The Hechinger Report is looking for a data reporter to serve as an integral member of its award-winning investigative team. The data reporter will help reporters gather and analyze data through the lens of Hechinger’s mission to expose inequality and examine innovation in education. 

We’re looking for a self-starter who has a love of data, an understanding of its limitations and a passion for making it accessible to the public. We want someone willing to enthusiastically dive into the world of education data, from early ed through higher ed. This position will work closely with reporters and editors to help conceive and develop projects, as well as aid reporters in deepening their investigations through data. The position is primarily focused on data analysis and may occasionally involve some writing.

The Hechinger Report is headquartered in New York City, but has reporters and editors throughout the country. This position can be remote and will report to an editor based in Texas.

Because we are an independent unit of Teachers College at Columbia University, this position includes the College’s comprehensive full-time benefits package, described here. Hechinger also is committed to providing professional development opportunities to its staff.

We’re sure that not all candidates will match exactly what we’ve written below. The Hechinger Report understands that good reporters can come from all kinds of backgrounds. If you have skills and experiences that you think would allow you to thrive in this role, apply and tell us what you will bring to the newsroom.

At Hechinger, we are committed to increasing the diversity of our newsroom and encourage people from traditionally underrepresented groups to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities and first-generation college graduates. We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age or any other status protected under applicable law.

The application deadline is June 28. In addition to a resume, please prepare a one-page cover letter that includes an answer to the following question:

• What is an example of a time you’ve seen the power of data analysis?

Minimum Qualifications:

• ability to gather and interpret data from a variety of sources (including through public records requests) and to combine data from multiple sources 
• experience with cleaning messy data sets
• solid understanding of at least one data analysis tool such as Excel, SQL, Python and/or R
• ability to collaborate well with reporters
• a passion for exposing inequities and an open and curious mind 

Preferred Qualifications:

• experience with web scraping
• a basic understanding of statistics, including how to perform tests for statistical significance and correlation
• a track record of uncovering important stories in data sets
• familiarity with data visualization tools
• experience working in a newsroom
• comfort with writing about data analysis and its limitations in an easy-to-understand, jargon-free way
• some familiarity with education data sets