Research Associate - Identifying and nurturing Math Talent at Scale: Piloting - J-PAL South Asia

About the organization

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of more than 1000 researchers in 97 universities around the world. J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL South Asia, based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in India, leads J-PAL’s work in the South Asia region. J-PAL South Asia conducts randomized evaluations, builds partnerships for evidence-informed policymaking, and helps partners scale up effective programs. Over more than ten years of existence, J-PAL South Asia has more than 250 ongoing and completed randomized evaluations.

About the position

J-PAL South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research seeks qualified applicants for the position of Research Associate to lead a pilot impact evaluation in Maharashtra. The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand field management experience in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. The Research Associate will join a team of world-class researchers from leading universities in the world and will gain first-hand experience implementing randomized control trials in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research Read more about our work and projects here.

J-PAL South Asia is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, disability, family status, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and other attributes protected by law. We strongly encourage people from marginalized communities to apply for this role.

Project specific details

The vast majority of the world’s children now attend school, but most of them do not learn very much while there. Considerable work shows that schools in many low- and middle-income countries offer rigid curricula that are not adapted to the vast majority of the students. Most of our work so far has focused on helping students who are falling behind. But the universal curriculum also hinders very talented, but poor, students, who have no access to advanced curriculum in middle and high school and may therefore never have a chance to attend a good college (let alone to attend college at all).

This study, to be conducted in collaboration with the SCERT Department, Government of Maharashtra aims to (1) identify middle school students from resource-constrained Government Schools, who have high promise for mathematics using data from regular in-school testing and J-PAL designed assessments (2) evaluate the academic impacts of online advance mathematics curriculum, and (3) among the highest achievers, evaluate the impacts of offering further advanced material and tutoring on academic performance. In doing so, this study will provide direct evidence of the distribution of high-potential students and the importance of various support systems for disadvantaged students with high academic promise. The full scale RCT is currently on-going in Tamil Nadu, and the RA would work on piloting the above activities to establish feasibility and outcomes in Maharashtra before the RCT launch in Maharashtra.

Research Associates work closely with Research Managers & Principal Investigators who guide and supervise them in their various tasks. The research associates would be working closely with the SCERT Department to establish pathways for integrating the programme within the existing initiatives by the department. Thus, the research associate will obtain a rich experience across both the technical research skills and partnering with the Government on piloting and scaling the programme.

Key responsibilities

Research Associates work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform a variety tasks including, but not limited to:

Leading the research activities:

• Cleaning, organizing and analysing administrative data received from the department
• Designing survey questionnaires, conducting qualitative research, running pilot exercises, refining study design and survey instruments
• Managing teams: Recruit, train, and supervise both field-based and data operations teams consisting of project assistants, field managers, field-based surveyors, data entry operators and other field and office staff
• Supervising data collection and data entry to ensure good data quality during both these phases
• Co-ordinating with the Administrative and Finance team on a variety of tasks related to field staff contracting and payments
• Overseeing the implementation of the evaluation in accordance to the research design in association with our partner organization
• Ensuring that the project complies with IRB and J-PAL data collection and security protocols with the help of the Research Manager
• Assisting with data cleaning and preliminary data analysis
• Assisting in preparation of documents and presentations for donor reporting as well as dissemination activities
• Reporting to PIs on all of the above-mentioned activities
• Any other task as assigned by the Research Manager, AD Research or ED

Programme design aspects:

• Maintaining relationship with partner organizations at both headquarters and field levels
• Ensuring smoother collaboration with the partnering department. Gain a deeper understanding of the functioning of the education department and the associated schemes.
• Work closely with the department to pilot the intervention and design a scalable model of the programme that may be integrated with the current initiatives of the state
• Recruit, train and coordinate across tutors and volunteers to ensure smooth implementation of the programme
• Coordinate with the partner organization providing the digital math curriculum and ensure smoother coordination.

Desired qualifications

• A Bachelor's/Master’s degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, education or related fields
• Experience living in a developing country is a strong plus
• Previous experience in development research preferred
• Prior experience working in the education sector, or government projects is preferred.
• Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English and Marathi. Some conversational-level skills in Hindi would be preferable.
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations
• Knowledge of statistics and econometrics is required. Knowledge R/ Stata/ Python (preferred) or other data analysis software is preferred
• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials/clinical trials/quasi-experiments preferred
• Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments
• Ability to work independently and in rural field locations.

Length of commitment: 9 months- 1 year

Location: Pune

Note on work authorizations:

Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.