Mathison, Sandra

(b. 1954, Calgary, Alberta, Canada). Ph.D., M.A. Educational Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; A.B. (with distinction) Sociology, University of Alberta.

Mathison is Head of the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia and has been a faculty member at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and the University of Louisville. She was Director of Evaluation for the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, where she conducted local and national evaluations of math curriculum and teacher professional development projects.

Her contributions to evaluation theory and practice include qualitative methods in evaluation, internal evaluation, and the role of standardized testing as a form of evaluation in K-12 schools. Her article “Why Triangulate?” is widely recognized as a seminal work for qualitative researchers and evaluators alike. Mathison's contributions include work that has promoted a greater understanding of the democratic potential of evaluation; for example, through her explication of deliberation in evaluation. As an evaluation theorist and practitioner, she has contributed significantly to research on the use of standardized testing in K-12 schools, including analyses of its social, political, and ethical dimensions.

Mathison's main intellectual influences include social theorists Karl Marx, Jürgen Habermas, Paul Feyerabend, Brian Fay, and cültural anthropologist Clifford Geertz. She was introduced to these authors as an undergraduate and continues to read and reread their works. In evaluation, Mathison was influenced by Robert Stake's work on naturalistic, responsive, and case study evaluation; Ernest House's work on justice and fairness; Michael Scriven's philosophical analysis of evaluation and development of evaluation as a discipline; Carol Weiss' seminal work on the political [Page 246]nature of evaluation; and Terry Denny for introducing her to Paul Taylor's Normative Discourse.

Mathison has been a member of the American Evaluation Association Board of Directors and Chair of the first ever AEA public affairs task force, which developed a widely cited position statement on highstakes testing in K-12 education.