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Educational Issues Intern

Organization and department information
The AFT is the nation’s second largest teachers’ union, representing 1.6 million members across the country. Five divisions within the organization represent the broad spectrum of the AFT’s membership: PreK through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; and nurses and other healthcare professionals. In addition, the AFT represents approximately 80,000 early childhood educators and nearly 250,000 retiree members.

The Educational Issues department (AFT Teachers Division) helps our members improve the instruction and services they provide to children and youth, and strengthen the schools where they work through programs, advocacy and information. The department helps affiliates develop capacity to build the union through the power of professional issues and works with other AFT departments to ensure that our members’ needs are clearly articulated in the AFT’s publications, policies and legislative efforts.

The Educational Issues department organizes the AFT’s biennial TEACH conference; supports implementation of the various federal policies that support the work of our members, provides online teaching resources, hosts national professional development academies and institutes, and develops reports, commentaries, analyses and resources to promote the AFT’s Freedom to Thrive agenda and plans to safely reopen schools for in-person teaching and learning. 

Location: In-person at AFT Headquarters

Job Description:
The intern must be able to work independently on long- and short-term research assignments. 

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
• Assisting with a broad set of activities that support professional learning, advocacy, and policy advancement at the federal, state, and local levels for our union affiliates and national officers.
• Completing research tasks as assigned, such as conducting literature reviews and background research; finding, organizing, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data; and preparing memos, briefs, reports, and presentations.
• Attending internal and external meetings (virtual and in-person) and other events and providing written summaries of the proceedings.
• Providing research support for responses to legislative and media requests on pressing K-12 educational issues.
• Reading and summarizing reports, studies, white papers, books and other documents to create written summaries and/or fact sheets.
• Gathering and summarizing information from websites, social media sources, blogs, webinars, journals, etc. based on AFT’s program and policy priorities.
• Supporting senior-level staff by briefing them for meetings and events, accompanying them to meetings and capturing meeting proceedings, and responding on their behalf to urgent research requests.
• Assisting in the writing and production of talking points, briefing materials, presentations, other documents; and
• Assisting in the production and dissemination of surveys and compiling results. The work requires significant communication with AFT staff, affiliate leaders and external sources.

Skills and Qualification:
Recent graduate or graduate students interested in the intersection of labor, education, research, public policy, and law. The ideal candidate will have:
• Demonstrated knowledge of and experience working on education policy research, policy and advocacy, federal and state education policies and processes, or within the K-12 education field and labor unions.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Familiarity and experience with qualitative and quantitative research and analysis.

Number of work hours per week:
Part-time, minimum 20 hours per week / Full-time, 35 hours per week maximum.

Financial compensation: The salary ranges from $15 per hour (undergraduate student) to $17 per hour (graduate student).

Special opportunities:
Full-time and part-time interns routinely cover important events (virtually and in person) with Capitol Hill leaders, think tanks, research organizations and other Washington, D.C. venues.

How to apply: Submit your application packet by completing the form here: https://bit.ly/AFTInternApp A completed application packet includes:
1. A cover letter expressing interest in the position with dates of availability
2. Your current resume (not to exceed one page)
3. A policy-related writing sample that highlights research and analysis skills (no more than five pages) 4. Transcript from most recent degree
5. Three (3) reference including name, title, telephone number, and email address.

Application review timeline:
• Summer 2022: Reviews begin in March; notifications in April.
• Fall 2022: Reviews begin in June; notification in July
• Winter/Spring 2022-23: Reviews begin in October; notification in November.