February 1998

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Research Garners Prestigious Award
for Doctoral Candidate

Doreen Stern Gordon, a candidate in the McCormack Institute's Doctoral Program in Public Policy, is trying to answer some hard questions. Why, she asks, have third graders in some school districts in New Hampshire surged ahead in improving their scores on state-wide assessment tests, while third graders' scores from other school districts remained flat or declined over a four-year period?

It is a question to which many New Hampshire parents, educators, and state government officials would like to know the answer. Stern Gordon already has an inkling of what some of the answers might be. In fact, she has isolated 22 factors that may account for the differences, including teacher salaries, parental involvement, staff development opportunities, and kindergarten programs to name a few.

Stern Gordon's study garnered attention this fall when it tied for first place in the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy Better Government Competition. She received her award, which comes with a grant from New Hampshire businesses, at an awards ceremony on January 22. She now plans to examine nine school districts in New Hampshire to try to discover what factors determine each school system's success at improving standardized testing scores of their pupils.

Her study, prompted originally by her daughter's experience in elementary school, is the subject of her dissertation for her Ph.D. She hopes to complete her work by Spring of 1999.

"People in New Hampshire are eager to find out what the results of this study will be," says Stern Gordon. "Because of the way New Hampshire funds education (the state relies heavily on property taxes), the likelihood is strong that this study will be used to promote change," she says.

Carole Upshur, director of the Doctoral Program in Public Policy, says that this study is an example of the the kind of work the program encourages its students to undertake. "We encourage students to pick policy issues that are current and vital, and Doreen has chosen a very important public policy dilemma that relates to how education is funded in New Hampshire," she says. "This is a perfect example of the kind of policy-relevant work our students address," she says.