Job Opportunity for Research Associate at Poverty Action Lab in Delhi

Organization: J-PAL South Asia

Education: Bachelor’s / Master’s

Tentative Start Date (Earliest): April 3rd, 2023

Language Requirement: English, Hindi, Telugu (preferred)

Length of Commitment: 1 year (With room for renewal).

Joining Location: New Delhi, Vijayawada (preferred). 

Name of the project: AP Personalized Adaptive Learning scale up and stabilizing.

Sector: Education (Ed-Tech)

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 194 affiliated professors at 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 conducted 193 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 impact evaluations in India. 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.

Project-specific-details: Personalized Adaptive Learning Program

Research Associates work closely with Research Managers & Principal Investigators affiliated with JPAL SA and the University of Chicago-Development Innovation Lab (DIL), who will guide and supervise them in their various tasks.

Principal Investigators Michael Kremer (JPAL Research Affiliate and Faculty Director of DIL), Wendy Wong (Postdoctoral Scholar at DIL), Emily Cupito (director at DIL), and Guthrie Gray Lobe (Research Associate at DIL) are working with the Government of Andhra Pradesh (AP) in India and the Central Square Foundation to improve the implementation of and eventually evaluate the impact of the government’s Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) Lab program at scale. 

PAL Program

The Government of AP launched the PAL Lab program in October 2022 to 520 secondary schools targeting students in grades 6-9 for personalized instruction in math using edtech. The launch kicked off with training for headmasters and teachers. The current launch is a restart of a previous launch from 2019 that was interrupted by school closures due to COVID-19 lockdowns in India. We conducted qualitative interviews (Focused Group Discussions and 1:1 interviews) to gather initial research ideas between November and December of 2022. We are in the process of refining the implementation ideas that emerged to pilot in a small set of schools before a full evaluation towards answering questions around:

• How can we optimize PAL Lab implementation to improve usage?
• What is the impact of the first government-run PAL Lab on learning outcomes?  

The intent of this program is “to help teachers identify and improve the student’s actual learning levels, provide relevant assessments and educational content and help students gain mastery at his/her grade level learning outcome in an efficient, convenient and transparent manner.” The PAL Lab is typically a computer lab stocked with 30 tablets programmed with a software called CG Slate developed by ConveGenius that provides PAL mapped to the grades 6-9 math curriculum.  

About Development Innovation Lab

Founded and led by Nobel laureate and Faculty Director, Professor Michael Kremer, the Development Innovation Lab (DIL) is an affiliate of the Development Economics Center at the University of Chicago. Formally inaugurated in the spring of 2022, DIL brings researchers of various fields together with governments, firms, and non-profits to use the tools of economics to identify, test, refine, and scale innovations with the potential to benefit millions of people in low- and middle-income countries.

Key Responsibilities

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

• 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 JPAL data collection and security protocols with the help of the Research Manager
• Maintaining relationships with partner organizations at both headquarters and field levels
• Assisting with data cleaning and preliminary data analysis.
• Assisting in the preparation of documents and presentations for donor reporting as well as dissemination activities.
• Reporting to PIs on all of the above-mentioned activities.

Desired Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, education, or related fields.
• Knowledge of and experience with fieldwork in developing countries is a strong plus.
• Previous experience in development research preferred.
• Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong quantitative skills.
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English and some conversational-level skills in Hindi and Telugu (preferred).
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player.
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations.
• Knowledge of Stata, R, or Python (strongly 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. 

Note on Work Authorizations:

Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.

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