Senior Content Development Administrator

at  Pearson

Required

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Excellent internal and external customer service skills with the ability to foster productive working relations with internal and external customers.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills (including phone skills for distributed projects and internal/external meetings).
• Excellent writing skills, including the ability to write accurate and effective scorer training and to teach and coach content staff to write quality annotations, scoring decisions and other content-/project-related documentation. and the ability to teach and coach staff to communicate effectively.
• Strong content-specific knowledge with the ability to develop, coach, and supervise content staff assigned to various projects.
• Clear understanding of and ability to articulate scoring concepts such as frequency distribution, validity, calibration and other industry terminology, as well as the ability to apply that knowledge to scoring situations.
• Strong computer skills, including use of common Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Google tools (e.g. Gmail, Google Drive, etc.), and ability to handle multiple computer applications simultaneously.
• Ability to supervise large groups of employees working in various roles.
• Strong initiative and organizational and leadership skills, including the ability to prioritize, multitask, and make sound business decisions under tight deadlines.
• Ability to maintain a confidential work environment.
• Preferred
• Minimum two (2) years of experience as a Scoring Director preferred. Experience as an LTE Content Specialist strongly preferred.
• Experience as a Scoring Director across multiple types of assessment projects, such as projects with different rubric types, new vs. legacy projects, experience in both regional and distributed projects, etc. preferred.
• Background/experience in educational measurement, including knowledge of assessment and the assessment industry, including a working knowledge of and insight into scoring systems and processes preferred.
• Experience directing both regional and distributed supervisors and scoring directors.
• Excellent working knowledge and understanding of scoring systems and reports, ability to manage data, and ability to drive scoring management decisions and continuous improvement.
• Desired
• Advanced degree.
• Degree in education, English, mathematics, science, or language.
• Teaching experience in grades K-12.
• Knowledge and use of project management tools and applications desired.

Basic Purpose and Objectives

• Manages scoring services scope for his or her projects(s).
• Functions as a content/subject area expert as well as a scoring service and scoring system functionality expert.
• Guides and supervises scoring directors assigned to projects as well as other Content Specialists assigned to projects when functioning as the lead Content Specialist.
• Manages new and/or complex projects, and may participate in inter- and intra-departmental initiatives.
• Models expected Content Specialist behavior and serves as a mentor for other Content Specialists.

Organizational Relationships

• Direction Received: Reports to and receives direction on Pearson and Scoring Services policy and procedures from the Scoring Services Content Manager.
• Direction of Others: Advises scoring directors on content- and item-level scoring and quality issues. Evaluates scoring directors and provides feedback on job performance. Manages the activities of other Content Specialists when functioning as the lead Content Specialist.
• Contacts: Works closely within and across departments (e.g., Online Scorer Training Development Team, Project Support, Project Management, Client Services) as a significant member of a cross-functional team as required for the assigned project(s) to ensure overall project success. Attends departmental, program team, and customer meetings to exchange ideas and information, discuss issues, plan actions, review costs, and provide technical guidance. May also participate in departmental strategic initiative and continuous improvement activities. Must have the ability to foster productive working relations with external customers. Responsible and accountable for the successful delivery of performance scoring projects.

Overall Functions and Responsibilities

• Works with scoring project manager to complete quality management plans, quality management summaries, and other project documentation, as required.
• Supports Project Managers, Scoring Managers, Content Managers, and Content Specialists in analyzing and implementing solutions to content-related scoring issues.
• Functions as Content Specialist on multiple projects with varying schedules, scope and life cycles.
• Plans content hours for assigned projects. May be asked to consult on planned content hours on other projects.
• Identifies potential scoring directors from the pool of scoring supervisors, and guides, trains, and develops scoring directors for future content roles.
• Conducts interventions and coaches scoring directors as needed.
• Completes Scoring Director Feedback forms and provides timely feedback to scoring directors and scoring managers.
• Ensures that all required forms and documentation are filled out completely.
• Works with scoring directors to create online training modules for assigned projects.
• Reviews training sets and annotations and provides feedback to scoring directors.
• Ensures proper documentation of, sign-off on, and archival of all scoring decisions and final training materials.
• Guides scoring directors in completing project item evaluations when needed, and reviews them prior to submission to customers.
• Monitors reports across grades and items to verify quality expectations are met and projects complete on time. Works with scoring directors to address quality issues, and communicates plans/issues to Content Manager and Scoring Manager.
• Obtains, analyzes, and reports information concerning the strengths and weaknesses of scoring staff performance, including content specialists and scoring directors.
• Compiles appropriate reports on assigned activities as requested.
• Supports the Content Manager in preparing project budgets.
• Mentors or advises other projects’ Content Specialists and/or scoring directors, including reviewing and editing work of other projects’ Content Specialists and/or scoring directors as needed.
• Works on additional initiatives not tied to a specific project, such as scoring director training development and leading support groups (e.g., Quality, Writing/Editing, etc.).
• May support the review of requests for proposals and scope changes and Scoring Services’ response (costing and text) to those requests.
• May assist scoring Project Managers in budget/cost estimate process.
• Assists leadership when needed as a content consultant for projects or bids other than those already assigned.
• Attends all relevant project status meetings and compiles appropriate reports on assigned activities as requested.
• Functions as primary customer contact for oral and written communication involving content for assigned project.
• Ensures that quality records are compiled and archived in accordance with Control of Records.
• Recommends and implements cost improvements.
• Performs other duties as assigned, and may be asked to support scoring director activities as necessary.

Basic Purpose and Objectives

• Manages scoring services scope for his or her projects(s).
• Functions as a content/subject area expert as well as a scoring service and scoring system functionality expert.
• Guides and supervises scoring directors assigned to projects as well as other Content Specialists assigned to projects when functioning as the lead Content Specialist.
• Manages new and/or complex projects, and may participate in inter- and intra-departmental initiatives.
• Models expected Content Specialist behavior and serves as a mentor for other Content Specialists

Overall Functions and Responsibilities

• Works with scoring project manager to complete quality management plans, quality management summaries, and other project documentation, as required.
• Supports Project Managers, Scoring Managers, Content Managers, and Content Specialists in analyzing and implementing solutions to content-related scoring issues.
• Functions as Content Specialist on multiple projects with varying schedules, scope and life cycles.
• Plans content hours for assigned projects. May be asked to consult on planned content hours on other projects.
• Identifies potential scoring directors from the pool of scoring supervisors, and guides, trains, and develops scoring directors for future content roles.
• Conducts interventions and coaches scoring directors as needed.
• Completes Scoring Director Feedback forms and provides timely feedback to scoring directors and scoring managers.
• Ensures that all required forms and documentation are filled out completely.
• Works with scoring directors to create online training modules for assigned projects.
• Reviews training sets and annotations and provides feedback to scoring directors.
• Ensures proper documentation of, sign-off on, and archival of all scoring decisions and final training materials.
• Guides scoring directors in completing project item evaluations when needed, and reviews them prior to submission to customers.
• Monitors reports across grades and items to verify quality expectations are met and projects complete on time. Works with scoring directors to address quality issues, and communicates plans/issues to Content Manager and Scoring Manager.
• Obtains, analyzes, and reports information concerning the strengths and weaknesses of scoring staff performance, including content specialists and scoring directors.
• Compiles appropriate reports on assigned activities as requested.
• Supports the Content Manager in preparing project budgets.
• Mentors or advises other projects’ Content Specialists and/or scoring directors, including reviewing and editing work of other projects’ Content Specialists and/or scoring directors as needed.
• Works on additional initiatives not tied to a specific project, such as scoring director training development and leading support groups (e.g., Quality, Writing/Editing, etc.).
• May support the review of requests for proposals and scope changes and Scoring Services’ response (costing and text) to those requests.
• May assist scoring Project Managers in budget/cost estimate process.
• Assists leadership when needed as a content consultant for projects or bids other than those already assigned.
• Attends all relevant project status meetings and compiles appropriate reports on assigned activities as requested.
• Functions as primary customer contact for oral and written communication involving content for assigned project.
• Ensures that quality records are compiled and archived in accordance with Control of Records.
• Recommends and implements cost improvements.
• Performs other duties as assigned, and may be asked to support scoring director activities as necessary