The Evaluation Team

Dr. Gary Miron will serve as project director for the evaluation of the Kalamazoo Promise. Dr. Miron has extensive experience in directing and leading large scale evaluations and research studies including statewide, national, and international studies. The bulk of his work has focused on evaluations of school reforms and education policies, which is of particular relevance to this evaluation.

Dr. Miron is a professor of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology at WMU’s College of Education. He has worked on a variety of evaluations of school reforms, including evaluations of charter schools in six states and a federally sponsored study of the correlates of success in American charter schools. Among the relevant evaluation projects that he currently or recently led are a 5-year systemic initiative in North Central Louisiana and a scholarship program for 2,000 low-income Native Hawaiians. In the past he has evaluated a number of high stakes school reforms including a national voucher reform in Sweden and an evaluation of student achievement in schools operated by Edison Schools Inc.

As project director, Dr. Miron is responsible for the conduct and successful completion of the evaluation. He works collaboratively with other team members to plan the design, methods, and data collection instruments. Dr. Miron is also involved in the analysis of data and the report writing for interim and final deliverables.

Dr. Brooks Applegate received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 1986 in Educational Psychology with his concentration in Research, Measurement and Statistics after completing a pre-doctoral internship at Honeywell's Technology Strategy Center in Golden Valley, MN. Dr. Applegate is currently a Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Research, and Technology and is the program coordinator for the graduate program in Evaluation, Measurement, and Research at Western Michigan University.

Since 1984, Dr. Applegate has authored and coauthored over 75 referred journal articles, two book chapters, and over 65 peer-reviewed presentations at professional conferences. He has extensive experience in measurement, applied statistics, and survey research across a wide range of disciplines such as mental health, obesity, diabetes, asthma, special education, curriculum reform, and science education. He has been actively involved in funded research since 1986, participating in over 20 funded projects. Currently, he has an active role in a Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant; is a member of the core evaluation team for a multi-million dollar Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs grant (Gear-Up) (DOE); is the primary evaluator for a dual curriculum (PBL & LBL) study funded by the Department of Health and Human Services; and is the Co-Principal Investigator on two NSF grants (>3.8 M), and one DOE/OSEP grant (+800 K).

Anne Cullen has more than seven years experience managing and evaluating community development programs in the areas of education, economic growth, and land use planning in the U.S. and internationally. Ms. Cullen currently works as project manager for The Evaluation Center at WMU where she is responsible for data and research analysis of education reforms in Louisiana, Delaware, and Hawaii. She coordinates many of the various data gathering and synthesis activities involved in these projects and produces user-friendly tools and resources to make sure tasks are done on time and to help clients achieve internal evaluation reporting capacity and knowledge. Ms. Cullen has extensive experience conducting interviews and facilitating focus groups. She earned a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Michigan State University and also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and French from New York University.

Jeffrey Jones is an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Educational Studies in the College of Education at Western Michigan University. He received his Ph.D. in Risk and Prevention in Education Sciences from the University of Virginia. He conducts research on the social context of adolescent learning and development, and focuses on school and community-based interventions that promote academic and civic engagement.

Dr. Jessaca Spybrook is an assistant professor at the Department of Education Leadership Research, and Technology. Her research focuses on improving the design and analysis of large-scale evaluations of education interventions. She has consulted on the design of numerous evaluations and coauthored software that assists the researcher in the planning of experiments. Dr. Spybrook holds a master’s in applied statistics and a doctorate in education from the University of Michigan. Prior to earning her doctorate, Dr. Spybrook was a middle school math teacher.

Allison Kelaher Young is an associate professor in the department of Teaching, Learning, and Educational Studies. Her work crosses educational psychology, sociology, and curriculum theory. Allison's research interests include adolescent development, motivation theories, teacher beliefs, social contexts of schooling and learning and teaching in higher education. Her recent articles have appeared in College Teaching, Research in Higher Education, and the Journal for Excellence in College Teaching. She is currently studying beliefs about learning and teaching in preservice teachers, with an interest in informing teacher education programming. She is also working on research with Dr. Cynthia Carver at Michigan State University and Dr. Stuart Karabenick at University of Michigan.

The core team from The Evaluation Center has been joined by faculty and staff from the Midwest Educational Reform Consortium (MERC) at Western Michigan University. Researchers from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research may also be involved in the evaluation.