Managing Director of Research and Evaluation

Location: Remote 

Reports to: President

About Accelerate

Accelerate exists to dramatically improve student outcomes at scale by turning evidence into action. As a hub for advancing what works, Accelerate partners with states to scale proven, evidence-based practices that deliver measurable gains for students. We share knowledge and insights across the field to expand what’s possible, working alongside leaders to embed effective solutions into the fabric of public education. By aligning research, policy, and practice through state implementation, we turn evidence into measurable progress, helping students thrive.

Accelerate is a growing organization - equity-centered, results-oriented, and grounded in both optimism and practical implementation. We aim to build a small, talented, diverse team that embodies our core values: accelerating student achievement, seeking truth through evidence, embracing new ideas, multiplying impact through collaboration, and upholding accountability for results and how we achieve them. Team members bring both systemic experience and an entrepreneurial spirit to the work.

 

About the Role

The Managing Director (MD) of Research and Evaluation will be responsible for developing Accelerate’s research agenda and strategy, collaborating with colleagues within the organization and across external partnerships. The role’s overarching responsibility is to conduct and/or manage timely research projects to answer key, open questions regarding learning interventions and scaling implementation through policy levers. In coordination with research partners, they will actively shape study designs for grantees, ensuring rigorous evaluation that advances through the highest tiers of the ESSA evidence continuum and alignment with Accelerate’s research agenda. The MD of Research and Evaluation will be active in knowledge sharing efforts, developing conference proposals, authoring quarterly reports, facilitating working groups, contributing to communication tools, and engaging in a wide variety of opportunities to influence policy and practice based on the learning from Accelerate’s work. 

Reporting to Accelerate’s President, the MD of Research and Evaluation will supervise the Director of Research and external research consultants. This role will require 20%-30% travel.

 

What You’ll Help Us Do

Research Strategy and Leadership

• Cultivate national research and learning agenda, building from the efforts of other institutions and focusing on the practical need for answers in the field. This research agenda will focus on understanding which questions are genuinely open and relevant, and build a plan to answer them on a fast time horizon.
• Design requests for proposals to solicit and select qualified research partners to support Accelerate’s evidence building in alignment with the research agenda. 
• Maintain a portfolio of research partners that includes expertise from relevant domains in K-12 education and reflects diversity of thought and background, as well a broad array of institutions. 
• Manage Accelerate’s research partnerships and its Research Learning Community to advance its research agenda, identifying cost-effective interventions and helping those interventions scale to reach more historically underserved students, thereby increasing their measurable achievement and life outcomes.

Research Design and Implementation

• Contribute to grantmaking efforts as an internal consultant helping to define priorities for grants programs based on emerging evidence. 
• Participate in grant application and selection process, applying research expertise to assess program’s prior evidence and readiness for rigorous evaluation conducted by a third-party investigator. 
• Ensure that Accelerate’s investments in grantees and research are aligned to answer the open questions of the learning agenda.
• Collaborate with Accelerate’s research partners to drive the design and execution of research projects funded via Accelerate’s grant programs.
• Monitor the progress of research projects through oversight of research partners, tracking key milestones such as pre-analysis plan development, study site selection, data sharing agreements, IRB approval, etc. 
• Identify challenges with research projects and proactively problem-solve in coordination with internal team members, grantees, research and district/school staff as necessary. 
• Be accountable for successful completion of research studies and timely delivery of interim reports and publication of final reports, as a contributor, editor, and co-investigator. 

Evidence Building and Knowledge Sharing

• Analyze and synthesize findings from Accelerate funded research reports to distill lessons learned and inform the research agenda. 
• Manage the Research Learning Community, facilitating quarterly meetings of Accelerate’s research partners and stakeholders to identify and communicate key research findings internally and externally with the field.
• Produce research notes and policy memos to translate research findings into accessible, actionable information for decision makers.
• Support the dissemination of lessons learned from Accelerate’s research projects for a variety of audiences, including researchers, systems leaders, and educators, translating research and evidence into tangible best practices to inform policy and decision makers.
• Develop and submit national conference proposals; attend and present at conferences that reach key audiences and stakeholders in support of Accelerate’s overarching mission.
• Lead content development for the research component of Accelerate’s Community of Practice and State Tutoring Fellowship, which comprises over 100 state agencies, districts, nonprofit intermediaries, and nonprofit and for-profit tutoring providers. 
• Build collaborative structures to convey the implications of Accelerate’s research for practitioners and policy makers, sharing relevant themes and conclusions synthesized across multiple studies. 

Who You Are

Successful employees at Accelerate:

• Champion the potential of all students and efforts that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion based on data and evidence of impact.
• Express confidence with humility, demonstrating empathy and respect for all stakeholders. 
• Embrace feedback and coaching, in the spirit of continuous improvement towards optimizing professional impact and achieving organizational goals. 
• Model an approachable and even-keeled demeanor, while multitasking in a fast-paced environment.
• Communicate clearly and consistently, building strong relationships across a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
• Listen openly, learn continuously, and connect authentically with diverse communities, including students, families, educators, policymakers, local leaders, and funders.
• Demonstrate strong organizational skills and attention to detail, maintaining a working knowledge of a complex portfolio of grantees, research partners, and evaluation studies. 

What You’ve Done

• Doctorate degree in sociology, education, psychology, public policy or other relevant area strongly preferred.
• 10+ years post doctorate in applied research, preferably in an academic, government, or non-profit organization, with a focus on K-12 education. 
• Experience as principal investigator in rigorous research projects, including randomized controlled trials. 
• Senior leadership experience in a research institution, education non-profit, public school system (federal, state or local), or other government agency.
• Demonstrated record of convening multiple stakeholders to achieve a powerful result.
• Proven ability to analyze data and findings and convert them into actionable lessons for the field.