Datta, Lois-Ellin

(b. 1932, Paterson, New Jersey). Ph.D. Comparative and Physiological Psychology, M.A. Social Psychology, Bryn Mawr College; M.A. Sociology, B.A. Psychology, West Virginia University.

Datta is president of Datta Analysis, consulting in statistics, evaluation, and policy analysis. She worked for 30 years in Washington, DC, in the U.S. Department of Education as Director of the Teaching and Learning Program and in the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) as Director of Program Evaluation in Human Services.

Datta has consistently been interested in mixed methods approaches to evaluation, and her contribution to thoughtful evaluation design is substantial. For example, as Director of the National Evaluation for Head Start (she was responsible for one of the first Head Start contracts), she brought qualitative researchers into Head Start centers to observe individual ...