Joy Frechtling
Professional Bio:
Dr. Joy Frechtling, a Vice President in Westat’s Education Studies Group, has extensive experience in all aspects of evaluation, including managing large-scale data organization and analysis efforts, study design, data analysis and interpretation, and report writing. She is familiar with educational systems and the educational policy concerns at the Federal, state, and local levels. Dr. Frechtling’s areas of interest include educational program evaluation, assessment, policy analysis, educational reform, accountability, and technical assistance.
Dr. Frechtling has 40 years of experience in educational program evaluation, technical assistance, and the use and development of accountability systems. Work conducted under her direction or supervision has included studies of professional development programs; evaluations of innovative instructional programs, especially ones targeted at minority, low-achievement, and at-risk students; the development of monitoring systems; and technical assistance in formative and summative evaluation. She has also conducted evaluations of complex, systemic change program in both the STEM and medical research fields and assessments of the impacts of innovative research efforts. These studies have used both quantitative and qualitative methodologies such as surveys, interviews, record reviews, focus groups, and case studies. Recent work includes exploration of the application of social network analysis to STEM program evaluation.
Dr. Frechtling has also provided technical assistance to Federal program managers, researchers and education personnel (K-12 and higher) interested in evaluation, including designing studies,collecting, managing, and analyzing data, and interpreting data. She has developed easy-to-use project evaluation guides and delivered numerous evaluation training workshops. She is currently the project director of a contract that provides technical assistance to Teacher Incentive Fund grantees who are focusing on STEM education.
Dr. Frechtling has served on panels and in an advisory capacity for several offices in the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. She has taught graduate-level courses in educational assessment and educational research at George Washington and Johns Hopkins Universities.
