Complete Description:
We are looking for highly motivated and skilled talent to join our team at District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). We seek individuals who are passionate about transforming the DC school system and making a significant difference in the lives of public school students, parents, principals, teachers, and central office employees.
DCPS serves 45,000 students in the nation’s capital through the efforts of approximately 4,000 educators in 123 schools. As part of a comprehensive reform effort to become the preeminent urban school system in America, DCPS intends to have the highest-performing, best paid, most satisfied, and most honored educator force in the nation and a distinctive central office staff whose work supports and drives instructional excellence and significant achievement gains for DCPS students.
Student Information Systems Help Desk Analyst
The Office of Data and Strategy (ODS) team is focused on providing high quality data, information and analysis to enable the sweeping reforms currently underway at the District of Columbia Public Schools.
ODS serves as the analytic hub for the district by providing data to support policy and implementation goals as well as providing assistance in development and dissemination of all achievement related data and oversee and direct all research, evaluation, analytics and testing activities including all summative and formative assessments. ODS is also responsible for overseeing the data system functions for DCPS.
The guiding principle of ODS is to support decision-making in DCPS with accurate information about how our students are performing, and how the district as a whole is performing. ODS provides the DCPS community with streamlined data systems that place high quality, results-focused information at its fingertips, and provide the supports to transform data into actionable information.
The Student Information Systems Help Desk Analyst is responsible for providing telephone and email support to the end-user community for the new DCPS Student Information System (ASPEN). This role provides resolutions on the telephone and through email with users, walks the user through a series of steps to determine the cause of a problem, updates systems to reflect users’ requests, and classifies the level, priority and nature of the problem. If s/he is unable to diagnose the problem with the end user, s/he will escalate to Tier II support. The role also opens, tracks, closes and troubleshoots tickets. Ensures problem ownership and promotes end-user satisfaction.
Primary duties:
• Serves as the initial point of contact for help desk support to internal DCPS employees and external customers for the DCPS Student Information System.
• Delivers the highest level of customer service to users via telephone and email.
• Logs user inquiries in a ticket tracking system. Daily reviews any open issues or requests from end-users and follow-up accordingly.
• Determines nature of obstacles and resolves issues/errors reported by customer while on the call.
• Coordinates or implements several small-sized projects, or components of a larger project.
• Tracks and reports progress of tickets through use of various computer programs and tools.
• Interacts with and responds effectively to urgent requests from multiple internal and external DCPS stakeholders.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.
Educational/professional qualifications
• Must have either a minimum of 3 years of experience in help desk, or similar customer service industry or 3 years of experience as school based staff using any student information system
• Knowledge and use of ASPEN SIS is a plus
• Familiarity with help desk ticket tracking systems (Remedy, HEAT, etc.) is a plus.
• Excellent customer service, communication, interpersonal skills (both written and verbal) with emphasis on providing high quality customer service within a team environment
• Ability to maintain professional communication skills when under pressure and exhibit a high level of patience.
• Must have a wide range of skills and knowledge in computer software and an understanding for network applications.
• Previous exposure to or experience in the education sector preferred.
• Ability to quickly learn new processes and procedures
• Ability to work independently in a fast paced environment
• Must be extremely well organized and detail oriented
Personal qualities of top candidates
• Commitment to Equity: Passionate about closing the achievement gap and ensuring that every child, regardless of background or circumstance, receives an excellent education.
• Leadership: Coaches, mentors, and challenges others to excel despite obstacles and challenging situations.
• Focus on Data-Driven Results: Relentlessly pursues the improvement of central office performance and school leadership, instruction, and operations, and is driven by a desire to produce quantifiable student achievement gains.
• Innovative Problem-Solving: Approaches work with a sense of possibility and sees challenges as opportunities for creative problem solving; takes initiative to explore issues and find potential innovative solutions.
• Adaptability: Excels in constantly changing environments and adapts flexibly in shifting projects or priorities to meet the needs of a dynamic transformation effort; comfortable with ambiguity and non-routine situations.
• Teamwork: Increases the effectiveness of surrounding teams through collaboration, constant learning and supporting others; sensitive to diversity in all its forms; respects and is committed to learning from others
• Dependability: Does whatever it takes to consistently deliver with high quality under tight deadlines; successfully manages own projects through strong organization, detailed workplans, and balancing of multiple priorities.
• Communication and Customer Service Skills: Communicates clearly and compellingly with diverse stakeholders in both oral and written forms; anticipates and responds to customer needs in a high-quality and courteous manner.
Skills:
Skill
Required / Desired
Amount
of Experience
Expertise Rating
Experience in help desk, call center, or similar customer service industry
Required
1
Years
2 - Proficient
Knowledge of ASPEN SIS is a plus
Nice to have
1
Years
1 - Basic
Familiarity with help desk ticket tracking systems (Remedy, HEAT, etc.)
Required
1
Years
2 - Proficient
Excellent customer service, communication, interpersonal skills with emphasis on providing high quality customer service in a team environment
Required
8
Years
2 - Proficient
Ability to maintain professional communication skills when under pressure and exhibit a high level of patience
Required
1
Years
2 - Proficient
Must have a wide range of skills and knowledge in computer software
Required
1
Years
2 - Proficient
Previous exposure to or experience in the education sector preferred
Nice to have
1
Years
1 - Basic
Experience in high volume Tier 1 support
Required
3
Years
3 - Expert
Mr. Smith, test coordinator at Z Elementary School, sent an email regarding the fact that they can't access the Cohort report. They have expressed frustration in email to the principal, the superintendent and your boss that they have called at least twice about this issue and no one on has been able to help. When you log in, you are able to see the report but aren't sure why the user can't and it's your 2nd day. Draft your response to the user and articulate what steps you would take to resolve the issue
Ms. Johnson, registrar at Ballou HS, sent an email requesting that you delete an attendance entry that was created is error. You can see that they just created the entry and have also created the correct entry in the system. There is a strict data correction process by which the principal has to sign off on all changes. The school staff person acknowledges familiarity with the process, but the principal is out on leave. Draft your response to the user and articulate the steps to resolution.
The help desk experiences very high call volumes (many calls in the phone queue) during various times in the school year. How would you handle entering and completing tickets for each call that you receive during a time of high volume (as soon as you finish one call, the next call waiting in the queue is routed to your phone)?
The manager will accept a candidate with 3 years of experience as school based staff using any student information system such as (ASPEN SIS, AAL eSIS, EduPoint Synergy, or Pearson Power School) in lieu of help desk, call center, or similar customer service industry experience.
Contractor must be able to travel from DCPS Central Office to school sites and between School sites.
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