Rebecca M. Teasdale, Director

Dr. Teasdale is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on the criteria that guide evaluations of educational, social, and health programs. Her scholarship explicates definitions of quality and supports evaluators in systematically identifying, negotiating, and applying quality criteria. Through her research, she has developed and applied two frameworks to investigate and strengthen evaluation practice: (1) a model that identifies broad criteria domains and describes the sources from which criteria are drawn, and (2) a typology that categorizes types of sources and characterizes how criteria are applied.

Dr. Teasdale's research has yielded guidance for explicitly and systematically addressing criteria in evaluation planning and design, reporting, and evaluator education. Her research has also clarified how equity and social justice might be defined and investigated when evaluating programs. This supports evaluators in specifying and examining multiple equity-focused definitions of program quality such as equity of access, equitable and just outcomes, and equitable resource allocation. In addition, her scholarship helps evaluators systematically center the values of program participants and community members when specifying criteria and considering how criteria can be individualized to address variations in program participants’ needs and values.