Pardon Us, But What Was the Question Again?: A Response to the Critique of the Follow Through Evaluation

Abstract

Abt Associates' five-year analysis of the national Follow Through data has reached several conclusions about the performance of this bold and costly educational experiment. These conclusions have important implications for gobernment, for educators, and for researchers. A Ford Foundation-funded and widely disseminated critique written by House, Glass, McLean, and Walker (1978), Which appears in this volume, does not take issue with any of these conclusions. The House group gives prominent mention, in fact, to only one of them, and while it comments favorably on that conclusion, it does so in a context of such shrill negativism that the reader of the critique must carry away the impression that we have said nothing that is either valid or important. We do not concur. People who care about education should care about what we have learned.