Kevin Crouse

Kevin Crouse is a doctoral student in Educational Theory, Organization, and Policy at Rutgers  Graduate School of Education focusing on organizational change relating to teaching assessment. Formerly a computer developer for The Genome Institute in Saint Louis, MO, Kevin decided to shift his focus to education as he began to understand the complexity of schooling and education and the degree that social structures impede and facilitate organizational change and improvement.  As he learned more about educational theory and research in schooling, he came to understand that both formal and informal structures in policy and school organization affect teaching quality, which has led to his current specialization.

My research focuses on the role of data and research evidence in social contexts. This begins with the ways in which data is generated or practitioner-focused research is produced, and the reasons that influence these decisions. It includes the ways in which research and data is disseminated to practitioners and how they understand it, the degree that it influences their conscious decision-making, and the way in which they communicate it to others. At this level, I am also interested in how these evidence types compete with other sources of evidence and motivation in the decision-making process. A final component of my focus area looks at whether decisions informed by research and/or data evidence lead to better educational and social outcomes for the populations in question.