Literacy Partners is a non-profit education program based in New York City. We offer free adult literacy classes, short-term workshops, and create educational media content to help low-income and immigrant parents and caregivers improve the literacy and language skills they need for success in today’s world. Our programs incorporate child development topics and parenting support to help participants promote their young children’s early learning, social-emotional development, and school readiness.
We collect data from the parents and caregivers who participate in our program to measure our results: Have they improved their literacy and language skills to achieve their goals? Are they engaging in behaviors with their children known to promote early learning more often? Do they know more about child development and do they feel more confident in their role vis-a-vis their children?
Scope of Work:
We’d like a consultant to review the available research on our intended outcomes to help us assess the comparative value of each of our program elements and improve our performance. For example:
- We provide home libraries to our participants. What are the latest research findings on the relationship between book ownership and reading proficiency among young children?
- Participants in our program report reading to their children more often and for a longer duration as a result of our work. What does the current research tell us about the impact of reading aloud with children?
- Parents in our program report increased confidence, less stress, and less isolation. How are these factors reliably measured and how are they related to children’s outcomes
- Parents report more knowledge of ways they can promote children’s learning and social-emotional skills in their every-day routine. Is there evidence that similar reports of increased knowledge are associated with improved child outcomes? What are the specific measures of behavior change with evidence of an impact on outcomes for children?
- Head Start enrolled children of our students typically demonstrate more growth on periodic assessments of development using Teaching Strategies Gold. Are these assessments predictive of kindergarten readiness? Are there other assessment tools for 3- and 4-year olds that are predictive of kindergarten readiness?
The main project deliverable is a research note answering these and other similar questions with documentation of source material, including potential interviews with practitioners and experts where the literature is inconclusive.
Qualifications:
- Graduate degree in a relevant discipline or current enrollment in graduate school
- Track record of success in research and analysis on topics related to the program area and questions mentioned above
- Research and/or operations experience in early childhood development, parenting, or “two-generation” approaches to education
- Excellent writing skills and ability to synthesize diverse findings from research and practice into succinct
We would like to begin the engagement as soon as possible and would like the work to be completed in four to six weeks.
How to Apply:
Send a resume with a brief cover letter explaining your experience doing similar
work and stating your expected consulting fee to [email protected]. Feel free to include links to your previous work. Put “Application for Research Consultant” with your name in the subject line. Interviews will be granted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.