Evaluation Team
THE EVALUATION TEAM
Gary
Miron
Carolyn Sullins
Dr. Gary Miron, Project
Director. Dr. Gary Miron, Principal Research Associate
at The Evaluation Center, provides the leadership for the evaluation team
and is responsible for conducting the project and fulfilling its operational
and programmatic expectations. He assumes full responsibility for the required
reports and serve as the primary liaison/point of contact for this project.
Dr. Miron is serving as project director for the statewide evaluation
of charter schools in Pennsylvania and for the secondary analysis of student
achievement results from the Edison Schools Inc. He also served as project
manager for the evaluation of charter schools and charter school initiatives
in Michigan and Connecticut. He has been involved in the development
of research instruments, data collection and analysis, report writing,
and prepared web sites for these particular charter school evaluations.
Additionally, he provided technical assistance for the charter schools
in Connecticut in terms of helping them develop and implement accountability
plans and self evaluations.
Dr. Miron has a diverse background as a teacher and researcher.
He worked as a public school teacher in Michigan in the mid-1980s
and taught at the university level in China (one year) and for more than
four years at Stockholm University in Sweden. Between 1987 and 1997,
he was employed at the Institute of International Education, Stockholm
University. Here he completed his doctoral degree and later worked as a
staff researcher and as the Director of Studies. During the time
he was employed at Stockholm University, he served as principal investigator
for four international and two national research and evaluation projects
dealing with education questions.
Relevant to the current evaluation proposal, Dr. Miron planned and directed
a study of school restructuring in Europe (1994-1997) and conducted an
investigation for the Swedish National Agency for Education of reforms
in Sweden concerning decentralization, choice, and the use of market forces
as a means to restructure the education system (1992-1993). In addition
to his research on school reforms, he was involved with starting a charter
like "independent"; Montessori school in Sweden. This experience
helped him understand the voucher reform in Sweden from the perspective
of a school administrator.
Dr. Miron's research and diverse international work experience have
provided him with the opportunity to study and learn about educational
systems and educational problems in several regions of the world.
He has taught a number of research methods courses and is familiar with
employing a broad range of research methods and techniques. He has
researched and written on such topics as special needs education, educational
evaluation, educational planning and policy, the strengthening of research
capacity, multimethod research, restructuring of education, and school
reform. He has authored or edited 7 books and has published a dozen
articles or chapters in books.
If requested, Dr. Miron will make presentations on the conduct and findings
of this study to state board members, government officials, and other stakeholders
and interested parties.
Dr. Carolyn Sullins, Project Manager. The project manager is Dr. Carolyn Sullins, Senior Research Associate at The Evaluation Center. Sullins has contributed to evaluations of charter schools in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. In addition, she is the project director for the evaluation of Western Michigan University’s "No More Lies" alcohol risk reduction project.
Sullins earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology in 2001, specializing in Quantitative and Evaluative Research Methods, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also completed her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology in 1996. While completing her graduate degrees, she also spent time as a graduate research assistant studying the relations between young children’s social networks and their academic achievement. She also spent two years as the director of a program designed to teach children ethical values, and three years as a campus support groups program coordinator. In addition, she served as an evaluator of a multisite social service agency for adjudicated and at-risk youth and families. Her other evaluation projects included the validation of an instrument used to assess school organization, an evaluation of a local self-help center, and an evaluation of a Chicago teacher’s training program.
Sullins brings to the Evaluation Center a wide variety of quantitative and qualitative research skills and experience, as well as an extensive theoretical background in program evaluation. Her Master thesis, portions of which are published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, involved designing, administering, and analyzing a survey of therapists’ practices. Her doctoral dissertation concerned an empowerment evaluation of a consumer-run mental health drop-in center. It involved mental health consumers in the design, implementation, interpretation, and use of an evaluation of their own center. This project, which spawned four presentations at national conferences, led to new conceptualizations of particular evaluation models and applications.
If requested, Dr. Sullins will make presentations on the conduct and findings of this study to state board members, government officials, and other stakeholders and interested parties.
Additional Field Researchers
Project professional staff (see above) are intimately involved in fieldwork
and visit most of the schools themselves. However, the evaluation
team also employs a number of additional field researchers. Current
research assistants include Carla Howe, Jamie Helsen, Deborah Lehmann,
and Kimberly Reynolds.
Support Staff
Staff at The Evaluation Center provide a number of support services,
including editing, clerical, accounting, and data entry.
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