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This position is located in the Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in Washington, DC. IES is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The Incumbent is responsible for supporting the development, implementation, and the possible redesign of high school longitudinal studies.
This position is telework eligible consistent with the Agency’s telework and remote work program policy.
Learn more about this agency03/20/2024 to 04/01/2024
$82,764 - $128,956 per year
GS 11 - 12
1 vacancy in the following location:
No
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Occasional travel - Occasional Travel May Be Required
No
Permanent
Full-time
Competitive
12
No
No
IES-2024-0010
782495000
U.S. Citizens, Nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.
Federal employees who meet the definition of a "surplus" or "displaced" employee.
This announcement is open to all U.S. Citizens. This position may be filled through the Direct Hire Authority. All applicants who meet the qualification requirements will be forwarded to the selecting official for further consideration. Category Rating, Veterans Preference, Schedule A and traditional rating and ranking of applicants does not apply to this vacancy.
APPLICATION LIMIT: This vacancy announcement is limited to the first 150 applications received and will close at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the day that we receive the 150th application, or at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the listed closing date, whichever occurs first.
We encourage you to read this entire vacancy announcement prior to submitting your application.
As a Statistician (Education), GS-1530-11, you will be responsible for:
• Assisting with the generation, presentation, and evaluation of statistical analyses based on large-scale sample-based surveys, large-scale administrative data collections, or large-scale assessments.
• Assisting with the design, conduct, and documentation of data collection operations undertaken by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
• Assisting in managing research projects through the initiation, planning, executing, and monitoring of work related to assigned projects.
As a Statistician (Education), GS-1530-12, you will be responsible for:
• Managing the generation, presentation, and evaluation of statistical analyses based on large-scale sample-based surveys, large-scale administrative data collections, or large-scale assessments.
• Managing the design, conduct, and documentation of data collection operations undertaken by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
• Managing research projects including initiation, planning, executing, and monitoring of work related to assigned projects.
You must meet all qualification requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this vacancy announcement.
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills, and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. We will consider all qualifying experience, including any volunteer experience.
TELEWORK ELIGIBILITY:
You may be eligible for occasional telework in which you are required to report to the office on a regular basis. Participation must be requested and approved by the supervisor and there must be a signed telework agreement. The number of telework days approved is determined by the agency policy, emergency situations, the approval of your immediate supervisor. You must have access to high speed internet and cell phone service meeting current Agency policy from the approved work location.
Minimum Qualification Requirements
You may meet the minimum qualifications for the GS-11, if you possess the specialized experience, education, or a combination of the two.
Specialized Experience for the GS-11
One year of experience in either federal or non-federal service that is equivalent to at least a GS-09 performing two (2) out of three (3) following duties or work assignments:
1. Experience assisting a research team or a principal investigator in developing and conducting sample-based social science surveys.
2. Experience assisting a research team or principal investigator in writing research papers or developing research data products.
3. Experience assisting with one or more of the following subject areas: K-12 education research, postsecondary education research, school/school district/state student data systems, student transcripts, career and technical education, or longitudinal research studies.
OR
EDUCATION (see EDUCATION SECTION of the vacancy announcement)
OR
A combination of both education and experience in which the total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)
The quality of your experience will be measured by the extent to which you possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). You do not need to provide separate narrative responses to these KSAs, as they will be measured by your responses to the occupational questionnaire (you may preview the occupational questionnaire by clicking the link at the end of the Evaluations section of this vacancy announcement).
1. Knowledge of conducting statistical analyses, clearly explaining these analyses to a wide range of audiences and evaluating statistical analyses of others.
2. Knowledge of developing, monitoring, and documenting data collection operations and collaborating with senior staff to develop complex data collection programs.
3. Knowledge of project management including the development, scheduling, monitoring, organizing and coordination of research work.
You may meet the minimum qualifications for the GS-12, if you possess the specialized experience described below.
Specialized Experience for the GS-12
One year of experience in either federal or non-federal service that is equivalent to at least a GS-11 performing two (2) out of three (3) following duties or work assignments:
1. Experience independently developing and conducting sample-based social science surveys.
2. Experience independently writing research papers or developing research data products.
3. Experience working independently with one or more of the following subject areas: K-12 education research, postsecondary education research, school/school district/state student data systems, student transcripts, career and technical education, or longitudinal research studies.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)
The quality of your experience will be measured by the extent to which you possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). You do not need to provide separate narrative responses to these KSAs, as they will be measured by your responses to the occupational questionnaire (you may preview the occupational questionnaire by clicking the link at the end of the Evaluations section of this vacancy announcement).
1. Skill in conducting statistical analyses, clearly explaining these analyses to a wide range of audiences and evaluating statistical analyses of others.
2. Skill in developing, monitoring, and documenting data collection operations and collaborating with senior staff to develop complex data collection programs.
3. Skill in managing research projects including the development, scheduling, monitoring, organizing and coordination of research work.
This position has a positive education requirement.
Basic Requirements for GS-5 through GS-12:
Degree: that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements should be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing.
or
Combination of education and experience -- courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance.
You may meet the minimum qualifications of this position by meeting the following education options.
(GS-11)
Ph.D.
or
equivalent doctoral degree
or
3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to PhD if related
or
A combination of specialized experience and education that when taken as a percentage of the required education and experience total 100% or more.
Foreign Education:
Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must submit a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, please click Foreign Education.
Veterans’ Career Counseling: If you are a veteran interested in receiving tips on preparing a Federal resume and/or how to prepare for an interview, you may email sro_recruiting@ed.gov to schedule a session with a career counselor (“Veterans Counseling Session” should be placed in the subject line of the email).
Student Loan Default: If selected for this position, we will verify that you have not defaulted on any loan funded or guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education. If you are found to be in default, we will contact you to make arrangements for repayment prior to making an official offer of employment.
Suitability and Investigation: If selected for this position, you will be required to complete the Declaration for Federal Employment (OF-306) to determine your suitability for federal employment and successfully complete a pre-appointment investigation/background check.
Essential/Non-Essential: This position is considered non-essential for purposes of reporting to work during federal government closures.
Financial Disclosure: This position does not require financial disclosure.
Bargaining Unit: This position is included in the bargaining unit (American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 252).
Selections: Agencies have broad authority under law to hire from any appropriate source of eligibles and may fill a vacancy in the competitive service by any method authorized. We may make additional selections from this vacancy announcement within 90 days from the date the selection certificates are issued, should vacancies occur. We may also share selection certificates amongst program offices across the agency.
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
We will review your application and documentation submitted to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. We will refer the best qualified candidates to the Selecting Official of the job for further review and consideration. You will be evaluated to determine if you meet qualifications required, and on the extent to which your application shows that you possess the knowledge, skills and abilities associated with this position as defined below. Please be sure to give examples in your resume and explain how often you used these skills, the complexity of the knowledge you possessed, the level of people you interacted with, and the complexity and sensitivity of the issues you handled.
CTAP/ICTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above), based on an evaluation of their applications; possessing the knowledge, skills, and abilities which clearly exceed the minimum qualification requirements for the position.
You must submit (REQUIRED FOR ALL APPLICANTS):
A resume demonstrating your education, experience, training, and accomplishments as it relates to the qualifications for this position and substantiating your responses to the occupational questionnaire.
Transcript: This position has a positive education requirement and requires proof of education for eligibility. You must submit an unofficial transcript that includes the following information: name of accredited institution, major(s), grades earned, completion dates, and quarter and semester hours earned. If any required coursework is not easily recognizable on transcripts, or if you believe a portion of a particular course can be credited toward meeting an educational requirement, you must also provide a memorandum on letterhead from the institution's registrar, dean, or other appropriate official stating the percentage of the course that should be considered to meet the requirement and the equivalent number of units. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable; however, if you are selected for the position, you will be required to produce the original official transcripts. This also applies to ED employees.
Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): Visit the https://www2.ed.gov/about/jobs/open/edhires/ictap.html or https://www2.ed.gov/about/jobs/open/edhires/ctap.html for information on how to apply as a CTAP, or ICTAP eligible. To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section.
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
Step 1: Create a USAJOBS account (if you do not already have one) at www.usajobs.gov.
Step 2: Create a resume using the USAJOBS resume builder or upload a resume into your USAJOBS account. Ensure that your resume demonstrates your education, experience, training, and accomplishments as it relates to the qualifications for this position and substantiates your responses to the occupational questionnaire.
Step 3: Upload any required documents into your USAJOBS account (must be less than 3MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, or Word (DOC or DOCX)).
Step 4: Click "Apply Online" and follow the prompts to complete the occupational questionnaire and attach any required documents. Verify that uploaded documents from USAJOBS transfer into the agency's hiring system. You will have the opportunity to upload any additional required documents in the agency's hiring system. Click “Finish” to submit your application.
NOTE: You may update your application or required documents at any time while the announcement is open by logging into your USAJOBS account, clicking on "Application Status," clicking on the position title, clicking "Update Application,” and following the prompts.
In order to receive consideration for this position, you must submit your complete application, including all required documents, by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the closing date of the vacancy announcement. If the vacancy announcement has an application limit, we recommend that you submit your complete application at the time of initial application. We will not accept any required documentation after the closing date of the vacancy announcement.
If you have any questions regarding submitting your application, please contact the HR Specialist listed under the Agency Contact Information.
As an applicant, you may check your application status through your USAJOBS account at any time. We will also notify you via email of your application status at three key stages in the recruitment process.
1. Once the vacancy announcement closes, we will inform you that your application has been received.
2. After we review your submitted resume and supporting documentation, we will inform you if you are eligible and qualified, if your application was referred to a subject matter expert or panel of subject matter experts for further evaluation, and if you were amongst the most highly qualified candidates referred to the selecting official.
3. Finally, we will inform you of your final disposition for this announcement (e.g., if/when a selection is made, if/when the announcement is cancelled).
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
This job originated on www.usajobs.gov. For the full announcement and to apply, visit www.usajobs.gov/job/782495000. Only resumes submitted according to the instructions on the job announcement listed at www.usajobs.gov will be considered.
Learn more about
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is looking for the best and brightest to ensure equal access and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation. If you are a highly motivated individual who would like to work for an agency that establishes policies on federal financial aid for education, distributes as well as monitors those funds; collects data on America's schools and disseminates research; focuses national attention on key educational issues; and prohibits discrimination and ensures equal access to education, ED is the place for you! We embrace diversity and inclusion, and our talented workforce reflects the personal, professional and educational strengths and diversity of our country.
o Provides national leadership on key educational issues.
o Awards more than $47 billion annually in grants, mainly to state education agencies, local educational agencies, and institutions of higher education.
o Manages a federal student loan portfolio of over $1.5 trillion, held by over 40 million borrowers.
o Makes available over $120 billion annually in student aid to help over 10 million students and their families afford college.
o Enforces the nation’s civil rights laws pertaining to education.
o Supports programs of research, statistics, and evaluation of education in order to identify effective instructional practices, track student achievement, and measure the impact of educational reform.
