Data Analyst

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the third-largest school district in the United States, serving over 340,000 students in 600+ schools and employing nearly 36,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity. Six core values are embedded within these commitments - student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Department of School Quality Measurement and Research (SQMR) supports this work by providing timely and accurate data to stakeholders throughout CPS (families, schools, central office leaders, etc.) working to meet these goals.

The Data Analyst will calculate key performance indicators, build stakeholder understanding by providing reports to schools and educators, and analyze results to ensure our policies are in alignment with best practice for all our schools. As a translator of data, this role also ensures that policy decisions have been executed correctly within the data. This Position will report to the Manager of Performance Policy

The Data Analyst will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Manage process for writing and executing code to calculate various performance metrics. Metric calculations will be performed in SAS
• Developing and/or maintaining detailed documentation for metric calculation work.
• Compile, manipulate, and analyze data using appropriate statistical techniques.
• Fulfill internal and external requests for performance data in a timely manner
• Implement a quality assurance process to make sure that code for metric calculations and other data requests is checked for accuracy before being finalized.
• Work collaboratively with other departments to maintain an understanding of data needs and work that may require support from SQMR.
• Develop and communicate reports with descriptive statistics on various performance metrics and accountability models.
• Create PowerPoint visuals that support policy and decision-making at the district-level.
• Collaborate with internal departments to proactively identify and answer strategic data questions that provide the district with new information on student, teacher, and school performance.

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Data Analyst must possess the following qualifications:

Education -

• A Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university required, in a field that has established a strong understanding of computer coding and quantitative work. Master's preferred.

Experience -

• Experience with managing large data sets (pulling data from multiple data sets, merging data sets, etc.) and applying complex rules to create custom indicators required. .
• Experience in working with educational data is strongly preferred.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities :

• Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, and Excel) required.
• Ability to conduct multiple projects concurrently and switch work based on shifting priorities.
• Solid oral and written communication, problem solving, organizational and project management skills
• Ability to work in a team, with technical and non-technical personnel, and across departmental boundaries
• Ability to understand and apply detailed programming specifications and in a complex data management environment.
• Knowledge of and interest in educational performance measures, educational research and urban education systems a plus.
• Experience writing code with data analytic tools (SAS preferred, R, SPSS, STATA, etc.) a plus.

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

• Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency - Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district.

• Be Fully Vaccinated or Submit to Weekly COVID-19 Testing - Employees are required to be fully vaccinated within 30 days of their hire date. Full vaccination is defined as at least two weeks after your second shot of a two-shot vaccination course, or at least two weeks after a one-shot vaccination course. Unvaccinated staff must submit to weekly testing.