12:00 – 1:00PM
May 12, 1998
Room 259,
Educational
Sciences Building

Theory and Evaluation in Systemic Reform:
A Policy Perspective

Presented by Bill Clune, Eric Osthoff, and Paula White

This NISE brown bag lecture will present the results of a theory building and testing effort by the Policy Analysis of Systemic Reform research team. The effort began with forums and workshops and continued through systematic surveys and document gathering on all of NSF’s Statewide Systemic Initiatives (SSIs). Bill Clune will use a graphic to present a theory of systemic reform as a continuous causal sequence, discuss how the theory can be operationalized and tested, and introduce the methodology of the SSI survey. Eric Osthoff and Paula White will present a graphic of stronger and weaker SSIs measured according to the theory and explain how these measurements were derived. Gaps and problems with the data and evaluation methodology presented to NSF by the SSIs will be discussed, and thoughts will be offered on what a more reliable standard reporting framework might look like.

Bill Clune is Voss-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and director of NISE’s Policy Analysis of Systemic Reform Team.

>Eric Osthoff is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Project Assistant on the Policy Analysis of Systemic Reform Team.

Paula White is Project Manger of the NISE and a member of the Policy Analysis of Systemic Reform Team.

National Institute for Science Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Copyright (c) 1999. The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. All Rights Reserved.
Please send comments to: uw-wcer@education.wisc.edu
Last Updated:  May 05, 2003