Director of Research and Evaluation

About NYC Kids RISE 

NYC Kids RISE manages the Save for College Program in partnership with the NYC Department of Education and the City of New York, with founding support from the Gray Foundation. Through the Program, every student enrolled in a participating NYC public elementary school (including charter schools who choose to participate), starting in kindergarten, automatically receives an NYC Scholarship Account invested in the NY 529 Direct Plan plan with an initial $100 allocation and up to $200 in early rewards. Their families can open and connect a college and career savings account that they own for the benefit of their child, and communities can contribute to groups of these NYC Scholarship Accounts as both a targeted and universal platform for community-driven asset-building in every neighborhood. This approach draws from a variety of best practices and disciplines across the fields of asset building, child savings accounts, financial empowerment, education, community wealth building, urban poverty, neighborhood effects and social capital research, collective impact, and more. 

NYC Kids RISE is in the fifth year of operations in the geographic area of School District 30 in Queens - one of the most diverse school districts in the country - more than 13,000 students (~95% of all rising First, Second, Third, and Fourth Graders) have a NYC Scholarship Account with nearly $7M accumulated to date. Based on the success of the pilot, the Program is in the process of expanding citywide. This Spring more than nearly 70,000 Kindergarten students will have access to a NYC Scholarship Account. Read more about NYC Kids RISE and the Save for College Program and listen to stories from partners who helped build the platform during the pilot phase. Also check out articles in the New York Times, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal and the NYCHA Journal. Read more about NYC Kids RISE theory of change here in a recent report by the Urban Institute. 

Learn more about NYC Kids RISE and the Save for College Program at nyckidsrise.org. 

Director of Research & Evaluation 

Together with its partners, NYC Kids RISE has laid the groundwork for a universal, community-driven wealth-building platform that is embedded in homes, schools, and neighborhoods; operates at the family, school, neighborhood, and system-wide levels; and recognizes and supports other stakeholders and their critical and connected roles as part of an ecosystem. The Save for College Program’s approach is underpinned by an innovative, multidisciplinary Theory of Change that incorporates feedback, best practices, and research across a variety of disciplines. This includes, for example, research on the impacts of neighborhoods, concentrated poverty, and local social capital from scholars such as William Julius Wilson, Robert Sampson, and Raj Chetty; as well as research on asset poverty and wealth inequality from Michael Sherraden, Margaret Clancy, William Elliott, and Tom Shapiro; and education including Ronald Ferguson, Anthony Jack among many others. As a universal platform that will ultimately reach all 1.1 million students in the NYC public school system, the Program represents a significant opportunity for long-term, creative, interdisciplinary, comprehensive research and evaluation approaches that can generate important learnings and models for economic opportunity and anti-poverty work in other cities and states across the country. 

NYC Kids RISE seeks an entrepreneurial, creative, experienced professional with expertise in program and policy evaluation and social science research methods to serve as the organization’s first Director of Research & Evaluation. The Director will lead and quarterback the short-, medium-, and long-term research and evaluation strategies for the Save for College Program, coordinating and creatively leveraging internal resources, public sector partners, third-party researchers and evaluators, and outside advisers. This Director will play a critical role in the Save for College Program’s continuous learning, improvement, impact, and knowledge sharing for the entire NYC Kids RISE team and for the field.

Key responsibilities will include but not be limited to:

● Serve as a internal expert on place-based efforts to advance economic opportunity and neighborhood-level change, income and wealth building strategies including child savings accounts, and collective impact;

● Lead development and execution of the research and evaluation agenda for the Save for College Program--including the appropriate combination of short-, medium-, and long-term implementation studies, impact evaluations, and other approaches--building upon existing research & evaluation resources and strategies developed to date;

● Lead ongoing revisions to and evolutions of the Program’s Theory of Change, including consulting with external partners, advisers, and researchers;

● Serve as a strategic thought partner to Executive Team; Provide briefings and reports to NYC Kids RISE staff, leadership, Board of Directors, and external partners and funders, on a regular basis and/or as requested, on Program data, analysis, and research and evaluation findings, and support these stakeholders to understand and operationalize these analyses and findings;

● Support and advance the development of “learning” culture within NYC Kids RISE and throughout the Save for College Program community/platform, including gathering, analyzing and disseminating learnings within the organization and with platform partners

● Oversee the organization's programmatic performance management and data tracking systems in the context of the Theory of Change and the latest research and best practices across relevant fields, working with other NYC Kids RISE team members;

● Work with the Chief of Strategy Policy and the Executive Director to launch and manage a multi-disciplinary advisory body of researchers and other subject matter experts in the relevant fields to inform the Save for College Program’s development, implementation, evaluation, and long-term research agenda;

● Develop and manage other relationships with external research firms, academic researchers, and informal advisors; Represent organization and its work with a variety of audiences including practitioners, policy makers and researchers;

● Write and support proposals and grants as necessary to fund or initiate research evaluations, grants or related special projects;

● Stay up to date with the latest academic, policy, and programmatic research findings and methods in the relevant fields listed above;

● Incorporate feedback, co-creation, and participatory research methods into program design, research and evaluation projects, capturing and reflecting the diversity of NYC’s public schools and neighborhoods by engaging families, school partners, and community members as key partners in program design, research, and evaluation;

● Support NYC Kids RISE’s organizational learning and knowledge management systems;

● Draft, and work with the NYC Kids RISE communications team to produce and disseminate reports, white papers, print and digital materials, and other communications as needed to support the research and evaluation work;

● Participate and share in the organization’s work to advance racial equity and anti-oppression in the organization’s and program’s operations and practices; proactively identify opportunities to advance the development of an anti-racist organization; share and solicit ongoing feedback and conversations to advance this work;

● Maintain, and support other staff and volunteers to maintain, strict adherence to NYC Kids RISE data security and privacy policies.

Qualifications

● Ph.D. or MA/MS in a relevant social science and/or public policy field and at least five years of experience in research, public policy, urban policy, nonprofit program management, and/or neighborhood-level program evaluation;

● Successful experience creating and implementing research and evaluation plans, and developing theories of change, logic models, and outcome frameworks;

● Detailed involvement in the creation, field testing, and implementation of data collection and evaluation methods and research studies;

● Demonstrated track record in disseminating evaluation and research findings to various

audiences through publications, presentations, policy briefs, webinars, and other formats;

● Strong quantitative analysis skills and experience using quantitative analysis software;

● Strong qualitative analysis skills;

● Superb communication and relationship building skills, including writing, public speaking, and presentation to diverse audiences;

● Demonstrated experience in multi-disciplinary and mixed-methods research and evaluation;

● Adaptable, flexible, and effective problem solver in fast-paced settings;

● Proven project manager, highly organized, strong attention to detail, excellent follow-up;

● Willingness to work long hours, evenings, and some weekends as needed;

● Strong judgment;

● Demonstrated interest in and commitment to increasing economic opportunities and long-term financial security for low-income New York City families and neighborhoods;

Due to COVID-19, the application process for this role will be conducted virtually. The entire team is currently working remotely and depending on the timing of this hire, the employee will likely begin this position remotely as well. The office is otherwise based in Long Island City (Queens, NY), and the entire team is expected to return to the office once health conditions allow.

To apply, submit a cover letter and resume and list the name of the position, “Director of Research Evaluation." Salary for this position starts at $125,000.

NYC Kids Rise is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in employment on the basis of basis of gender, religion, race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, marital status, caregiver status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military status, unemployed status, or any other characteristic protected by law.