Carol Hirschon Weiss was an American scholar of
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
and
policy analysis
Policy analysis is a technique used in the public administration sub-field of political science to enable civil servants, nonprofit organizations, and others to examine and evaluate the available options to implement the goals of laws and elected ...
. She was the
Beatrice B. Whiting Professor of Education at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education
The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...
. She was one of the founders of the
scientific study of social programs and policies.
[
]
Education and positions
Weiss was born in New York. She obtained a Bachelor's Degree at Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, followed by an M.A. and a Ph.D. at Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.[ Weiss graduated from Columbia in 1977, where she worked at the ]Bureau of Applied Social Research The Bureau of Applied Social Research was a social research institute at Columbia University which specialised in mass communications research. It grew out of the Radio Research Project at Princeton University, beginning in 1937. The Bureau's fi ...
.[ In 1978 she became a faculty member at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard.][ She was named the Beatrice B. Whiting Professor of Education there in 1999.][ Weiss was also a visiting fellow at the ]Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social a ...
, the Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
,[ and the ]United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...
.[ She also served as President of the ]Policy Studies Organization Policy Studies Organization (PSO) is an academic organization whose purpose is to advance the study of policy analysis by publishing academic journals, books, sponsoring conferences and producing programs, curriculum, and videos.
History
In 1972, ...
.
Research
Weiss's research focused on policy studies, particularly in education, and she was one of the earliest scholars to develop methods for scientifically evaluating social programs.[ Weiss was one of the founders of the ]theory of change
Theory of Change (ToC) is a methodology or a criteria for planning, participation, adaptive management, and evaluation that is used in companies, philanthropy, not-for-profit, international development, research, and government sectors to promo ...
, a methodology for organizations to effect social change
Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations.
Definition
Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or sociocult ...
. In addition to developing methodologies for the scientific evaluation of policies, Weiss was also particularly noted for training others in how to apply those methodologies, and developing a community of people trained in the scientific evaluation of policies.[
Weiss published 11 books, in addition to more than 100 journal articles.] Kathleen McCartney, while Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, described two of Weiss's books as being especially seminal: Weiss's 1972 book ''Evaluation research: Methods of assessing program effectiveness'', and her 1998 book ''Evaluation: Methods for Studying Programs and Policies''.[ ''Evaluation research'' in particular has been described as a fundamental work in program evaluation.][ The political scientist ]Kathryn Newcomer
Kathryn Newcomer is an American Political Scientist, author and professor of public policy and public administration. She was previously the director of the George Washington University's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administ ...
, in a commentary on ''Evaluation research'', summarized the book as "an in-depth analysis of many of the crucial and complex issues that plague evaluators and public managers", which argues that program evaluators and program managers should take into account the political and social context of public policies.
In addition to her academic research, Weiss actively consulted on a wide variety of policy programs with governments and organizations throughout her career.[ She retired in 2006, after which she became a docent at the ]Boston Museum of Science
The Museum of Science (MoS) is a science museum and indoor zoo in Boston, Massachusetts, located in Science Park, a plot of land spanning the Charles River. Along with over 700 interactive exhibits, the museum features a number of live presentat ...
.[ She died in 2013.][
]
Selected works
*''Evaluation Research: Methods of Assessing Program Effectiveness'' (1972)[
*''Using social research in public policy making'' (1977)
*"Theory-Based Evaluation: Past, Present, and Future"
*"The many meanings of research utilization", ''Public administration review'' (1979)
*''Evaluation: Methods for Studying Programs and Policies'' (1998)][
*"Have We Learned Anything New About the Use of Evaluation?", ''American Journal of Evaluation'' (1998)]
Selected awards
*Myrdal Award, Evaluation Research Society[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Carol
2013 deaths
1927 births
American women political scientists
American political scientists
Cornell University alumni
Columbia University alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty
American women academics
21st-century American women