Student Policy and Education Research Assistant

Job Description

This role is a unique opportunity for a student to gain experience working in the public policy, education, and social change fields. Students with interests in any or all of these fields will benefit from being part of a team of dedicated staff from both CYCLE and LPI, who are deeply invested in supporting positive change impacting communities in RI and beyond. By having the opportunity to contribute to and participate in real-world policy, education, and social change projects, the student will understand how the primarily research-oriented activities supported by the position contribute substantively in the field. From a purely technical standpoint, the student in this position will advance their research, writing and organizational skills, in addition to developing a relatively deep content knowledge for policy, education, and social change.

Year 1
Responsibility/Function

  • News story tracking and weekly digests to support up-to-date knowledge of educational equity-related news throughout the New England region
  • Research support:
    • Compiling relevant research articles
    • Reading relevant research and developing annotated bibliographies summarizing important information
    • Searching for publicly available data to support policy and community organizing issue research and objectives
    • Develop and maintain records of research information, resources, and data
    • Web-based research to gather information relevant to support program and policy partnerships
  • Working with partners to develop blogposts and/or newsletter content highlighting andpromoting their work in the field
  • Supporting CYCLE and LPI in preparing presentation slide decks and other learning materials
  • LPI website content and development support

Year 2
Responsibility/Function

  • Continue with Year 1 responsibilities and add more advanced research support:
    • Developing focused literature reviews to support policy recommendations and partners; organizing campaigns
    • Descriptive data analysis to develop working understanding of important demographic and other relevant data relevant to policy/organizing issues and project work sites (cities, towns, states, national)

Year 3
Responsibility/Function

  • Continue with Years 1 & 2 responsibilities as well as more sophisticated research support as educational interests and skill development allow:
    • Qualitative data collection and analysis
    • Basic quantitative data analysis
    • GIS mapping analysis

Starting Date

Department Information

Contact Name

Keith Catone / Marcela Betancur

Department

CYCLE & Latino Policy Institute

Phone Number

401-276-4893

Email

kcatone@rwu.edu