POSTSECONDARY SUCCESS EVALUATION TRACK:

Armed with the understanding that a highschool education is insufficient to compete in a 21st century economy, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation seeks to significantly increase the number of Americans who earn a postsecondary degree. In an effort to better understand postsecondary success issues, particularly with a culturally responsive lens the Foundation has lent its support to OMG Center for Collaborative Learning and Duquesne University School of Education in their on-going efforts to diversify the research and evaluation fields.

The Postsecondary Success Evaluation Fellows program aims to build diversity in the educational research and evaluation field by providing enriching one year work experiences and training in program evaluation to recent doctoral and master's degree graduates in education, from groups historically underrepresented in the educational research discipline. As with the Evaluation Fellows Program, individuals from historically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities include US born ethnic or racial minorities, those from low-income communities, first-generation college graduates, or others who have been historically underrepresented in the program evaluation field. The ultimate goal of these combined efforts is to infuse the social sector with well-trained individuals from diverse backgrounds to provide culturally responsive perspectives on the challenges preventing the postsecondary success of many Americans.

EMERGING PROFESSIONAL FELLOWS/PLACEMENTS:

We will select up to seven emerging professionals to enter the program. An advisory committee comprised of staff from RWJF, OMG, Duquesne University and other professionals with evaluation expertise will review the applications. We will use the following criteria to evaluate applicants:

• Potential to contribute to the program evaluation field;
• Commitment to a career in program evaluation;
• Commitment to serving diverse populations;
• Demonstrated critical thinking and writing skills; and
• Recommendations from individuals with whom the applicant has studied or worked.

Frequently Asked Questions

* All applications should be posted no later than 5pm EDTon the due date.

NOTE:

We will select up to seven placement organizations to host fellows for the program. An advisory committee comprised of staff from RWJF, OMG, Duquesne University and other professionals with evaluation expertise will review the placement applications. We will use the following criteria to evaluate candidate organizations:

• Demonstrated prominence of evaluation in the organization's work;
• Quality of the organization's evaluation work;
• Evidence of commitment to building diversity in the evaluation field;
• Evidence of commitment to providing the RWJF Fellow with work projects that will build his or her skills in evaluation and research;
• Evidence of commitment to providing the RWJF Fellow with appropriate supervision;
• Appropriate salary for an entry-level position.

RETOOLING PROFESSIONALS:

We will select up to 10 non-profit professionals to enter the program.  Applicants should be US-born and from a group that has been historically disadvantaged or underrepresented in program evaluation.  This includes, but is not limited to, individuals from ethnic and racial minorities historically underrepresented in program evaluation.  An advisory committee comprised of staff from RWJF, OMG, Duquesne University and other professionals with extensive evaluation expertise will review the applications.

All applicants must be full-time employees of a tax-exempt US-based non-profit organization designated by the IRS with 501 (c) 3 status. As well, each applicant will have a graduate degree, or at least 8 years of work experience and some graduate-level credits. It is further expected that applicants will have more than 7 years of work experience following the completion of their highest degree (at least 15 years of work experience if the highest degree earned is a Bachelor’s degree).  We will use the following criteria to evaluate applicants to the program:

For the non-profit professional:

• An expressed interest  in evaluation;
• A commitment and ability to attend all training workshops;
• Quality of evaluation project s/he will undertake during the fellowship year;
• Willingness and ability to dedicate about 20 hours per month on an evaluation project;
• Ability to demonstrate how they will use evaluation for ongoing learning and program development;
• Ability to complete and present a final evaluation product.

For the non-profit organization:

• Commitment to increasing the evaluation capacity of the organization;
• Ability to demonstrate how the organization will use evaluation for ongoing learning and program development;
• The willingness to reallocate job functions to allow the fellow to attend trainings & conduct an internal evaluation during the year-long fellowship;
• A demonstrated commitment to serving underserved populations.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

* *Accepted applicants will be notified in September; the first training workshop will be held in January.

*All Applications should be posted by 5pm EDT on the due date.

NOTE: RWJF does not provide individual critiques of applications submitted.