<p>1 & 2) In the new educational landscape, many more. There are curriculum and instruction jobs where you work to create innovative curricula much like the Exeter program - or less innovative curricula to satisfy state legislators, educators, and parents. There’s educational policy work - you can either work as a lobbyist for a variety of firms, or do research on the impact of educational policies on actual education. There’s also educational research on test/assessment development. And then there’s higher ed - teaching teachers how to teach, teaching C&I specialists how to hone their craft, teaching educational leaders how to be leaders, etc. Another very related field is institutional research, which universities use to assess the higher education within their own university through course evaluations and other tools. They make sure that the university maintains its various accreditations.</p>
<p>Where are they found? All the places you listed. Governments will employ educational specialists in departments of education, school districts, and schools. Some legislators may employ policy analysts who do educational research for them and report on trends in the field, although I would imagine those people probably do research on a variety of topics. Universities employ them in a variety of departments - in institutional research and development as analysts; but also as professors in the department(s) or schools of education. Think tanks hire policy analysts who specialize in education so they can do contract work (often for the government, but sometimes for private clients) on educational policy and research issues. Test development companies - ETS, ACT, College Board, companies that develop other tests like the CRCT, ISEE, SSAT, etc. - hire educational research and policy specialists to help them fine tune their tests, look at the impact of those tests on the educational landscape, and get the tests into schools and universities. Private companies sometimes hire educational policy researchers/analysts, too - like a consulting firm might have some on staff because they consult for educational clients (reorganizing school districts or helping universities attract more students). And oh yeah, non-profits also hire educational policy and research analysts, especially if they are focused on, or have, an educational mission. Teach for America comes to mind (somebody’s got to compile all of those statistics). Others may be stuff like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, KIPP, and the rest of really big and quickly-growing charter school movement - many charter schools are now chains that are headed by large foundations or corporations (KIPP is one - others are New Leaders, Achieve, and Uncommon Schools).</p>
<p>3) At least a master’s, although it depends on what you want to do. An EdD or a PhD will open you up to many more opportunities. The MA or M.Ed will be sufficient for lower-level positions at most of these places - especially the think tanks, some of those private consulting opportunities, and certain lower-level research associate positions at test development firms. As an MA holder you’d be assisting the doctoral-level researchers in research tasks. But if you’re interested in pretty much anything else on the list, you’ll need a doctoral level degree. Institutional research, most of the test company development things, being a professor, developing curricula for governments or school districts - all of that stuff will require a PhD or EdD. Most of the think tank jobs will, too.</p>
<p>Outside of academia, whether you get a PhD or EdD doesn’t really matter. What matters is the skillset you have. Prepare to take a LOT of statistics & measurement classes, as those are highly valued by employers. They’re going to want you to be able to develop large studies and analyze those studies quantitatively, as well as possibly understand assessment development and be able to talk about test theory (of course, this is more important if you are doing test development, institutional research or curriculum & instruction research). But either way, an educational researcher is expected to have a high-level skill set in statistics and measurement. The better you are, the more your job prospects go up.</p>
<p>Inside academia, there may be a slight preference for PhDs due to the perception that the EdD is a practice degree. But again here, that’s entirely dependent on your skill set and accomplishments.</p>
<p>4) Depends. The government ones will be most competitive because of their outstanding benefits and security. The ones within consulting firms may be, too, because of the great pay. Think tank competitiveness will range depending on the tank - if you want a job at RAND that’ll be as competitive as getting a professor job, but a smaller local think tank may not be. Getting a job as a professor is almost like a lottery these days, although in education that’s a little lessened because of the variety of things that PhD-trained folks in education can do.</p>
<p>5) Again, this varies. Generally speaking, the nonprofits will pay the least; the government agencies next and then the private firms, but with a LOT of overlap. It also depends on what level you come in. The doctoral degree will likely give you a salary bump, but how big it is will depend on where you’re going (in the government it’s big; in the private sector it’s likely to be smaller).</p>
<p>I would guess (just an educated guess, though) that a doctorally-prepared educational policy researcher could expect to start at anywhere from $50K to $120K depending on where she goes ($50-70K range at a non-profit or state/local government; maybe $70-90K range at small think tanks, federal government and university positions; and $90K+ at the larger think tanks and consulting agencies). An MA-prepared person would expect a lower salary.</p>
<p>Of course, the sky’s the limit depending on what you decide to do. If you were an education professor and decided to move into university administration, you could make into the mid-6 figures and even more if you went really high (top VPs, provost, president, chancellor, etc.) School superintendents usually have to teach first, but they typically make low-six figures. Top-paid, long-term consultants in big firms can easily make mid-6 figures. Realistically speaking, most of your jobs will probably top out somewhere in the high 5 to low 6 figures.</p>
<p>6) Of course. In fact, it’ll be even more important. First of all, they’ll need educational policy analysts to help implement the Common Core. Secondly, the Common Core is based on assessment, and so they will need educational researchers to track student achievement through assessment as well as to recalibrate the exams to make sure that they are measuring what they want to measure. Evaluation is going to be HUGE here. Is it working? Do we need to change standards? Is this all BS?</p>
<p>It will also be a legislative jungle gym as it rolls through states, so political/educational analysts and lobbyists will be needed. Companies (the charter school companies, test development companies, private consulting firms who have educational companies as clients) are going to want to know how this impacts their business, and those consulting firms are going to have a deluge of business as school districts and states figure out how to implement this thing. And universities are going to want to know how this changes their student body.</p>
<p>The other thing to remember is that the Common Core isn’t as prescribed as people think it is - the curriculum leaves a lot of things open. One example is mathematical pedagogy - the Core talks about what people should learn but not how it should be taught. So lots of money will be spent on figuring out the best way to do that.</p>