Research and Evaluation Specialist

Company Description

Job Description

The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) invests in a network of community-based organizations (CBOs) to alleviate the effects of poverty and to provide opportunities for New Yorkers and communities to flourish. DYCD's initiatives include COMPASS, the City's comprehensive afterschool system, Beacon Community Centers, adult and youth literacy programs, youth employment programs, services for runaway and homeless youth, community safety programs, and community development programs.

The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) invests in a network of
community-based organizations (CBOs) to alleviate the effects of poverty and to provide opportunities
for New Yorkers and communities to flourish. DYCD's initiatives include COMPASS, the City's
comprehensive afterschool system, Beacon Community Centers, adult and youth literacy programs,
youth employment programs, services for runaway and homeless youth, community safety programs,
and community development programs.- DYCD also collaborates with other City agencies on a range
of mayoral initiatives to improve City services and ensure greater opportunities for minority and
immigrant youth and families.

This role would be situated within the Bureau of Planning, Program Integration, and Evaluation (PPIE). PPIE was established to lead DYCD's efforts to transform the agency from-three co-located
organizations to one agency focused on providing an-integrated network of neighborhood-based highquality services to New Yorkers.
PPIE's mission is to drive growth, impact, and innovation to make DYCD, its programs, and CBOs more effective. PPIE designs tools, builds processes and shapes policies to elevate the
implementation of best practices and data-informed decision-making both internally and externally.

PPIE supports continuous improvement through providing capacity building and training to DYCD staff
and providers; analyzing and elevating data and community voices; increasing funding for innovation
and expansion; and developing centralized approaches and systems to support a unified vision for
DYCD.
PPIE's core functions have evolved over time into five robust centers of excellence:-
Office of-Analytics, Performance Management, and Reporting

Office of Capacity Building-and Professional Development

Office of Planning, Program Design and Grant Development

Office of Evaluation

Office of System Integration

This role is in PPIE's Evaluation team, which is responsible for managing the development of
monitoring and evaluation indicators for the agency, supporting outcomes development and tracking,
and overseeing evaluation projects completed by external evaluation firms.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Evaluation, the Research and Evaluation Specialist will assume the
below responsibilities.

Support coordinating and overseeing DYCD's evaluation contracts, with a focus on the evaluation of
afterschool programs. Evaluation support includes:
- Writing vendor solicitations, and supporting the design of effective scopes for program evaluation
projects;

- Ensuring that evaluation and research designs proposed by external evaluators are appropriate and
confidentiality protocols are adhered to;

- Coordinating communication and project management with external evaluators, including co-design
of data collection tools, project methodology, reports and other deliverables;

- Ensuring external evaluators are abiding by best practices in evaluation, including participatory action
research and human-centered design, as applicable;

- Preparing summaries and reports on results of evaluation and research findings and processes,
presentations, testimony and memoranda; design and facilitate presentations to support agencywide
and external learning, encouraging data-informed program management and consistent
implementation in policies and practices;

- Partnering with units across the agency to ensure evaluation findings are translated into change and
consistently implemented, and communicate evaluation findings widely to others in the agency or the
field more broadly as appropriate;

Conduct and coordinate data collection and outcomes management, particularly in afterschool
programs, which includes:

- Supporting implementation of assessment tools and related evaluation projects;

- Supporting onboarding of afterschool programs into all applicable data systems; and

- Conducting, supporting, and/or providing technical assistance for in-person survey administration in
school and community-based afterschool settings.

- Collaborate across PPIE to ensure alignment and mutual reinforcement between external
evaluations, program logic models, agencywide Theory of Change, Requests for Proposals (RFPs),
EMS indicators, and referrals to Capacity Building supports;

- Support the design, revision, and data entry of indicators for DYCD's Evaluation and Monitoring System (EMS) to improve data quality and use;

- Oversee and conduct training as needed to support high-quality monitoring of DYCD programs;

- Conduct research (e.g., literature reviews, summaries and briefs of reports by external evaluators,
experts, foundations, and advocates) on best practices in various programmatic areas and agencywide initiatives;

- Conduct qualitative & quantitative data analysis, including cleaning data sets, preparing tables and
charts, and compiling trend data;

- Develop logic models and outcomes frameworks for DYCD program areas to facilitate decisionmaking on investments and program refinements by the executive team; and

- Additional tasks as needed, including interacting with other DYCD bureaus, community-based

organizations (CBOs), and other City agencies to coordinate joint initiatives

CITY RESEARCH SCIENTIST - 21744

Qualifications

1. For Assignment Level I (only physical, biological and environmental sciences and public health) A master's degree from an accredited college or university with a specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological or environmental science or in public health.
To be appointed to Assignment Level II and above, candidates must have:
1. A doctorate degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and one year of full-time experience in a responsible supervisory, administrative or research capacity in the appropriate field of specialization; or
2. A master's degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and three years of responsible full-time research experience in the appropriate field of specialization; or
3. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least a master's degree in an appropriate field of specialization and at least two years of experience described in "2" above. Two years as a City Research Scientist Level I can be substituted for the experience required in "1" and "2" above.

NOTE:
Probationary Period
Appointments to this position are subject to a minimum probationary period of one year.

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.