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Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is one of the largest school districts in the United States, serving over 320,000 students in 600+ schools and employing over 44,000 people, most of them teachers.  CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.  In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity.  Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Department of School Quality Measurement and Research  (SQMR) works to define what a quality school is and helps communicate to stakeholders how the district is performing. SQMR builds a foundation of high-quality, research-based evidence to inform district practice, policy, and vision. Through the timely and accurate reporting of school and district performance metrics, SQMR supports stakeholder involvement in district decision-making and school efforts to improve instructional effectiveness. SQMR is also actively engaging stakeholders to co-design an improved system for driving these conversations.

Job Summary: 

Reporting to the Manager of Performance Policy, the Policy Engagement Specialist will lead the planning, execution, and evaluation of stakeholder outreach and associated projects associated with the district's school quality and measurement policies.

The Policy Engagement Specialist will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Pursue an understanding of the objectives, policies and needs of planning projects; Work collaboratively with team members to identify audiences, engagement needs and evaluation methods.
• Evaluate and summarize information and feedback gathered from the community to inform decision-making processes. Use multiple methods to support the integration of community findings into the decision-making process by senior management.
• Ensure that all engagement plans address the needs of culturally specific communities and other underserved audiences.
• Develop and coordinate partnerships that help deliver on engagement strategies through strong, long-term relationships.
• Oversee the planning, execution, and evaluation of stakeholder outreach and associated projects.
• Maintain awareness of the special interests and concerns of various stakeholders through information gathering; Communicate those special interests/concerns to inform future recommendations to improve communications, mitigate challenges and miscommunications, and foster support for program efforts.
• Oversee the coordination of meetings, forums, community meetings, seminars/webinars, and other special engagements, to include logistics, identification of program representatives, preparation of representatives, the development of talking points and presentation materials, and meeting documentation.
• Develop, maintain, and improve tracking systems for all external engagements.

• Develop plans to publicize events and target appropriate stakeholder audiences in collaboration with Marketing and FACE.
• Write website or outreach content about project goals, process and public engagement efforts.
• Organize, analyze and summarize community feedback and produce reports and presentations with the results
• Conduct and analyze public opinion research to support engagement efforts.
• Partner with the Office of Equity and FACE teams to improve agency practices to engage and elevate the voices of historically marginalized communities.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of engagement efforts over time.
• Create community engagement plans of action and oversee their implementation to generate community and partner input for policies, long-term plans and community investments.
• Support the development and implementation of a comprehensive communications and training plan for the district’s accountability policy for Central Office and Network staff, school staff, parents, and community members. Create supporting documents, calculators, and multimedia, as appropriate.
• Oversee Learning Demands vendors.
• Other duties as assigned.

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Policy Engagement Specialist must possess the following qualifications: 

Education Required: 

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university
• Master’s degree preferred

Experience Required: 

• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience, including the following:
• • Experience with program or project management, strategic planning and adult learning
  • Experience writing code with data analytic tools (SAS preferred, R, SPSS, STATA, etc.)
• Experience with learning cycles and/or continuous improvement processes in schools, preferred

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: 

• Demonstrated understanding of historic marginalization and its impact on communities of color
• Proven track record of maximizing capacity through excellent project management skills, process optimization and system design and implementation
• Demonstrated commitment to CPS Core Values: student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.
• Demonstrated commitment to self-directed, continuous professional development.
• Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously
• Flexibility to meet changing department needs and priorities
• Exceptional organizational, communication (oral and written), project management and problem-solving skills
• Strong attention to detail
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, respond immediately to multiple constituencies and meet established deadlines
• Ability to work in a team, with technical and non-technical personnel, and across departmental boundaries
• Ability to understand and apply detailed programming specifications and in a complex data management environment
• Knowledge of educational performance measures, educational research and urban education systems preferred

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

• Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency -Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions; however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.
• Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 -Unless approved for a medical or religious exemption, all employees are required to be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, and to submit proof of vaccination to the district within 30 days of hire. “Up-to-date” on vaccination is defined as being at least two weeks past all primary vaccine doses and any applicable boosters.