Our Team
Phillip Caldwell, II, Ph.D.
As Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. Caldwell has assembled diverse expertise and thought partners in the areas of methodological design, quantitative data collection and analysis, qualitative data and analysis, policy analysis, critical theory, school finance and resource allocation, and economics of public education. The team below represents the core partners in this work. Dr. Caldwell is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership and Counseling and PI for the Michigan Public School Finance research project, supported by the John W. Porter Distinguished Chair in Urban Education and Michael G. Morris Endowed Chair for Outstanding Faculty Members within the College of Education at Eastern Michigan University. He earned a B.S. in mathematics education from Florida A&M University, an M.E in educational administration, emphasizing educational leadership, policy, and analysis from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and a Ph.D. with an emphasis in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison).
At UW-Madison, he worked with some of the most dedicated and accomplished educational scholars in the country during his doctoral studies in the top-ranked Department of Curriculum and Instruction, including Drs. Carl Grant, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Beth Graue, Mitch Nathan, and William Tate (Washington University). These are all colleagues with whom Dr. Caldwell regularly consults in seeking ways to improve educational achievement through programs and policies to promote educational equity.
As a part of his ongoing training as an interdisciplinary applied research methodologist seeking to specializing in mixed methods research, he participated in the 16th Annual Qualitative Research Summer Intensive courses: (i) Mixed Methods Research: Foundations for Design, Execution, and Dissemination (Instructor: Cheryl Poth), (ii) Framing and Maintaining a Research Agenda (Instructor: Fred Bonner), and (iii) Qualitative Research for Applied Practice (Instructor: Sally Thorne). His research primarily focuses on explaining racism's persistence in Michigan’s public school funding policy and practice. His research and methodological design use an explanatory sequential mixed methods design informed by the following components: transformative paradigms, critical race theory, school funding fairness, critical race mixed methods, and explanatory sequential mixed methods. He leads a robust team of diverse expertise that focuses on Michigan school finance reform equity and justice.
Rajah E. Smart, Ed.D.
As co-principal investigator (Co-PI) for the Michigan Public School Finance research project at Eastern Michigan University, Dr. Smart is formerly an assistant professor and department chair in the College of Urban Education at Davenport University and is currently the assistant dean for assessment and accreditation for the College of Education at Tennessee State University. He earned a B.A. in secondary education from Western Michigan University, an M.A. of education with an emphasis in educational leadership from the University of Phoenix, and an Ed.D. with an emphasis in educational leadership from the University of Michigan. While at the University of Michigan, his dissertation study used multiple-regression modeling and analysis of variance to determine the impact of resource allocation practices in urban areas on student outcomes using multiple state data systems, which is a component of this research.
At Davenport University, Dr. Smart developed and maintained a quality assurance system (QAS) for continuous improvement that analyzed data (quantitative and qualitative) and formulated targets for the progress of the overall unit. In his current role at TSU, he is responsible for developing a QAS for a much larger student and tenured faculty population in the College of Education. The system must manage all College aspects and collect data for multiple initial and advanced programs. The QAS includes a longitudinal research component to determine if the QAS indeed improves candidate outcomes.
The work aligns with his previous roles as an education consultant with the Michigan Department of Education, collaborating with public school districts regarding educator certification, higher education institutions in accreditation and program approval, supporting public school organizations across Michigan regarding policy, and auditing for a national accreditation entity where equity is the focus. This work prompted his interest in educational research related to equity in education, the persistence of racism specifically as it relates to public school funding policy, practice, and educational disparities; disproportionate discipline practices; significant disproportionality; urban education, gender performance, and charter school performance for students historically underperforming.
Bradley Carl, Ph.D.
As co-principal investigator (Co-PI) and senior scientist, Dr. Carl is an assistant scientist and co-director of the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative (WEC), housed within the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). His current work focuses on evaluating programs and initiatives at the PreK-12 levels and the design, implementation, and evaluation of state educator effectiveness and school accountability systems. He has worked extensively with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and Milwaukee Public Schools, evaluating policy initiatives including postsecondary tracking, education/health outcomes, early warning indicators, and equitable finance systems. Prior to joining WCER, Dr. Carl worked for the Office of Educational Accountability at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the Center on Education and Work at UW-Madison, and the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C. He earned a B.A. in international studies and history from Hamline University and a Ph.D. in sociology-urban studies from Michigan State University.
Jed T. Richardson, Ph.D.
As a senior economist, Dr. Richardson is an assistant scientist with the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative (WEC). He is the Principal Investigator of multiple evaluations of state policies and district academic programs. Dr. Richardson has studied the design of school accountability systems, basic needs insecurity among college students, and impacts of student risk factors such as placement in out-of-home care and contact with the juvenile justice system. Prior to joining WEC, Jed served as acting director and managing director of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab and as associate director and economist at the Value-Added Research Center. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Davis.
Timothy Guetterman, Ph.D.
As a senior methodologist, Dr. Guetterman is an applied research methodologist, assistant professor, and associate director of the Mixed Methods Program at the University of Michigan. He earned a B.S. in psychology, an M.A. in education from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in quantitative, qualitative, and psychometric methods, specializing in mixed methods research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Guetterman is an interdisciplinary, applied research methodologist specializing in mixed methods research. His methodological interest is to advance rigorous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research methods, particularly strategies for integrating and intersecting qualitative and quantitative analysis. Much of his current methodological writing focuses on integrating qualitative and quantitative methods, data, and results using visual joint displays and software. In addition, he has multiple publications and a current book under contract with SAGE that addresses how to intersect a traditionally qualitative design, such as grounded theory, with mixed methods research. As a methodologist, Dr. Guetterman works across disciplines and internationally with collaborators providing consultation and guidance on research procedures and leading qualitative and mixed methods teams. Much of his content-focused research is at the intersection of health and education or aims to improve health services. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he investigates informatics technology to improve health communication and education. Dr. Guetterman also researches teaching, learning, and developing research methods capacity as evaluator and faculty for the NIH-funded Mixed Methods Research Training Program for the Health Sciences and through foundation funding. Dr. Guetterman has extensive professional experience conducting program evaluations with a focus on education and health programs. He recently co-authored the sixth edition of Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research with John W. Creswell.
Grant Sim, MPA
Researcher at the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative (WEC) within the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER). He serves as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on several evaluations of state and local educational initiatives combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Prior to joining WCER, Grant worked for the Office of Educational Accountability at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. He earned an M.A. in public affairs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Meaghan Polega, M.Ed.
As a clinical researcher and project manager for the Office of Michigan Public School Finance, she currently serves as the undergraduate field coordinator for the College of Urban Education at Davenport University. Mrs. Polega previously taught as a high school science teacher in diverse school districts in Michigan. She has a B.S in biology secondary education from Saginaw Valley State University, an M.Ed. in urban education, and graduate certification in data analytics from Davenport University, and is a doctoral candidate in Diversity and Equity in Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.