Great Expectations but Politics as Usual: The Rise and Fall of a State-Level Evaluation Initiative

Using frameworks from the policy implementation literature and a qualitative methodology, this study examines the political rise and fall of the Louisiana Teacher Evaluation Program (LATEP). As the centerpiece of reform efforts, LATEP highlights the political difficulties amd complexities associated with attempts to implement a standardized evaluation program at the state level. Study data suggest that the political problems encountered by LATEP arose from two distinct, yet related sources: from competing program theories, that is, disagreements among stakeholders regarding the purposes and substance of the evaluation program; and from competing implementation theories, disagreements and confusion among stakeholders as to how the program should be implemented. The failure of LATEP underscores the potential pitfalls associated with attempts to implement an excessively prescribed evaluation program on such a large scale.