Senior Research Associate Stephen J. Ruffini coordinates WestEd's national evaluation of the Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) Program for the U.S. Department of Education.

A component of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, CSR is designed to help raise student achievement, particularly among low-achieving children, by helping public schools nationwide implement effective, comprehensive school reforms that are based upon scientifically based research and effective practices. The evaluation includes quantitative analyses designed to investigate the relationship between CSR grants and student achievement over time as well as with reference to adopted reform models.

A member of WestEd's Evaluation and Research Program, Ruffini manages the CSR evaluation site visits — an effort designed to provide more insight into the operation of turnaround schools. He has conducted site visits and is a major contributor to the cross-site final report. In addition, he is supervising data collection for the final analyses and the comprehensive report for which he will be a major contributor. Related duties include overseeing the project budget and the project management plan.

Over the past 20 years, Ruffini has managed, conducted, and led research and evaluation efforts in a variety of education organizations, including an urban school district where he evaluated the nature and impact of special education and student support services provision. He has experience:

• conducting regression and cluster analyses, and analyses of covariance;


• developing, reviewing, and validating surveys;


• conducting or managing large-scale and small-scale survey projects;


• developing efficient data analysis programs;


• managing several large student demographics and assessments databases with up to 750,000 plus records each;


• creating single-year and longitudinal data sets for internal and external research and evaluation projects; and


• supervising staff to ensure data integrity and report accuracy.

As former Director of the GED Testing Service, Research, and Program Evaluation Unit at the American Council on Education, Ruffini established a research and program evaluation unit to improve the value of the GED tests through collaborations with jurisdictional test administrators. This work led to improvement of the data collection process, development of new data access mechanisms, and improvement of data verification processes.

While serving as Director of the Office of Consent Decree Evaluation and Data Management for the Baltimore City Public School System, Ruffini used existing quantitative data and conducted surveys to provide a comprehensive descriptive account of different special education inclusion services models; consulted with school principals to develop standards-based evaluation guidelines and designed qualitative studies for improving decision-making and ensuring compliance; conducted training sessions; and prepared summary reports. An evaluation of administrative technology services required testifying in federal court.

As Divisional Specialist in the Office of Research and Evaluation for the Baltimore City Public School System, Ruffini designed and conducted evaluations of major and minor school district initiatives, including the first-year evaluation of a school privatization effort, and provided data sets that supported external researchers and evaluators at universities and research organizations.

Ruffini is the 2007—08 President of the Baltimore Area Evaluators, an official affiliate of the American Evaluation Association; previously he served as vice president. He has served as an adjunct member of a doctoral committee at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University.

He received a BA in psychology from West Chester State College, and an MS in educational psychology with an emphasis in program evaluation and a PhD in educational administration with an emphasis in applied social research methods, both from Penn State University.