Data Analyst/Statistician-School Infrastructure Multi-Activity Evaluation Jordan MELA

BACKGROUND

Due to rapid population growth, the influx of Syrian and other refugees, and economic constraints that have caused a migration of students from private to public schools, Jordanian public schools have been strained by overcrowding in recent decades. While there is near universal enrollment in the school at the primary level, public schools do not have sufficient capacity to safely accommodate all students, and access is particularly limited for students with disabilities. Over 720 schools currently operate double shifts in order to accommodate students, while many others operate with classrooms sizes beyond their intended capacity. The Ministry of Education (MoE) also operates 777 schools in rented buildings that are often not designed to accommodate all learners. Both academic and non-academic learning outcomes across Jordanian public schools are affected by challenges in access to safe and engaging learning environments, with high rates of violence in schools and low performance in literacy and numeracy from Kindergarten through the upper grades.  The Government of Jordan (GOJ) estimates that it will require approximately 600 new schools over the next decade to meet demand.

In response to the MoE efforts to increase access to schools as well as enhance the learning environment, USAID/Jordan launched infrastructure activities beginning in 2006 with the four-year Jordan School Construction and Rehabilitation Project (JSP), and continued in 2014 with the six-year Jordan School Expansion Program (JSEP), followed in 2015 by the five-year Schools for a Knowledge Economy Program (SKEP). The primary focus of these activities has been to reduce overcrowding in public schools, replace rented and double-shifted schools and provide a safe and more suitable school environment to respond to the needs of the MOE’s reform efforts.

As USAID’s school infrastructure activities continues to develop, USAID/Jordan requires an external evaluation of three of its different school infrastructure activities. This external evaluation will inform the design of new schools and determine how USAID’s school infrastructure has affected students and communities.

Jordanian public schools have been strained by overcrowding in recent decades due to rapid population growth, an influx of refugees, and economic constraints. In response to The Ministry of Education’s (MoE) efforts to increase access to schools as well as enhance the learning environment, USAID/Jordan has made significant investments in school infrastructure in recent years and is planning to build additional schools over the next five years as part of a new program that aims to reduce overcrowding in public schools and provide a safe and more suitable school environment to respond to the needs of the Ministry of Education’s reform efforts. 

Activity Overview

In addition to increasing access to schools and easing overcrowding, USAID’s infrastructure investments anticipated that the enhanced learning environments would also impact student learning outcomes. This hypothesis was somewhat explored through the JSP evaluation as well as the EDY School Construction Assessment, which sought to study changes in student and teacher attitude and behavior, but challenges in data availability limited an examination of whether academic learning outcomes differed between USAID-built and neighboring schools. With the benefit of ESMP as well as data collected at the school level by USAID’s current Reading and Math Program (RAMP), this evaluation can reexamine the question related to academic and non-academic learning outcomes. It will study JSP, JSEP, and SKEP schools along with neighboring schools to consider whether there is any variation in among other things:

• Grade repetition rates
• Student scores in core subjects
• Violence and bullying in schools
• School vandalism
• Staff attitude or performance in schools

To that end, the Jordan Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity (MELA) is recruiting for a Data Analyst/Statistician to lead investigating and identifying gaps in the existing data available from the different sources (JSP, JSEP, and SKEP schools along with neighboring schools), completeness and accuracy that is critical to this evaluation, such data is related but not limited to:

• Grade repetition rates
• Student scores in core subjects
• Violence and bullying in schools
• School vandalism
• Staff attitude or performance in schools
• Dropouts rates
• Gender disaggregated data
• Students and teacher’s absence trends

Data Analyst/Statistician

Purpose

Data analysts will perform various functions, which primarily involves providing analytic and technical skills necessary to handle large number of datasets. Data Analyst will interpret data and turns it into information.

The main tasks of the Data Analyst/Statistician include:

1. Identify relevant existing data sets and corresponding indicators.
2. Review large data sets of MoE Jordan, RAMP and other sources related to education and learning outcomes
3. Provide innovative analytical insights to analyze data as per requirement of the evaluation.
4. Work solely with Team Lead to interpret data and analyze results.
5. Identify key trends in the identified themes and evaluation question #3. Do learning outcomes (academic and non-academic) of students in newly built/rehabilitated schools differ from neighboring schools.
6. Identify the scale, depth and quality of these data sources based on methodology including sampling and coverage, and methods and tools of data collection, as well as analytical rigor to inform similar future activities.

Deliverables

1. Final list of datasets and key metrics on the identified evaluation areas.
2. Presentation on preliminary findings to USAID
3. Draft report on findings and analysis of key trends on how do learning outcomes (academic and non-academic) of students in newly built schools and school expansions differ from their peers in neighboring schools in the identified areas including assessment of quality of datasets and methodology;
4. Final report on findings and analysis including methodology;
5. Complete bibliography of sources reviewed.

The Primary Data Analyst is responsible for provision of deliverables listed above on time and with good quality. She/he will report to MELA senior MEL specialist. 

Qualification Requirements

• Advanced university degree in social sciences (Preferably in Statistics/Economics/ Mathematics)  

• Proven expertise in quantitative and qualitative data analysis (including content analysis and analysis of statistical trends)
• Excellent knowledge of English and Arabic
• Proven record of research report writing in English
• Ability to keep with strict deadlines
• Advanced interpersonal skills and ability to effectively work with multiple stakeholders (government officials, civil society partners, and donors)

Duty station

Data Analyst/Statistician will be stationed in Amman

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