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The Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2010 as a Stanford University research center. It is now a nonprofit that equips our nation’s educators to create engaging and equitable learning experiences that enable every student to thrive. To advance our mission, we:
 

  • Translate research insights into concrete practices that can be adopted widely by organizations that serve historically underserved students.

  • Enable improvement at scale by deploying cost-effective feedback systems that show educators what works for whom and in what contexts.

  • Drive the adoption of research-based practices by building intentional relationships with organizations that influence students’ learning experiences on a large scale.

Help us empower learners to realize their potential

Description
Partnership Manager

PERTS is looking for a Partnership Manager: a motivated leader and educational equity champion eager to improve the way students experience learning in college courses. The higher education partnership manager will support PERTS’ college and university partners as those institutions adopt and evaluate the Ascend professional learning model. For example, the partnership manager will cultivate deep relationships with college leaders and project manage the learning agenda described in the Ascend 3-year plan (see slides 8-9). The role is a full-time, exempt, remote position reporting to the Director of Programs with a salary range of $95k-115k, based on experience and local cost of living.
 

About PERTS

The Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) helps educators apply research-based approaches to create engaging, equitable learning environments so that every student has the support they need to fully engage, learn, and succeed. For example, PERTS partners closely with colleges to help them adopt student-centered, continuous improvement programs, like Ascend, that enable educators to continuously measure the impact of educational practices on students’ experiences. As a Student Experience Project learning partner, PERTS is also a leader in the national effort to center student experiences and advance educational equity.
 

PERTS has a remote working culture that welcomes candidates from across the U.S. Our team is committed to contributing to something bigger than ourselves while caring for each other as a team. As such, we are a small, family-friendly, human-centered organization. We come to work as whole people and push each other to grow and do our best while maintaining a warm and inclusive spirit. We focus on improvement instead of blame, and we believe that practicality beats purity.
 

Because inequitable educational systems disproportionately harm people of color and people from working-class backgrounds, we believe that these communities must be centered in the work we do. Hence, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities. We are especially interested in working with candidates who have experience within inequitable education systems and are driven to dismantle those inequities.
 

Core Responsibilities

The partnership manager is charged with ensuring the successful adoption and implementation of our programs, including (but not limited to):

  • Deep Collaboration with Partners involves developing and maintaining trusting relationships with partners while helping them lead their institutions through data-driven, continuous improvement cycles that center students’ experiences. This can look like:

    • engaging partners to understand their goals,

    • adapting and facilitating program onboarding,

    • coaching partners to lead communities of practice that support educators to improve students’ experiences and outcomes over time,

    • identifying opportunities with partners to scale implementation and institutionalize our programs,

    • providing thought partnership to guide partners through various complex implementation decisions and shifts within their institutions.

  • Content Creation includes designing and refining materials to support partner relationships, e.g. meeting agendas, activities, decks, and communications that can be leveraged across several partnerships. This may also include contributing to and amplifying our robust user knowledge base while ensuring coherence across resources, e.g., synthesizing partner best practices, writing implementation guides, producing short videos, documenting and disseminating partner success stories, and/or new activities we haven’t thought of yet.

  • Instructional Design & Facilitation refers to facilitating our national Communities of Practice that connect partners from across the country, build their capacity to lead program implementation, and help them solve problems of practice. It also includes evolving our Communities of Practice to adapt to participant needs over time.

  • Partner Recruitment & Retainment may include designing and hosting learning events for a broad audience, presenting at national conferences, and engaging in contract renewal processes with existing partners.

  • Program Design that includes gathering and processing user feedback to make recommendations to our developers to improve our programs.

  • Cross-team Collaboration can look like facilitating team meetings, weighing in on proposals to secure additional funding, providing feedback on research products, and tracking partner touch points to enable goal progress updates.

The role is a full-time, exempt position reporting to the Director of Programs with a salary range of $95k-115k, based on experience and local cost of living. While the role is remote, there is a possibility of traveling 2-8 times per year to attend PERTS team retreats, meet with partners, and attend events and conferences.

Desired Skills, Experiences & Dispositions

Outstanding candidates will have—or be ready and eager to quickly develop—the following skills, experiences, and dispositions. All of these attributes are necessary to be successful in the role long-term, but we welcome your application even if you do not already meet all of the criteria below.

  • Mission Driven: Commitment to PERTS’ mission and the ability to articulate your passion for supporting educators and working towards a more equitable and human-centered education system.

  • Conscientiousness: Exceptional attention to detail, a record of following through on challenging commitments with minimal supervision (including in remote work settings), the ability to anticipate needs, and comfort with ambiguity.

  • Proactive Communication & High Emotional Intelligence: Superior written and verbal communication skills, as well as the instinct to communicate proactively and appropriately with various audiences and team members. Experience with or strong interest in storytelling through video and written formats.

  • Tech Savvy: Ease mastering new technology tools, teaching others to use new tools, and familiarity with productivity tools including Asana, Microsoft Office, Google Suite, Dropbox, and Box.

  • Growth Mindset: Life-long learner willing to seek knowledge and new experiences in order to get the job done, e.g. by learning new software, skills, and concepts; continuously seeking and responding to feedback; and taking initiative to enhance our work.

  • Continuous Improvement Coaching: Experience coaching education leaders through continuous improvement cycles informed by adult pedagogical best practices, e.g., facilitating educator professional development, leading communities of practice, and/or instructional coaching.

  • Student Success Initiatives: Experience leading or supporting student success initiatives in higher education settings, especially as they intersect with faculty development, support, and/or incentives.

  • Institutional Research: Familiarity with institutional research offices and experience with the process of evaluating student success efforts in higher education settings, e.g., experience with data sharing permissions, IRBs. Note: a good candidate will not need to conduct data analyses or write research reports, but they will project manage and support others doing such work.

  • Institutional Policy Savvy: Experience with higher education institutional politics and policy, especially as it relates to faculty training, incentives, and related policies. For example, an ideal candidate understands when and how policies change within a faculty development office or academic senate.

  • Relationship Building: Ability to build authentic relationships with partners; comfort navigating complex situations and organizations.

  • Practicality and Simplicity: Proven track record translating complex issues and experiences into compelling and accessible content, ideally in narrative styles and audiovisual formats.

  • Foundational Academic Motivation Knowledge: Familiarity with social-emotional learning (SEL) concepts and applications, particularly with regards to academic motivation, engagement, and success.
     

Compensation and Benefits Package

  • The salary range is $95k-115k, based on experience and local cost of living.

  • Comprehensive healthcare benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance; annual professional development funding; as well as confidential counseling, designed to support the passion and energy we look for in our staff.

  • There is a 403b match up to 6% of salary.

  • Generous paid time off beginning at 8 weeks of holiday/vacation time per year including: 12 organization-wide holidays, two team holiday recess weeks, and 15 days of vacation in the 1st year (moving up to 25 days by the 8th year). Additionally, there is paid time off for wellness, family leave, jury duty, military, bereavement, and other circumstances.
     

Application Process & Timeline

  1. Applications for this role will be accepted at perts.net/partnershipmanager through February 5, 2024.

  2. Applicants that do not include cover letters will not be considered. A strong cover letter should include the applicant’s personal reasons for wanting to support educators and work towards a more equitable and human-centered education system as well as examples of how they’ve demonstrated the required skills and dispositions listed in the role description.

  3. Applications will be reviewed after our deadline. The application process will include 3-4 interviews with various team members, submitting a performance task and/or work samples, and reference checks.
     

Equal Employment Opportunity

PERTS is a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Center. Tides Center is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, and bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and welcome your application even if you do not meet every one of the above requirements. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, age, political affiliation, disability, or medical condition. We encourage and consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
 

Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified applicants with a disability may participate in the application process. Please advise in writing of special needs at the time of application.

Open Positions

Technology

Bad tech should never get in the way of good work. Get a fresh MacBook, modern software, and the tools to get your work done.

The Usual

Healthcare, retirement contribution matching, and all the perks you’d expect from a first-class employer (managed by the Tides Center).

Flexibility

A busy office isn’t always the best place to get the job done. Work-from-home is a big part of the PERTS culture.

What about the perks?

Description
Marketing & Communications Manager

PERTS seeks an energetic and creative Marketing & Communications Manager who is passionate about marketing, education, and supporting PERTS’ mission to improve students’ experiences and outcomes on a large scale. This is a fantastic opportunity for a marketing professional early in their career who is ambitious, thoughtful, and analytical. The role offers significant learning opportunities and the potential to quickly gain more responsibilities. 

 

This is a full-time, exempt, remote position that requires travel 2–6 times a year, and reports to the Director of Programs. The role offers a salary range of $75k–$85k, based on experience and local cost of living.

About PERTS

The Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) is a national nonprofit that helps schools improve the quality and equity of learning conditions, conditions that foster engagement and accelerate learning. To advance its mission, PERTS develops, tests, and scales the impact of evidence-based solutions in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. Its research sheds light on high-impact practices and enables PERTS to continuously increase its impact. PERTS’ evidence-based tools, measures, and services are used by more than 400 schools and colleges, directly impacting over 100,000 students a year. PERTS is funded by national foundations (e.g., the Raikes Foundation, Gates Foundation, Overdeck Foundation) and by service contracts from its partner colleges and school districts.

PERTS has a remote working culture that welcomes candidates from across the U.S. Our team is committed to contributing to something bigger than ourselves while caring for each other as a team. As such, we are a small, family-friendly, human-centered organization. We come to work as whole people and push each other to grow and do our best while maintaining a warm and inclusive spirit. We focus on improvement instead of blame, and we believe that practicality beats purity.

 

Because inequitable educational systems disproportionately harm people of color and people from working-class backgrounds, we believe that these communities must be centered in the work we do. Hence, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.

Core Responsibilities

The Marketing & Communications Manager will have some marketing experience and is excited to continue to grow their marketing skills. They will be coached and supported by an experienced education marketing professional. As they develop requisite expertise, the Marketing & Communications Manager will assume significant responsibility and ownership for all of PERTS’ marketing efforts and key communications priorities, including, but not limited to:

  • Manage branding, messaging, and positioning strategies that promote PERTS services and approaches through various channels. For example, develop and refine PERTS communications in order to help education leaders understand and implement evidence-based student experience practices—practices that help students engage and learn to the best of their abilities. Such communications may include newsletters, website copy, collateral, ads, videos, slide decks, support articles, social media posts, and virtual or in-person presentations. 

  • Coordinate media relations and stakeholder communications, including through creating and implementing marketing communications strategies.

  • Website and SEO: Write website copy, update the PERTS website and knowledge base, and enhance SEO. 

  • Handle advertising, product promotion, and sales support: Develop and manage a list of leads (education leaders) who are interested in specific PERTS services and insights or are already using those services; develop and send targeted communications to keep leads engaged and to assist sales and program staff with converting those leads into clients or repeat clients. 

  • Oversee market research, data analysis, and evaluation: Use relevant tools to track and analyze the effectiveness of the communication activities above; recommend and/or implement improvements based on those analyses. 

  • Supervise marketing project teams and collaborate with other teams in furtherance of the activities above.

Desired Skills, Experiences & Dispositions

Outstanding candidates will have, or be ready and eager to quickly develop, the following skills, experiences, and dispositions. All of these attributes are necessary to be successful in the role long-term, but we welcome your application even if you only meet some of the criteria below.

  • Mission Driven: Commitment to PERTS’ mission and the ability to articulate your passion for supporting educators and working towards a more equitable and human-centered education system.

  • Writing & Communications Skills:

    • Outstanding writing and the ability to consistently compose compelling, creative marketing copy.

    • Proven ability to make complex, research-oriented concepts accessible. 

    • Ability to understand different audiences and write copy catered to the appropriate audience.

  • Marketing Operations Skills: Experience with and/or eagerness to learn marketing and sales tools and systems, including:

    • Mass email services, e.g., MailChimp

    • Customer Relation Management (CRM) tools, e.g., FreshSales, SalesForce

    • Basic video editing skills, e.g., Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, iMovie

    • Basic graphic design skills, e.g., Adobe Illustrator, Canva

    • Website development via WYSIWYG editors, e.g., Wix, Wordpress

    • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

  • Conscientiousness & Self-Management: Exceptional attention to detail; a record of following through on challenging commitments with minimal supervision (including in remote work settings); the ability to anticipate needs and work across teams with competing demands; and comfort with ambiguity.

  • Proactive Communication & High Emotional Intelligence: Superior written and verbal communication skills, as well as the instinct to communicate proactively and appropriately with various audiences and team members. Experience with or strong interest in storytelling through video and written formats.

  • Growth Mindset: Life-long learner willing to seek knowledge and new experiences in order to get the job done, e.g. by learning new software, skills, and concepts; continuously seeking and responding to feedback; and taking initiative to enhance our work.

  • Practicality and Simplicity: Proven track record translating complex issues and experiences into compelling and accessible content, ideally in narrative styles and audiovisual formats.

Compensation and Benefits Package

  • The salary range is $75k-$85k, based on experience and local cost of living.

  • Comprehensive healthcare benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance; annual professional development funding; as well as confidential counseling, designed to support the passion and energy we look for in our staff.

  • There is a 403b, with a match up to 6% of salary. 

  • Generous paid time off beginning at 8 weeks of holiday/vacation/wellness time per year including: 12+ organization-wide holidays, two team holiday recess weeks, and 15 days of vacation in the 1st year (moving up to 25 days by the 8th year). Additionally, there is paid time off for family leave, jury duty, military, bereavement, and other circumstances. 

Application Process & Timeline

  1. Applications for this role will be accepted at perts.net/marketing-manager through June 21, 2024

  2. Applications should include a strong cover letter that includes the applicant’s personal reasons for wanting to support educators to work towards a more equitable and human-centered education system as well as examples of how they’ve demonstrated the required skills and dispositions listed in the role description. 

  3. The application process will include 3-4 interviews with various team members, submitting a performance task and/or work samples, and reference checks.

Equal Employment Opportunity

PERTS is a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Center. Tides Center is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, and bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and welcome your application even if you do not meet every one of the above requirements. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, age, political affiliation, disability, or medical condition. We encourage and consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

 

Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified applicants with a disability may participate in the application process. Please advise in writing of special needs at the time of application.

Eager to help us make an impact, but don’t see the perfect role?

Research Fellow
Description

PERTS seeks a full-time Research Fellow to help shape the national conversation about equity in education.

PERTS (perts.net) helps educational organizations advance educational equity by enabling them to continuously measure the impact of educational practices on students’ experiences—experiences like identity safety, personally and culturally relevant content, and feeling like a valued member of a caring community. (See perts.net/elevate/measures-refs.) For more about PERTS’ approach to creating outstanding learning experiences, see our OpEd in EdWeek or our article in the Teachers College Record.
 

PERTS began as a laboratory at Stanford University, and has led and contributed to research published in journals such as Psychological Science (e.g. Paunesku et al., 2015), Nature (e.g. Okonofua et al., 2016), and Science (e.g. Yeager et al., 2019), as well as industry-facing white papers (e.g. Gripshover et al., 2022Student Experience Project, 2021). We sit at the intersection between research and practice, and strive to produce top-quality research that is immediately actionable for education practitioners.


The Research Fellow will lead the design, implementation, and dissemination of several research studies funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Overdeck Family Foundation, and the Raikes Foundation. This includes overseeing research projects from start to finish, including publication in field-facing manuscripts (similar to our recent empirical paper) and/or in peer-reviewed journals. The expectation is that the Research Fellow will serve as lead author on one or more such publications.


Research studies led by the Research Fellow will fall into several categories: (1) research on the structural and professional learning supports that are needed for educators to create better and more equitable learning environments; (2) research to validate a new set of survey measures aimed at children in grades 3-5; and (3) evaluation research to understand the impact of PERTS programs on student experience and learning outcomes. Depending on interest and expertise, the Research Fellow will contribute to research in one or more of these categories.
 

The role is a full time, exempt, remote position reporting to the Director of Research, at the starting rate of $90K - $115K annually, depending on experience and the local cost of living. The Research Fellowship is a two-year position, and may be renewed beyond that time, pending additional funding.
 

PERTS has a remote working culture that welcomes candidates from across the U.S. Our team is committed to contributing to something bigger than ourselves while caring for each other as a team. As such, we are a small (15 staff members), family-friendly, human-centered organization. We come to work as whole people, and push each other to grow and do our best while maintaining a warm and inclusive spirit. We love the truth, we focus on improvement instead of blame, and we believe that practicality beats purity.
 

Because inequitable educational systems disproportionately harm people of color and people from working class backgrounds, we believe that these communities must be centered in the work we do. Hence, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities. We are especially interested in working with candidates who have experience within inequitable education systems, and are driven to dismantle those inequities.
 

What We Offer

  • Full-time, fully remote, two-year position: competitive salary, with a comprehensive benefits package (for more details, please see below) on a remote team. The may be renewed beyond two years, pending additional funding.

  • Field-facing research experience: In academia, we are trained to produce research to be consumed primarily by other scientists. At PERTS, we produce research for and with members of the broader field of education, which includes not only scientists, but also teachers, school and district leaders, policy leaders, nonprofit groups, etc. The Research Fellow will learn to design research and write clearly and persuasively for this broader audience.

  • Family-friendly culture: Whether your family consists of children, parents, siblings, a partner/spouse, or other relatives and friends (not to mention pets!), PERTS offers a flexible schedule and strong work/life balance that allows you to tend to loved ones.

  • Career Advancement: The Research Fellow will be given ample opportunity to attend conferences (such as Carnegie Summit and the CASEL SEL Exchange), form relationships with partners (e.g. the Equitable Learning and Development Group at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, the Network for College SuccessCASEL, the Student Experience Project and many more), and learn skills to help them translate their academic research background into a meaningful career in education improvement, research, or policy.
     

Core Responsibilities

The Research Fellow will report to the Director of Research. Their responsibilities will include…

  • Leading the design, implementation, analysis, writing, and dissemination of research studies from start to finish, with support from the PERTS Director of Research, Data Analysts, and Research Coordinator. (60%)

  • Contributing to research studies led by other members of the PERTS team, including writing up results from previously-conducted PERTS research studies, co-authoring publications led by other members of the PERTS Research team, etc. (20%)

  • Collaborating with members of the program and technology teams to incorporate research insights into PERTS products and services. (10%)

  • Conducting hands-on data collection for qualitative research studies (e.g., lead focus groups and interviews with adult educators or conduct cognitive interviews with elementary-aged school children). (10%)

  • Travel is required 2-4 times per year, pending safe travel conditions, to visit research sites, attend bi-annual PERTS team retreats and potentially other events such as conferences and network convenings.
     

Required Skills, Experiences, and Dispositions

The following skills and experience will allow a person to excel as a Research Fellow at PERTS. We encourage candidates with strengths in many of these areas (not necessarily all of them!) to apply:

  • Mission-Driven: Ability to articulate your passion for working towards a more equitable and human-centered education system.

  • Conscientiousness: Exceptional attention to detail, with a record of following through on challenging commitments with minimal supervision (including in remote work settings).

  • Growth Mindset: Life-long learner willing to seek knowledge and new experiences in order to get the job done, e.g. by learning new software, skills, research methods, and concepts; continuously seeking and responding to feedback; and taking initiative to enhance our work.

  • Practicality and Simplicity: Proven track record of translating complex ideas into simple study designs and writing about research using simple language accessible to the lay public.

  • Research Experience: Experience conducting research studies with human subjects independently, start-to-finish. This includes seeking IRB approval, implementing the research, analyzing data, and writing up results. We are especially interested in candidates with research experience in a field related to the social sciences (e.g., education, psychology, sociology, economics, African-American studies, gender studies, etc.).

  • Methodological Expertise: PERTS research employs a wide variety of methodological approaches. We are looking for candidates with strong expertise in one or more of the following areas. (Note: we do not expect a single candidate to be expert in all of these areas. Please do apply if you are experienced in at least one of these areas!)

    • Education program evaluation— Conducting systematic analyses of the impact of education programs (e.g. curricula, professional development programs, etc.) using methods that license strong causal inference, such as RCTs, propensity score analyses, difference-of-differences analyses, etc.

    • Experimental psychology— Designing experiments to test specific, theory-driven hypotheses in the behavioral sciences, using factorial designs and other experimental methods.

    • Psychometric measurement validation— Validating survey measures using a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods, including scale reliability analysis, Rasch analysis, latent class analysis, and the use of cognitive interviews to establish reading level and construct validity.

    • Qualitative research methods— Especially using case studies, surveys, action research, and focus groups/interviews to understand and solve practical problems in a field related to education or social justice. We are especially interested in candidates who have employed qualitative research in mixed methods studies, alongside quantitative data.

    • Research with children— Conducting research with young children, including collecting verbal assent for research, developing age-appropriate study materials and procedures, building rapport with children, and collecting data with children effectively in a school setting.

    • Continuous improvement— Conducting Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, developing practical measures, co-designing a theory of change with education stakeholders, etc.
       

If you think this might sound like you, please apply! We find the best candidates often feel they only meet some of the criteria, but apply anyway because they are compelled by our organization’s culture and mission. If that sounds like you, we would love to hear from you.
 

Application Process & Timeline

  1. If you are interested, please apply here perts.net/researchfellow by January 31, 2024. Note that all applications will be reviewed after this deadline, rather than on a rolling basis.

  2. Other stages will include submitting a sample of your written research, 2-3 interviews with our team, and submitting references.

  3. Applicants who do not include cover letters will not be considered.

  4. We aim for a start date in mid-March to early April, but have some flexibility on this depending on the needs of the candidate and the hiring process.
     

Compensation and Benefits

  • The starting salary range is $90K - $115K annually, based on experience, education, and location.

  • Comprehensive healthcare benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance; annual professional development funding; as well as confidential counseling, designed to support the passion and energy we look for in our staff.

  • There is a 403b match up to 5% of salary.

  • Generous paid time off starting at 8 weeks of holiday/vacation time per year including: 12 paid days of organization-wide holidays, two weeks of paid team-specific breaks, and 15 days of paid vacation in the 1st year, moving up to 25 days by the 8th year. In addition, there is time off for illness, family leave, parental leave, jury duty, military, bereavement, and other circumstances.

Equal Employment Opportunity

PERTS is a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Center. Tides Center is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, and bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and welcome your application even if you do not meet every one of the above requirements. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, age, political affiliation, disability, or medical condition. We encourage and consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified applicants with a disability may participate in the application process. Please advise in writing of special needs at the time of application.

No Open Positions

We don’t have any open positions currently. If you send us some details, we will contact you if something opens up that aligns with your experience and interests.

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