Research Associate - Early Childhood Education - J-PAL South Asia

Country: India

Project: Early Childhood Education project

Start Date (earliest): ASAP

Base Location: Kurukshetra, Haryana

Length of Commitment: One year

Education: Bachelor’s/Master’s

Organization: J-PAL South Asia at IFMR

Language requirement: English and Hindi

Job Description:

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) J-PAL was established in 2003 as a research center at the Economics Department at MIT. Since then, it has grown into a global network of researchers who use randomized evaluations to answer critical policy questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL is propelled by a team dedicated to research, policy, training, and other vital work, supporting J-PAL's mission to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.

J-PAL South Asia, the regional office which is based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in India, analyses and disseminates research results and builds partnerships with policymakers to ensure that policy is driven by evidence, and that programs proven effective are scaled up. We have a growing number of partnerships in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. For more information on J-PAL SA, please see http://www.povertyactionlab.org/south-asia.

The Policy team at J-PAL South Asia (J-PAL SA) disseminates findings of J-PAL’s research; develops relationships with governments, civil society, and academic stakeholders; catalyzes scale-ups and replications of effective projects; and assists in conceptualizing new research projects. The team works closely with the global J-PAL office based at MIT to align the regional strategy with broader organizational objectives.

Project Descriptions:

The ECE project is aimed at evaluating Pratham’s early childhood education programs through a randomized controlled trial. Though Pratham and J-PAL enjoy a long-term partnership, this will be the first instance of an evaluation of Pratham’s ECE program. This is an excellent opportunity to obtain a strong understanding of issues relating to ECE, a sector that is increasingly attracting a lot of attention from researchers, policy makers and implementers.

Pratham’s early childhood education programs cater to ages 3 to 8. Programs range from support to anganwadis, encouraging mothers’ involvement in children’s education and formal classroom activities in schools and communities. A key objective of this evaluation is to understand ‘what works’ in terms of ECE program delivery and the ideal duration of an ECE program.

Additionally, the researchers also aim to evaluate a “home-based” Math Games programs which is built on previous research on Math Games in schools. Math Games is an innovative math curriculum that aims to develop children's intuitive concepts of number and geometry, informed by decades of cognitive development research, and rigorously evaluated through three randomized evaluations in Delhi (https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/informal-math-games-improve-childrens-readiness-learning-mathematics-india).

Research Associate Roles and Responsibilities:

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

Designing survey questionnaires, conducting qualitative research, running pilot exercises, refining study design and surveying instruments.

Managing field teams: Recruiting, training, and supervising 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.

Overseeing implementation of the evaluation in accordance with the research design, in association with our partner organization.

Maintaining relationships with partner organizations at both headquarters and field levels.

Supervising data collection and data-entry, and ensuring data quality and productivity.

Assisting with data cleaning, preliminary data analysis, and preparation of documents and presentations for dissemination.  

Data cleaning and management

    Developing scripts in Stata to analyse survey data, clean data and identify trends      across time for all ongoing data collection efforts.

    Reviewing and vetting project datasets and maintaining an efficient data             documentation system. 

    Working with other members of the team to reconcile any gaps or errors in the        data.

Data analysis and synthesis

    Liaising with members of the project team by sending them statistics as and when     required

    Generating aggregated views of the data for various stakeholders – the Principal       Investigators, donors and other partners.

    Assisting in documenting data collection efforts, including any issues and key         decisions taken for improvements

Reporting to PIs, Research Managers and partners on some/all of the above-         mentioned activities

Maintaining compliance with all J-PAL protocols and policies.

Desired Attributes, Qualifications and Experience:

Bachelor's/ Master's degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, or related fields

Experience-0-2 years, experience working in education sector preferred

Experience in working in rural areas

Excellent management/ organizational skills and able to solve unexpected problems

Strong quantitative skills

Working knowledge of Stata (strongly preferred), MATLAB/R

Familiarity with RCTs

Demonstrated experience managing a team

Flexible, self-motivating, independent and manages multiple tasks efficiently

Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments

Attention to detail

Ability to communicate effectively with different stakeholders

Note on Work Authorizations:

Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.