Job Description:
The School Data Specialist is ideal for an individual looking to help schools maintain a strong data program and apply analytical skills to support school leaders making key operational and/or academic decisions to improve education. You will help schools technically set up and utilize their technology and establish solid data collection procedures to support state compliance. Then you will assist schools to use their well-managed data to make strong tactical decisions around which students need support through data visualizations, reports and weekly meetings with key school staff. Lastly, you will help schools take a step back and consider the strategic implications of school policy for their operational and academic programs.
Reports to Regional Data Manager. Location flexible.
Who we are:
EdOps is Washington, DC-based B-Corp focused on minimizing the financial, operational, and compliance demands of running a school and supporting education leaders with data-driven insights to improve student outcomes. Simply put, we make it easier for school leaders to increase student achievement. Our growing team of professionals work with over 100 schools and school networks nationwide. We are serious about being the best possible partners to schools, and it shows in our 97% annual client retention rate and rapid growth rate. We work hard at being a rewarding, enjoyable workplace where staff can grow professionally and make an impact, and we were recognized as a Washington Post Top Workplace 2020. We are looking for education focused, data loving, collaborative people to join our team.
What you will do:
Maintain and utilize core functions of school clients’ student information systems.
Identify and implement means for schools to more efficiently utilize their student information systems to support overall student and organizational performance.
Develop and refine processes schools use to collect and maintain accurate student data.
Ensure that schools are meeting all compliance requirements related to student data.
Summarize and analyze student data in reports and dashboards for school leadership.
Engage with school partners to ensure they understand the data provided and can drive strategic decisions with data-informed insights.
Conduct statistical analysis of school clients’ student achievement data.
What you will accomplish:
By Year 1 you will:
Independently serve at least 2 schools.
Train school staff to use their student information system.
Meet the year-long state compliance requirements for your schools.
Create compelling narrative arc and education-focused data stories for school leaders.
Understand the range and variety of educational data.
Grow your excel skills to intermediate/advanced level.
Hone your excel and database skills to apply on education data.
By Year 3 you will:
Develop confidence in using coding (e.g., SQL) in everyday work.
Design dashboards that allow leaders to make data-driven decisions.
Advise schools on how to get the most out of their technology platforms.
Translate policy decisions into practical processes for schools.
Become a trusted advisor to schools when creating processes to collect, manage, and pull insights from their data.
Support in developing newer EdOps team members.
Who you are:
Find joy in solving small tactical problems with data at a school level. You can’t wait to figure out each school’s set of systems and help them put the puzzle pieces together.
Committed to increasing education equity and improving outcomes for students as much as you care about well-designed data sets, algorithms and clean analyses.
Strong client communications and interpersonal skills. Comfortable with communicating complex ideas and nuance in professional English both verbally and in writing.
Able to build and manage relationships. As a bonus, we love specialists who can understand what a school partner is asking and get at the core or underlying issues.
Have a growth mindset and desire to learn new technology skills and data platforms. The education data landscape is ever-changing and we’re open to learning better and more efficient ways to manage, process, and utilize that data.
Able to be flexible in problem solving is critical. Different questions require different solutions and our specialists adapt tools and technology to find the best fit.
Independent in problem solving and completing work. We are a very collaborative community that supports each other, but our specialists solve new problems every day.
Committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Open to learning and growing in these areas together so that each of us can contribute to building a culture of equity and support our schools in advancing these values. Please see more on EdOps's commitment here.
What you need:
Ability to navigate relational databases so that you can setup, manage and extract data for our clients (you don’t need to know education specific databases).
Experience managing data and building reports. You might not know SQL, but you aren’t afraid to learn a line of code.
Intermediate excel knowledge such as vlookup and pivot tables so that you can manipulate and analyze data for school partners.
Ability to create compelling visuals and data representation. Be able to articulate the narratives arcs and the corresponding visual so that our school partners can easily digest and use information.
Knowledge of descriptive statistics so that you can make conclusions from the many many columns and rows of data.
Time management par excellence and ability to prioritize.
Strong attention to detail.
Flexible attitude about how your workday will go. We are “Reliable” to our partners which means that we are very responsive and committed to client service. Our schools love that but that does mean that our days don’t always go as planned.
A bonus: knowledge of school data or how schools work.
Typically, data specialists have 5-8 years of work or post high school educational experience.
What you get:
Purpose driven work focusing on student achievement through operational excellence. That is what it is all about.
Chance to work every day with colleagues who are committed to kids and supportive of each other’s efforts.
Check out other perks of working at EdOps here. And some details on benefits here.
We know that a team from a wide range of backgrounds with different life experiences, identities, opinions, and talents makes us better able to innovate and deliver on our mission of supporting schools to improve student outcomes. Every day we work to build an inclusive company culture where everyone can be themselves at work and do their best work.
Apply:
If you are passionate about our mission, ready to learn, and looking for a place where you can be yourself, we want to hear from you! To apply, please complete our application here.
What you can expect from the hiring process:
