EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH BOARD

First Things First (i.e., FTF; the Arizona Early Childhood Development and Health Board) is one of the critical state partners in creating a child and family‐centered, comprehensive, collaborative and high‐quality early childhood system that supports the development, health and early education of all Arizona’s children, birth to age 5, not yet enrolled in kindergarten. Created by voter initiative in 2006, First Things First is governed by a state Board with 28 regional partnership councils. First Things First is a decentralized organization that engages diverse constituencies to accomplish its mission. Organizational values include a focus on accountability, transparency, coordination, collaboration and on the outcomes that will ensure young children start kindergarten healthy and ready to succeed in school and in life.

Salary: $52,000 - $60,000 

Grade: 22

Opening Date: 

Closing Date: 

The Quality First Data Coordinator (QF data coordinator) will work under the direct supervision of an Evaluation Program Specialist and the general guidance of the Senior Director of Research and Evaluation. The QF data coordinator will work in collaboration with the FTF Evaluation, IT, and Quality First teams. Primary areas of responsibility include planning, cleaning, managing, analyzing, and reporting data to inform the direction of policy decisions for Quality First and other related FTF statewide and multi-regional strategies. Quality First is Arizona’s Quality Improvement and Rating System and a FTF funded statewide strategy that measures and provides support to improve the quality of early care and education settings in Arizona, as well as provides information to assist families to select quality care for their young children. Other FTF funded strategies related to Quality First that this position will support include: Quality First Scholarships, Inclusion of Children with Special Needs, Child Care Health Consultation, Mental Health Consultation, Registry & College Scholarships, FTF Professional REWARD$ and Professional Development for Early Care and Education Professionals. The candidate for this position must have a strong attention to detail in the execution of data management, analysis, and reporting tasks and have impeccable interpersonal skills in order to support collaborative data-driven decision making among diverse groups of stakeholders, including internal and external program implementation staff, program evaluators, information technology staff, and early care and education providers.

● Develop processes for and implement routine data quality checks on multiple data systems
● Identify data issues and follow up with internal staff, external technical assistance providers, and/or Quality First participants as needed to correct data entry errors
● Work with internal and external staff to identify database changes needed for more effective data collection and storage to optimize the efficiency and quality of the data being collected
● Create and maintain codebooks for back-end users and FTF Staff for the Quality First Extranet and AZ Workforce Registry
● Create and maintain user guides for technical assistance providers and participants in the Quality First and Quality First Redesign projects
● Train front-end data system users, such as technical assistance providers and early care and education providers, to ensure consistent data entry procedures
● Provide technical assistance to front-end database users when questions or data quality issues arise
● Assist with the development and administration of web-based surveys to evaluate components of the Quality First program and/or related FTF strategies
● Compile and interpret data and analyze the results using statistical techniques
● Coordinate with evaluation and Quality First program staff to synthesize data for recommendations of programmatic quality improvement
● Prepare and organize Quality First data for reports and presentations
● Assist in communicating findings about Quality First and related FTF strategies
● Attend and participate in agency meetings, such as Quality First project meetings, staff meetings, and stakeholder meetings as appropriate
● Other duties as assigned

● Bachelor's degree in social science, public health, psychology, statistics, information systems, or related field
● A minimum of three years of experience in a professional setting executing data management projects, conducting data analysis, and developing and/or administering surveys
● Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Excel and statistics software packages (e.g., SPSS, R)
● Strong communication skills, including the ability to write and speak clearly, succinctly, and in a manner that appeals to a wide audience
● Ability to manage multiple and often simultaneous tasks, and create a work environment that is recognized for a high level of ethical integrity, timeliness, cost-effectiveness, accuracy, and results
● Ability to problem-solve, analyze, think creatively and draw conclusions
● Work effectively with other people to reach a goal
● Attention to detail to ensure data is recorded properly
● Comfortable working with minimal supervision and maintaining multiple responsibilities

● Master’s degree in social science, public health, psychology, statistics, information systems, or related field
● Advanced coursework in research methods and statistics
● Knowledge of the early care and education field and Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, both nationally and in Arizona
● SQL proficiency
● Evidence of prior data visualization and report writing experience

For a complete list of benefits provided by The State of Arizona, please visit our benefits page

HR@firstthingsfirst.org