Delhi, India
Posted 1 year ago

Website Central Square Foundation

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working on the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. We are driven by our mission to transform the school education system with a focus on improving learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities.

We believe that ensuring Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of Foundational Skills is absolutely essential for the overall success of the education system. In order to achieve this, we partner with individuals and social impact organizations to bring innovative solutions in education, as well as work with the government to drive systemic impact. We collaborate with the ecosystem to leverage knowledge, build evidence and create proven tools around critical issues such as early learning, EdTech, classroom instruction methods and governance.

We also support exceptional social entrepreneurs with powerful ideas, undertake application-oriented research, provide a platform for sharing of innovation, and collaborate with other stakeholders in the ecosystem to find policy solutions – all towards enabling sustained change in India’s educational system.

CSF’s team members combine a deep commitment to education with operational excellence. We are a young organization with a dynamic entrepreneurial environment, dedicated to achieving significant and sustained reforms in the Indian education system.

CSF’s team members bring a deep sense of commitment and passion towards our collective vision that every child deserves quality education. We strive for excellence in everything we do and collaborate to create an impact as we move closer to achieving our mission. We encourage an entrepreneurial outlook that evokes new and bold ideas along with taking smart risks. CSF provides a dynamic, learning and positive environment that is driven by our strong sense of values.

Position Summary

CSF is supporting multiple state governments to achieve universal foundational learning. This involves the co-creation and implementation of comprehensive FLN plans for the states. The project involves efficient management of multiple, ambiguous work-streams with tight deadlines, and consistent engagement with government officials at various levels of seniority.

The Assessment function nested under the Government Projects team provides technical and strategic support for assessment and evaluation of student learning outcomes across various initiatives within CSF, and further to external stakeholders both at central and state government. This includes supporting State teams with tools and methodology for conducting student assessment for early grade/foundational skills (in Literacy and Numeracy) as part of FLN programs in the focus States. Further, engaging with educational institutions- Ministry of education, CBSE and NCERT to provide technical support and guidance for design, implementation and quality assurance for large-scale student assessments, review and improvisation of existing assessment tools and examinations to increase data reliability through advanced measurement practices. Further, provide technical support to research, EdTech and private schools teams for learning outcomes assessment.

The Program Manager/Lead-Assessments will be responsible for working with various teams at CSF to provide specialized support pertaining to development, implementation and analysis of assessment and evaluation of student’s learning outcomes across initiatives. The role will report to the Associate Director under Government Projects.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to

Continually engage with State FLN teams at CSF to respond to requirements related to student assessments- for design, implementation and analysis of data for State level assessments. This includes working closely with CSF’s State teams and with SCERTs on design and finalization of assessment frameworks, test blueprints and assessment tools, administration and data analysis for reporting.
Establish and manage relationships with stakeholders (NCERT and CBSE) to strengthen program implementation across large scale assessments conducted by educational institutions. Liaise with key stakeholders including members of steering committee, technical partners, MoE, CBSE and NCERT for effective implementation and roll out of assessments
Ensure quality and rigor of assessments (items, instruments and methodology) across key projects.
Conduct assessment quality checks through rigorous item review and finalization. Provide support in conducting the field trials for initial item pool. Be available to conduct workshops and support teams in report generation.

Required Qualifications, Experience, Skills

Master’s or equivalent degree, with specialization in Education or Student Assessment & Measurement
Experience in working with State/Central government education bodies like the Ministry of Education, NCERT or SCERT OR
Experience in School Publishing with focus on school assessments (item writing, managing item writers)

Experience in the education development sector with exposure to education assessments
Knowledge of assessment methodologies, including developing competency-based assessment framework and tools
Experience in developing high-quality item banks, test instruments
Excellent communication and project management skills
Willingness to multi-task and be flexible and adaptive to changing priorities
Ability to build & maintain relationships with government stakeholders
Fluency in English and Hindi

Preferred Qualifications

A degree in Statistics/Econometrics
5 to 7 years of experience working with large-scale assessment programs or large-scale applications (data sets, programs, and/or applications) of similar complexity, ideally with government institutions (State/Central) and managing them end-to-end.
Prior experience in classroom teaching
Experience developing reporting templates and generate data summaries for large data sets
Familiarity with CTT and IRT methodologies and tools (such as STATA, R, CONQUEST, SPSS, etc.) for item/data analysis
Ability to conduct item analysis for finalized tools using IRT and Rasch methods

Desired Qualities