Project Follow Through - Political and Philosophical Issues

Political and Philosophical Issues

Was Follow Through a social or scientific program? An inevitable conflict exists when one attempts to operationalize a federal program in education that possesses both service delivery and research and development objectives (Egbert, 1981, pp. 8–9). Rivlin, et al. (1975) points out that “the byzantine complexity of the public policymaking process makes the conduct of social experiments extremely difficult” (p. 24). Given the reduction in funding, the decision to engage in an effort to evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions in an empirical experiment appears appropriate and straightforward. However, if the change is not reflected in Congressional legislation or communicated clearly at the local level, issues of implementation and conflict with deeply-held values inevitably result (Rivlin, et al., 1975, pp. 24–25; Watkins, 1997, pp. 13–15). There is much evidence that indicates confusion about the intent of the Follow Through evaluation at the administrative level (Maccoby & Zellner, 1970, p. 4; Elmore, 1977, pp. 182, 255; Egbert, 1981, pp. 4–5; Evans, 1981, pp. 5–6; House, 1981, pp. 14–15).

Issues of local control. The planned variation aspect of Follow Through was thought to be beneficial—perhaps superior—to other forms of experimentation (e.g., selection of sites based on randomized assignment) because it would give local communities and schools an element of ownership integral to the successful implementation of the models (Watkins, 1997, p. 16; Elmore, 1977, pp. 190–191). Despite the planned variation design, local communities in many sites were nevertheless deeply critical of the program. In some ways, criticism of Follow Through had preceded directly from Head Start. Ostensibly, the social service purpose and goals of the Head Start program were clearer than those of the Follow Through evaluation. Nevertheless, community leaders had felt that Head Start did not give enough decision-making responsibility to parents and community members (Egbert, 1981, pp. 1–3). Local interests wanted to make curricular decisions, including the changing of facets of some program models (Watkins, 1997, p. 25). Evans (1981, p. 16) cautioned that “educational communities and contexts vary”, which can have a direct effect on the implementation of a model. More problematic, however, is Elmore’s (1977, p. 381) and Hill’s (1981, p. 16) assertions that the Follow Through models interfered with local teaching methods and practices. As Elmore (1977) writes, “for Follow Through, the problem was how to implement program variations in a system where most day-to-day decisions about program content are made at the school or classroom level” (p. 381). Rhine, et al. (1981) suggests that it is difficult to get teachers to modify their behavior. And if the objective of changing behavior is achieved, teachers feel little ownership on the model—a decidedly dubious investment. What inevitably seems to happen is that teachers reject programs outright, while others “surrender to the program” (p. 62).

The "fact-value dichotomy." Ernest House, co-author of the 1978 critique of the Follow Through evaluation, penned an article about what he calls the "fact-value dichotomy" in social experimentation and educational research: “the belief that facts refer to one thing and values refer to something totally different” (2001, pp. 312–313). House elucidates the writings of Donald Campbell, a researcher in the field of evaluation. According to Campbell, facts cannot exist outside the framework of one’s values because inevitably, an investigation that uncovers a certain fact is either consistent with the researcher’s internal values or against them. What results is a difficult choice: the researcher must either reject the fact, or modify his or her value to accommodate the fact. Campbell also believed, according to House, that values—as opposed to facts—could be chosen rationally. House agrees with Campbell’s assertion in part, but departs from Campbell in that he believes that facts and values cannot exist in isolation; rather, they “blend together in the conclusions of evaluation studies, and, indeed, blend together throughout evaluation studies” (p. 313). House suggests that the reader envision facts and values as existing on a continuum from "bute facts to "Bare values." Accordingly, rarely do “fact claims” or “value claims” fall entirely at one end of the spectrum or the other. House provides examples: “Diamonds are harder than steel” might fall at the left of the spectrum, while “Cabernet is better than Chardonnay” falls to the right (p. 313). In conclusion, House proposes an entirely a new method of empirical investigation called “deliberative democratic evaluation.” In it, evaluators arrive at “unbiased claims” through “inclusion of all relevant stakeholder perspectives, values, and interests in the study; extensive dialogue between the evaluator and stakeholders…and extensive deliberation to reach valid conclusions in the study” (p. 314). House decries the use of entirely rational methods when applied to evaluations; indeed, he recommends a degree of subjectiveness, because evaluations like Follow Through cannot exist outside deeply held values (House, 1981, pp. 10, 20).

Hill (1981) writes: “There is seldom anyone at the local level whose commitment to an externally-imposed curricular innovation, planning process, or financial management scheme springs spontaneously from deeply held personal values (p. 12).” House argues that all decision-making that stems from evaluations in education be the result of a compromise. Watkins (1997, p. 60) argues that Follow Through resulted in a clash over values based on different beliefs about how children learn, which can be boiled down to “natural growth” or “unfolding” theories versus. theories of “changing behavior.” Watkins asserts that most education experts today do not judge programs by their relative effectiveness with different student populations, but rather by their “congruence with prevailing philosophies of education” (p. 61).