B-WET Education Evaluator

ERT

ERT‘s mission is to be a trusted partner of the Federal and state governments, providing high-value science, IT, and engineering services and solutions.

About the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Education

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s (NOAA) Office of Education (OEd) works to advance education both within the agency and with the public it serves. OEd provides scholarships and collaborates with universities to prepare the brightest minds from diverse backgrounds in NOAA-related fields. They offer competitive grants and establish partnerships to integrate NOAA science into schools and organizations. OEd helps coordinate educational activities across NOAA and with external partners to ensure that these efforts are effective and continually improved.

About the Bay Watershed Education and Training 

NOAA’s Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Program funds locally relevant, authentic experiential learning for K-12 students and educators through Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs). MWEEs are multistage activities that include learning both outdoors and in the classroom and aim to increase understanding and stewardship of watersheds and related ecosystems. Whether working with students directly or providing professional development to educators, B-WET grants empower students to investigate local and global environmental issues that affect their lives, choices, and communities. Students identify actions to address these issues, enabling them to help to understand, protect, and restore watersheds and related ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems.

Position Description

The B-WET Education Evaluator supports ERT’s customer at the NOAA Office of Education in the monitoring and evaluation of the NOAA B-WET Program. The Evaluator will coordinate evaluation and grant monitoring strategy, provide capacity building for program managers and grantees, and support the NOAA Education community on stewardship education evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical assistance to the NOAA B-WET Program to develop and implement evaluation efforts.
• Manage national data collections and reporting systems, including support for program managers in their use, and assistance for grantees in participating.
• Lead or support staff in drafting analyses and writing reports/papers for internal use or publication.
• Provide evaluation training and support to program managers and grantees in program evaluation.
• Build knowledge of environmental stewardship and evaluation in environmental education that inform NOAA and mission-related partners.
• Serve as a thought partner with colleagues in analyzing and developing solutions to stewardship education evaluation.
• Assist with communication about B-WET evaluation and related work in a variety of formats (presentations, infographics, summaries, etc) and for different audiences, internal and external (agency leadership, professional conferences, etc).

Qualifications

• 1+ years of work experience in conducting evaluations of education programs and evaluation project management.
• Demonstrated work experience to design, plan, organize, implement evaluation projects. Example evaluation projects include: needs assessments, program evaluation, research studies using primary or secondary datasets, data analysis and interpretation, management information systems or data collection and monitoring systems in education-related programs.
• Demonstrated ability to manage, clean, and analyze evaluation datasets.
• Demonstrated desire and ability to work on stewardship issues within the environmental education field.
• Experience with facilitating internal and external stakeholder groups to foster planning and decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently in a collaborative, geographically distributed environment.
• Strong knowledge of quantitative and qualitative evaluation approaches and data collection techniques.
• Proficient in the use of Google Suite (Mail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides), MS Office products (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and online survey software (Qualtrics or similar).
• Must have strong organizational, analytical, and oral and written communication skills; project management, group facilitation, and interpersonal skills.
• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident and be able to pass a background investigation to obtain a security badge to enter the applicable government facility.
• PhD in Environmental Education, Program Evaluation, or related social science degree; or MA/MS with substantial work experience in education evaluation.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.