Data-Driven Decision Making Externship with CIYJ

Ever wonder how organizations know whether a policy, program, or intervention is actually working? In this externship, you will explore how data can help answer those questions. Working with a real dataset covering more than 300 juvenile justice facilities, you will learn how researchers turn raw information into evidence that practitioners can use to improve outcomes.

Along the way, you will develop research questions, analyze data in Python, evaluate the strength of your findings, and learn how to communicate results clearly to non-technical audiences. By the end of the program, you will create a professional findings package including a written brief, visualization, presentation deck, and recorded presentation that mirrors the work of real-world research and policy teams.

The Center for Improving Youth Justice (CIYJ), formerly known as Performance-based Standards (PbS), was founded to address the limitations of traditional accreditation in juvenile facilities. For over 20 years, CIYJ has collected holistic data twice a year from facilities across the U.S., including administrative records on safety, fairness, and rehabilitation; incident reports tracking critical events; and perception surveys from youth, staff, and families. This data-driven approach helps facilities move from reactionary management to evidence-based, therapeutic practices that prioritize safety and fairness.