About the Role
The Vander Weele Group seeks enthusiastic and experienced Early Childhood Assessors in Illinois for potential grant monitoring engagement. The Vander Weele Group is a Chicago-based firm that provides grant oversight services to programs serving vulnerable populations. Our employees are good people who are passionate about producing high-quality work and exceeding client expectations. We enjoy a culture of working from home, shutting down at 5, and enjoying the weekend with family and friends. We live and work with integrity, fairness, and a commitment to continuous improvement—and we strive to hire individuals who do the same.
The Vander Weele Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Job Summary:
The Early Childhood Assessor will be responsible for conducting reviews of programmatic compliance, collecting grantee data, and coordinating with stakeholders to ensure program goals are achieved in compliance with relevant laws, regulations, and best practices. Assessors will be trained in and use the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale - 3 (ECERS-3), and compliance tools. Training on these tools will be continuous to ensure fidelity, accuracy, and reliability.
This position may require some travel.
This position is contingent upon contract award.
Job Duties:
Collect programmatic documentation and assess grantee compliance with state-specific requirements.
Participate in scheduling and coordinating site visits and monitoring activities with the grantee within a specific timeframe.
Assessors will refer to the ECERS-3 scale while conducting classroom observation-based assessments while completing a portion of the ECERS-3 score sheet.
Respond to grantee inquiries regarding the monitoring process.
Assist and/or participate in trainings, meetings, and professional development seminars as needed.
Meet with the team regularly to review findings and participate in inter-rater reliability activities.
Participate in peer reviews to promote collaboration and to ensure reliability and accuracy.
Prepare reports from completed compliance and quality reviews, while maintaining accuracy and high-quality writing standards.
Engage in process development, improvement, and innovation within the scope of the proposal at all levels.
Travel as needed within the State of Illinois to conduct monitoring. At times, the job may require overnight stays.
Requirements
Qualifications:
Education: Minimum B.A. or B.S. in Early Childhood, Early Childhood Education, or Child Development, or related fields such as Developmental Psychology, Education, Pediatric Science, Social Work, or other degrees relevant to the service of vulnerable populations. Master’s degree preferred.
At least one year of experience in Early Childhood education, programs, or initiatives.
Experience with ECERS, ITERS, ERS, or similar classroom rating tools (highly preferred).
Strong writing and proofreading skills, along with the ability to communicate clearly in writing without clerical, spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.
Meticulous attention to detail and ability to match field conditions with relevant laws, policies, and best practices.
Proven problem-solving skills, along with the ability to analyze and organize information following multi-step instructions.
Strong verbal communication skills.
Extreme sensitivity to appropriate recording and transmitting of confidential or Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
Highly conscientious, motivated, and flexible individuals with an attitude toward a committed work ethic and a palpable sense of self-efficacy.
Strong technical ability and flexibility for using multiple computer programs and cloud-based applications simultaneously are required to do the job successfully.
Preferred Skills and Experience
Experience with the Illinois Head Start or Early Head Start Programs.
Experience with web-based compliance software.
Experience with monitoring Early Childhood program design.
Experience with managing Early Childhood programs.