1972—Meanwhile, back at AAI
Since returning to Abt Associates in 1969, after our marvelous and tender “couples’ mission” in Paris, I’d worked on a number of research projects funded by various Federal agencies, mostly in the general realm of educational policy. As the Company’s first Ed.D., my credentials had some face value at the old U. S. Office of Education (then part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare). I also turned out to be the young Company’s first hire with a working understanding of the principles and mathematics of survey sampling, which generated a certain amount of demand for my services across Abt Associates’ diverse policy areas.
…Follow Through…
Around this time, Abt Associates won a contract to conduct the National Follow Through analysis for the United States Office of Education. I no longer recall the amount, but it was in the multi-million dollar range over five years: the company’s largest job yet from this important client. It was important to us to do this one right.

As you may not remember, the Government spent a lot of money in the 1960s to help poor pre-school kids overcome the academic consequences of their poverty. They called it Head Start. Schools were delighted with the extra resources they received, but large evaluative projects reported disappointing results. So if you’re the Government, how do you respond? You spend more money and…Follow Through.

A lot of educational experts believed they knew what to do to improve the situation, and a score or so made their cases to USOE and were awarded grants and contracts to apply their insights through third grade in schools across the nation. The Stanford Research Institute won the design and testing contract. They collected a huge volume of test results; our job was to analyze and interpret them, contrasting the outcomes of the various theories (“models”) in diverse environments.

I was part of the good-sized proposal team that rejoiced when Abt Associates won the competition and was awarded the Follow Through Analysis contract. Once we had it, the proposed project director, Marvin G “Jerry” Cline, assembled an interdisciplinary project team including most of the Company’s staff members with doctorates. I think my initial title was something like Director of Analysis.

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Such a Life
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Chapter 3
(1958-1971)
Chapter 4
(1972-2002)
1972
1973
Chapter 5
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