Example Job Description

Director of Research and Evaluation

A director of research and evaluation who advances districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.

Download and interview resourcesUse the editable Word exemplar or review structured interview questions for local adaptation.

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How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.

The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.

In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, how would you build a district research and evaluation agenda?
Strong response indicators: Defines the purpose, scope, governing requirement, timeline, responsible owners, dependencies, controls, communication, contingencies, and evidence of completion. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, how would you decide whether a study can support a causal claim?
Strong response indicators: Verifies authoritative information, protects the affected person and data, follows approved procedures, involves responsible owners, documents facts, and confirms resolution. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, a program leader disputes an unfavorable finding. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Uses systematic diagnosis, representative evidence, root-cause analysis, controlled correction, reconciliation, documentation, and monitoring for recurrence. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, how would you protect confidentiality in a small-group analysis?
Strong response indicators: Applies least privilege, minimum necessary access, secure channels, appropriate approval, auditability, retention, and prompt escalation of uncertainty or risk. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, what makes an evaluation design credible and useful?
Strong response indicators: Communicates the evidence, affected population, operational consequence, uncertainty, available choices, recommended action, accountable owners, and follow-up without unnecessary jargon. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, how would you govern external researcher access to district data?
Strong response indicators: Builds sustainable ownership through clear definitions, role-specific training, useful quality reports, feedback loops, documentation, support, and verification that improvement persists. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, how would you design an equitable survey?
Strong response indicators: Defines the purpose, scope, governing requirement, timeline, responsible owners, dependencies, controls, communication, contingencies, and evidence of completion. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, how would you communicate uncertainty to a governing board?
Strong response indicators: Verifies authoritative information, protects the affected person and data, follows approved procedures, involves responsible owners, documents facts, and confirms resolution. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, what controls keep analysis reproducible?
Strong response indicators: Uses systematic diagnosis, representative evidence, root-cause analysis, controlled correction, reconciliation, documentation, and monitoring for recurrence. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, how would you evaluate implementation as well as outcomes?
Strong response indicators: Applies least privilege, minimum necessary access, secure channels, appropriate approval, auditability, retention, and prompt escalation of uncertainty or risk. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, how would you prioritize requests when research capacity is limited?
Strong response indicators: Communicates the evidence, affected population, operational consequence, uncertainty, available choices, recommended action, accountable owners, and follow-up without unnecessary jargon. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
In the Director of Research and Evaluation role, what would you prioritize during your first 90 days?
Strong response indicators: Builds sustainable ownership through clear definitions, role-specific training, useful quality reports, feedback loops, documentation, support, and verification that improvement persists. Connects the response to the position’s specific responsibility for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.

Local HR review required: These examples are educational starting points, not a complete selection instrument or legal advice. The district should validate every question and scoring criterion against its current job analysis, collective bargaining obligations, nondiscrimination requirements, reasonable-accommodation procedures, and applicable law. Avoid inquiries about protected personal characteristics or information unrelated to job performance.

Structured-interview references: U.S. Office of Personnel Management · U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Position Description

Under the direction of the appropriate district administrator, the Director of Research and Evaluation leads and supervises work supporting districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.

The position applies districtwide research, program evaluation, evidence strategy, survey and mixed-method design, ethical review, reproducible analysis, and decision support across student information, assessment, accountability, survey, research, qualitative, statistical, data warehouse, visualization, document-management, project, and secure data systems. It establishes or follows clear ownership, validation, security, documentation, review, and escalation practices appropriate to the role’s assigned authority.

The Director of Research and Evaluation collaborates with students, families, educators, program leaders, analysts, data stewards, privacy, legal counsel, technology, executive leadership, governing boards, community partners, and external researchers. The role is accountable for strategic governance, portfolio management, staff leadership, budgeting, procurement, and executive communication while protecting confidential information and keeping local decisions traceable.

Reports To

Insert your school district’s specific reporting relationship here.

Required Education and Credentials

Required

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in education, information systems, data management, public administration, business administration, statistics, computer science, or a closely related field. Additional qualifying experience may be substituted where permitted by district policy.
Successful completion of all district-required employment clearances.
Completion of role-required privacy, information-security, records, system, and program training within established timelines.

Preferred

Graduate degree or advanced coursework in a field related to the position.
Current professional learning or certification related to districtwide research, program evaluation, evidence strategy, survey and mixed-method design, ethical review, reproducible analysis, and decision support.
Relevant training in project management, data governance, privacy, accessibility, database, analytics, or information security.

Required / Desired Experience

Required Experience

Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in K-12 education, student information, data, technology, compliance, research, records, or a closely related function.
Experience with districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support.
Experience interpreting requirements, procedures, definitions, reports, system information, or technical documentation relevant to assigned work.
Experience coordinating or completing deadline-driven work with careful documentation and quality control.
Experience handling confidential information and communicating with users or stakeholders.

Desired Experience

Experience with student information, assessment, accountability, survey, research, qualitative, statistical, data warehouse, visualization, document-management, project, and secure data systems.
Experience partnering with students, families, educators, program leaders, analysts, data stewards, privacy, legal counsel, technology, executive leadership, governing boards, community partners, and external researchers.
Experience in strategic governance, portfolio management, staff leadership, budgeting, procurement, and executive communication.
Experience using SQL, advanced spreadsheets, scripting, workflow tools, APIs, secure file transfer, or visualization tools when relevant to assigned duties.
Experience developing accessible training, technical documentation, process maps, data dictionaries, or continuity materials.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Planning, Operations, and Service Delivery

Lead a district research and evaluation agenda aligned with strategic priorities, decision timelines, equity, capacity, participant protection, and public value.
Establish intake, prioritization, review, consent or authorization, data access, methodology, analysis, peer review, publication, records, and external-research practices.
Design and oversee quantitative, qualitative, survey, implementation, outcome, cost, and mixed-method studies appropriate to the question and available evidence.
Supervise staff and partners; maintain reproducible data, code, instruments, protocols, analysis plans, limitations, and technical review.
Translate findings into technical reports, executive briefs, public summaries, presentations, learning cycles, and actionable recommendations without exceeding the evidence.

Data Quality, Controls, and Documentation

Distinguish descriptive, correlational, quasi-experimental, experimental, implementation, and qualitative claims and state uncertainty and limitations.
Protect participant privacy, voluntary participation, small groups, sensitive topics, linked records, secure environments, retention, and disclosure.
Use representative sampling, validated measures, missing-data analysis, subgroup review, sensitivity checks, triangulation, peer review, and subject-matter review.
Register decisions, assumptions, deviations, code, versions, instruments, data lineage, quality checks, approvals, conflicts, and publication status.
Prevent deficit framing, inappropriate ranking, unsupported causal language, selective reporting, and findings used beyond the study’s intended scope.

Director of Research and Evaluation-Specific Leadership and Support

Own or support the assigned portfolio for districtwide research and evaluation strategy, ethical review, rigorous mixed methods, reproducible evidence, staff leadership, and transparent decision support, with responsibilities clearly matched to the position’s authority and classification.
Develop role-specific calendars, service expectations, status reporting, support channels, and escalation paths.
Coordinate decisions with responsible data owners, program leaders, technical custodians, reviewers, and approving officials.
Provide accessible training, guidance, communications, and technical assistance tailored to user responsibilities.
Analyze recurring errors, incidents, requests, and process delays and recommend sustainable improvements.

Security, Improvement, and Continuity

Protect personally identifiable and confidential information in systems, files, reports, email, tickets, meetings, training, and support activity.
Test consequential changes using representative cases, documented expectations, peer or owner review, and post-change validation.
Use automation only with appropriate access, versioning, logging, exception handling, review, and recovery procedures.
Maintain current standard operating procedures, cross-training, critical contacts, dependencies, backup coverage, and recovery steps.
Perform other related duties consistent with the position’s purpose and classification.

Required Skills and Abilities

Knowledge of

Districtwide research, program evaluation, evidence strategy, survey and mixed-method design, ethical review, reproducible analysis, and decision support.
Student information, assessment, accountability, survey, research, qualitative, statistical, data warehouse, visualization, document-management, project, and secure data systems.
Data governance, source ownership, data quality, internal controls, change management, documentation, and continuous improvement.
Student privacy, confidentiality, role-based access, secure transmission, records management, incident escalation, and responsible use.
Project coordination, customer service, adult learning, accessible communication, and support practices appropriate to assigned work.

Ability to

Interpret detailed requirements and translate them into accurate procedures, system actions, reports, guidance, or decisions.
Trace discrepancies through source records, processes, configurations, mappings, transformations, and outputs.
Manage competing priorities and fixed deadlines with transparent status, documentation, review, and escalation.
Communicate clearly with technical, program, school, leadership, family, vendor, or agency audiences as appropriate.
Exercise discretion, preserve confidentiality, recognize limits of authority, and escalate material risk promptly.
Learn evolving requirements and technologies and improve processes without weakening controls or continuity.

Work Environment

Work is performed primarily in district offices, schools, service locations, meetings, training environments, and other computer-based professional settings.
The position requires sustained computer use and detailed review of records, systems, files, reports, requests, and technical or procedural documentation.
Work involves frequent interaction with students, families, educators, program leaders, analysts, data stewards, privacy, legal counsel, technology, executive leadership, governing boards, community partners, and external researchers.
Workload may increase substantially during annual cycles, reporting windows, implementations, releases, audits, incidents, school transitions, or other critical deadlines.
The employee may encounter frequent interruptions, confidential matters, ambiguous records, failed processes, competing priorities, and urgent requests.
The position requires secure handling of personally identifiable student, family, or staff information.

Other Requirements

Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
Complete annual mandated-reporter training and fulfill all legally applicable reporting responsibilities.
Complete district-required cybersecurity, student-privacy, safety, nondiscrimination, records, and workplace training.
Maintain professional confidentiality and comply with district policies governing records, information security, acceptable technology use, and data access.
Travel between district offices, schools, service locations, meetings, and professional-development activities as assigned.
Possess a valid California driver’s license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function of the position.
Occasionally work early-morning, evening, weekend, or extended hours during critical operational, reporting, testing, implementation, or incident periods.
Regularly sit, stand, walk, speak, hear, read, and operate computers and standard office equipment.
Use hands and fingers for keyboarding and handling documents; maintain visual attention while reviewing detailed records and computer displays.
Occasionally lift, carry, or move records, devices, equipment, or supplies weighing up to 25 pounds.
Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.