Educational Data Analyst

Position: Educational Data Analyst

Department: Superintendent’s Office

Reports to: Superintendent and Central Office Administrators

Affiliation: Non-aligned (salaried, exempt)

Salary range: $105,000-$115,000, based on commensurate experiences

About Watertown Public Schools

The Watertown Public Schools offers a unique learning environment that is intellectually rigorous and nurturing with small, responsive classrooms designed to ignite creativity while empowering student resilience and confidence. Located in the greater Boston area, the Watertown Public Schools currently has 2526 students enrolled in its preK-12 program within the Early Steps Preschool, three elementary schools, Watertown Middle School and Watertown High School. Of these schools, three are identified as school-wide Title I sites with more than 40% of the student population qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Currently, we have 600+ employees, and the District is governed by an elected seven-member School Committee. Watertown students explore and shape the world around them through a variety of innovative learning experiences and opportunities in a public school setting. Our student body is diverse, reflecting the ever-changing demographics of our community and our nation. Watertown serves a racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse student population, our largest historically marginalized student group is Latinx (19.1%) and over 45+ languages are represented among our families. Providing opportunities and removing barriers through our commitment to equity and inclusion serves as the foundation of our core values.

Watertown Public Schools seeks a full-time Educational Data Analyst to perform data work with our schools and programs and to coach school and district data teams and staff with the goal of improving outcomes for Watertown’s students. There are also opportunities for this position to provide data visualizations and monitoring tools in service of supporting schools to monitor progress toward their goals. Knowledge of PowerSchool or similar SIS and Excel or similar spreadsheet acumen is required for this position. This includes the regular review of data for the purposes of goal and target setting, planning, progress monitoring, and taking action.

Responsibilities:

• Work to align and integrate the District’s assessment systems so that they work well together.
• In common planning meetings and other professional development time, train and support teacher teams to use data-based inquiry cycles.
• Leverage data and various databases to drive improvements, understand trends and create forecasting tools
• Support ongoing development of student achievement systems and tools aligned to partner schools’ performance management;
• Collaborate with the members of district’s on building and publishing dynamic public-facing data dashboards that illustrate the performance of key student subgroups in WPS, as well as providing internal stakeholders with live data reports that are drillable and actionable at all levels of the system.
• Support schools in compiling accurate data submissions;
• To the extent possible, proactively calculate all high stakes and accountability calculations to support schools' understanding of their anticipated outcomes on these measures.
• Develop and support school and district teams that are focused on data use to target interventions at the student and organization level.
• Conduct a variety of data analysis tasks and create analysis reports and presentations for various stakeholders
• Create data tools and platforms that help educators associate content, visualize data, and explore relationships.
• Support ongoing development of authoritative datasets and data resources for internal
• Use data to identify areas of focus and opportunities for improvement, with an emphasis on equitable learning opportunities and outcomes in areas beyond achievement data (i.e. special education referral data, disproportionality, attendance data, graduation data, early intervention data, etc.)
• Support performance audits and program evaluations.
• Create data collection tools that use a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, including surveys, focus groups, and student performance data, that can be found locally, at the state level or at the national level. Data collection tools will include assessing the impact of programming, policies, and/or initiatives.
• Performs any additional tasks as requested by the Superintendent

Qualifications:

Data Skills (Required)

• Experience using data analysis software such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, R or Plateau.
• Experience cleaning datasets, using formulae, and conducting descriptive analysis, including running basic statistics such as averages, medians, and means.
• The ability to explain complex analytical concepts to lay persons in clear and concise easy to understand terms
• Experience generating data reports, charts, tables, and/or other visualizations.
• Experience creating data protocols for teams and individuals to use when making data-based decisions.

Data Skills (Preferred)

• Ability and/or willingness to learn how to create dynamic data dashboards that contribute to data storytelling ( ie. Tableau,and Zoho Analytics)
• Willingness to learn about and adhere to federal and state data policies, particularly those related to data privacy.

Interpersonal/Management Skills:

• Attention to detail
• Ability to think strategically and communicate thoughtfully to a wide range of stakeholders; excellent written and oral communication skills
• Ability to be flexible and change direction as needed
• Comfort working as part of a team and working independently to complete specific tasks
• Demonstrates a firm commitment to educational equity for all students in the PreK-12 environment;
• Possess an unwavering commitment to anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion, with an ability to model and foster an inclusive and respectful workplace;

• Comfort coaching a variety of data and compliance stakeholders, especially those with whom there is not a direct supervisory relationship;
• Possesses a high degree of personal integrity, demonstrated leadership abilities, and a history of working cooperatively with key stakeholders;

Educational Background and Work Experience:

• A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution is required;
• Advanced proficiency in MS Excel and/or Google Sheets is required;
• Demonstrated experience working with PowerSchool or other similar student information systems;
• A minimum of 3 to 5 years of professional experience in a data-rich environment; experience in the K-12 educational field is strongly preferred.

Terms of Employment:

• Full Year - July - June
• Union Affiliation: Non-Union

Salary Range: $105,000-$115,000 based on commensurate experience and negotiated with the Superintendent.

Reports to: The Superintendent and the cabinet members: Assistant Superintendent, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Director of Human Resources, Director of Finance and Operations

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Watertown Public Schools is committed to maintaining a work and learning environment free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, pregnancy, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital/civil union status, ancestry, place of birth, age, citizenship status, veteran status, political affiliation, genetic information or disability, as defined and required by state and federal laws. Additionally, we prohibit retaliation against individuals who oppose such discrimination and harassment or who participate in an equal opportunity investigation.