engagement).
• Participate actively as a collaborative member of the Gardner Center team, contributing to a vibrant, generative community dedicated to community engaged scholarship in the service of ensuring the wellbeing of our most vulnerable youth, families, and communities. This includes attending regular staff meetings and retreats, supervising graduate students and junior staff on specific projects, collaborating with colleagues across the greater Stanford community and research field, and contributing to proposal development for future projects.

The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classification and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.