Research & Evaluation Analyst

Overview

UC Santa Cruz is a public university known for innovation and a beautiful campus. The Educational Partnership Center (EPC) at UC Santa Cruz coordinates activities to support students on the college-going pathway and works with schools, community colleges, and universities to promote educational opportunities.

The EPC Project Policy Analyst 3 conducts activities that support strategic planning, decision making, and initiatives for EPC programs through data collection and analysis. Under the direction of the EPC Research, Evaluation, and Innovation (REI) team, the Project Policy Analyst 3 acts as project manager for analysis, reporting, and distribution of research data to ensure programs meet grant objectives and reporting requirements.

Tasks include managing data for planning and conducting analytical studies, program assessment, and developing reports based on grant requirements and formative studies to improve programming and regional analysis. The role may develop new programs, policies, or procedures for possible implementation within REI and other EPC programs and may involve compliance with information requests from partner districts and external agencies.

• Support all EPC programs’ reporting requirements, including maintaining data collection systems and processes, analysis, and assisting program directors with completing necessary reports.
• Manage annual reporting and methodology documentation, create agendas, organize projects, and ensure the team collaborates toward project completion.
• Share oversight responsibilities for Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) with the REI Director.
• Lead database management systems—work with vendors to build systems based on EPC needs, train staff, and establish a system for timely and accurate data input.
• Design and establish systems for data storage, retrieval, and analysis to answer ad hoc requests and track students and program objectives.
• Assist in training development around data collection, monitoring, accuracy, and reporting skills.

• Research, gather, analyze, and summarize information for complex data projects; select appropriate methods to meet goals.
• Complete quantitative and qualitative analyses for reporting and formative studies; develop skills to lead evaluation and analysis.
• Develop new programs and policies or procedures as needed.
• Help develop and implement standardization in service delivery, data reporting, and data use for programming.
• Assist the REI Director in sharing data with internal and external staff, partners, and stakeholders.

• Complete administrative and other tasks as necessary.

• Bachelor’s degree in education, policy, or related social science field, data science, or equivalent experience.
• Experience in critical analysis methodology.
• Experience in education policy, research, or related field data organization and management to infer competency.
• General knowledge in data collection and analysis techniques and statistics or social science research techniques.
• Knowledge of handling sensitive data (e.g., FERPA).
• Understanding of organizational rules and regulations.
• Strong active listening and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to apply critical thinking to identify and solve problems and recommend resolutions.
• Good judgment, data review, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities.
• Clear communication skills, both verbally and in writing.
• Ability to create and maintain clear action plans for research projects, program assessment, and grant reporting.

• Graduate degree in education, policy, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Fluency in data-analysis software such as Tableau, R, Python, Qualtrics, or Atlas.ti.
• Experience managing grant reporting.
• Experience working with school districts and stakeholders.

• Pre-employment criminal history background check required.
• Employment misconduct disclosure process required.
• Ability to work long periods at a computer; remote work is possible with UCSC telecommuting agreement, with option for hybrid scheduling.
• Occasional evenings and weekends…