PREFACE
People / People who need people /
Are the luckiest people in the world..
-People, as sung by Barbra Streisand
For a people-oriented person, research can be, as I
found, about the loneliest job in the world, except
perhaps for being a Maytag repairman. In what seems like
at least a half-century of academic endeavors, there was
somehow a "people" element always present.
Classes were shared with other students; studying for
examinations was done with friends; even writing papers
was a process shared with others.
Research, however, is different; it is essentially a one-person
job. Research topics make scant conversation pieces at a
cocktail party; methodology discussions add little to
dinner, and the fact that one's latest startling new
"finding" could not be of less interest to
friends and workmates is depressing.
In a different sense, research may not be much farther
removed from people than are most jobs. Colleagues used
to smile when, in being asked about my research, I would
tell them that "my people" were all there
sitting on the shelves. That is the way I used to think
about the three feet or so of ethnographic site protocols
where "my people" waited patiently for me to
get to them.
This study undoubtedly reflects my people-orientation. It
is about people -- the staff of the projects -- many of
whom I came to know as individual personalities. Their
separate hopes and fears; their worries, concerns,
interests, and needs constitute the real substance of
this work. One or two were outstanding people I would
like to know better. Occasionally, there was a
character who seemed to have a touch of larceny in his
soul. Most, however, were ordinary, every-day street-level
bureaucrats, harried by the system and struggling to as
good a job as possible in jobs that could not be done.
In reality, I am impressed at just how many people were
really interested in this work, and at how much I owe. In
roughly chronological order, I would like to acknowledge
some of my major debts. First, I thank my late mother,
Dorothy VanderPutten, who smilingly neglected to teach me
that women are somehow supposed to be an inferior species,
and my father, J. Richard VanderPutten, who was always
excited by new ideas; Emerson Elliott, with whom I worked
at the Institute for Educational Leadership and later at
NIE on the Congressionally mandated School Finance Study,
for patiently introducing me to the "real world"
of public policy, and for agreeing to serve as a reader
for this work; Dr. Robert Taggart, former Director of
Youth Programs at the Department of Labor, who listened
to my basic research idea one day at lunch, and suggested
I use some data he had collected: Gregory Wurtzbert,
Youthwork's Director of Research, who went to great
lengths to provide me with, not only copies of the case
studies, but with every other assistance possible; and Dr.
Ray C. Rist, the principal investigator who directed the
collection of the Cornell University/Youthwork site
protocols upon which this work is based, and who, despite
a certain philosophical skepticism about quantifying
qualitative data, agreed to serve as a reader for this
work.
Dr. Carl J. Lange, Professor of Psychology and Vice
President for Research at The George Washington
University; Dr. Jeffrey Henig, Assistant Professor of
Political Science, also at The George Washington
University; and Dr. Robert Leestma, of the National
Institute of Education, deserve singular recognition. Dr.
Lange's ideas, gentle guidance and continued support in
directing this research will be long remembered and
always appreciated. Dr. Henig served an invaluable,
though what must often have seemed a thankless, role as
intellectual gadfly and research watchdog. Little escaped
his ever-watchful eye. Dr. Leestma graciously added an
important dimension to this committee. After years
developing and administering federal programs, his
fundamental question, "Where are the kids -- the
clients -- and how do they influence street-level
decision-making ?" helped shape this work.
Finally, I would like to thank the scores of people at
NIE and elsewhere, who, as colleagues and friends,
generously reviewed drafts and chapters, suggested
revisions, provided additional ideas and materials, and
more. You are too numerous to identify individually; I
hope, however, you will find yourselves here, and accept
my sincere thanks. There are some I must mention: my
stepson, Shannon, who spent hours copying numbers from
the computer (one of my least favorite jobs); my husband,
Brian, whose incessant nagging and unending support
probably pushed me through a lot of mud holes where I
might have otherwise gotten stuck; and my little friend,
ZX81, whose lack of personality was vastly outweighed by
her ever patient willingness to crunch another bunch of
numbers.
For your help, I am grateful. Any remaining errors are
mine alone.
Elizabeth Anne VanderPutten
March 3, 1983
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