As one of the best-funded public school districts in the nation, the Fairfax County, Virginia Public Schools, maintains longstanding commitments to discovering how students learn best in the classroom and to making administrative decisions based on classroom data. So, it was no surprise that Stephanie Siddens (PhD ’99) and Jennifer Coyne Cassata (PhD ’00) decided to join the powerhouse district as program evaluation specialists.

Although the two Iowa alumnae have the same job title, they participate in separate program and project evaluation efforts that capitalize on their individual strengths.

“I work with people in the Fairfax County Public Schools central office who run various educational programs across the district,” says Cassata, whose research at Iowa focused on how students learn to evaluate themselves within the culture of evaluation established in the classroom. “I help them evaluate their own programs by guiding them to understand what questions to ask, apply the results of their critiques, and then translate what they have learned into practice in the schools. Stephanie works on the ground with principals and teachers.”

Siddens devotes considerable effort to designing and implementing activities that help teachers and principals assess the impact of their teaching. Her two-hour workshops begin with team-building activities and encourage teachers to talk about their experiences—good and no-so-good—with evaluations. She tries to get participants to articulate what they hope to achieve with a specific evaluation.

“My dissertation focused on how teachers as learners use theory to create a learning community,” Siddens said. “There is a real interest in and need for enabling teachers and principals to evaluate themselves and to create their own understanding of their teaching success.”

The enormity of the Fairfax school district—170,000 students in more than 200 schools—presents certain challenges to theoreticians interested in applying their research.

“I’ve worked with teachers who teach early childhood and primary grade classes, multi-grade configurations, and in multiple schools,” Siddens said. “But I work hard to incorporate theoretical findings into workshops for teachers regardless of what age or in what classroom setting they teach. If I can make data useful to those working in the schools, it’s bound to help them improve their educational programs.”

Cassata’s plate is likewise full. She helps manage a quality assurance system for more than 100 educational initiatives across the district. The programs include topics ranging from assessing the impact of new technology in a high school lab to determining the success of a new elementary school reading program.

“Of course, our office can’t evaluate all the programs,” Cassata said, “so, I train people who run the programs to evaluate themselves. That might seem like encouraging the fox guarding the hen house, but if the purpose of evaluation is program improvement, those directing the program often are the best people to evaluate—and if necessary—change it.”

Cassata adds that training at Iowa has served her and Siddens well.
“By working as research assistants in the University’s Center for Evaluation and Assessment,” she said, “we learned the practical applications and important impact of theory. We are able to look beyond the surface of statistics to the complicating social and economic factors that may underlie those figures. Way too many people crunch numbers and never really understand what they’re looking at.”

“Both Jennifer and Stephanie have an excellent grasp of social science,” says Center Director and Associate Professor Don Yarbrough. “They are able not only to apply statistical measurements, but also to take a qualitative approach that allows them to integrate their theoretical knowledge in practical settings.”

Siddens notes that a sensitivity to social realities helps in other ways when trying to improve education in a large school district where issues from student achievement scores to school funding are writ large.

“There’s high-stakes accountability in Fairfax that doesn’t arise in most school districts,” Siddens said. “The toolkit that Jennifer and I must bring to our jobs—a toolkit developed at Iowa—includes more than statistical know-how. It also includes sensitivity to the needs of all parties in the educational systems, as well as an understanding of the school district’s political dynamics.” –by Jean Florman