Johnson, Jr., Bob L. (1999). Great expectations but politics as usual: The rise and fall of the Louisiana teacher evaluation policy. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 13(4): 361-381.

This study offers a set of working propositions designed to contribute to current theorizing regarding the development and implementation of successful state-level education initiatives. The propositions offered reflect analytical work done at two levels. First, the author was interested in determining why a somewhat unique reform effort pursued in given state failed. As the centerpiece of an omnibus-reform package passed by the Louisiana Legislature, the Louisiana Teacher Evaluation Program is the primary focus of this study. The results reported and discussed below are derived from an in-depth, macro-level (Berman, 1978) examination of the development and implementation of this state-level policy. Second, using the data and conclusions reached from the analysis of this policy, a set of working propositions is offered.

The data generated here suggest that the problems encountered in the Louisiana Teacher Evaluation Program arose from two distinct, yet inter-related sources: from the confusion which surrounded the working theories which defined the evaluation program itself, i.e., the program theory, and from the confusion which surrounded those working theories which defined the program's implementation process, i.e., the program implementation theory. It is argued that keeping these two sets of working theories conceptually distinct is essential to understanding the success or failure of a given initiative.