Alumni Magazine 2001-2002 UNIVERSITYOFMICHIGAN - Rackham ...

S T U D E N T P R O F I L E S
2
Photo by Bill Wood
From Research
into Reality
“Public Policy means more than ‘How do
we solve this particular problem’ ”
Susan Moffitt found out early how
challenging it can be to stand in
front of a classroom. As an
American teenager attending private
school in France while her father
worked there, she was assigned to
teach the week reserved for the study
of U.S. history.
“I prepared, I prepared, I prepared,”
she says. “The three branches of
government, major presidencies,
major wars, then I did my little intro
and opened up the floor for questions
and the first one I got was on Al
Capone, of all things. That was my
introduction to teaching. You think
you can answer all the questions, but
the truth is there’s always a curveball.”
Her career since then shows that
Moffitt was clearly undaunted. A doctoral
candidate in political science at
Michigan, she pursues answers in her
research with the same zeal she brings
to bridging disciplines and teaching
classes.
While a graduate student at U-M’s
Institute of Public Policy Studies, she
met David K. Cohen,
John Dewey Collegiate
Professor of
Education and
Professor of Public
Policy. “He proposed
that, after I finished
my master’s degree,
I come on as a fulltime
research associate
in the School
of Education and
we could write a
book together on
Title I, the largest
federal education
program,”
Moffitt recalls.
Enacted in 1965
as part of
President
Lyndon
Johnson’s War
on Poverty,
it’s now
found in 95
percent of all
school districts.
Its
ubiquity
was at least
as appealing as the light it
sheds on public education issues.
“Title I is a very nice window into
broader education problems,” she
says. “It illuminates the problem of
implementing public policy when it’s
created at one level and expected to be
enacted at another level. The goals
that schools are expected to achieve
have grown dramatically, and our
book is about what kind of resources
we would actually have to have in
place to be able to meet these very
ambitious goals.” In two words,
“more” and “better.” Says Moffitt:
“We argue that knowledge and ideas
can play a significant role in the formation
and re-formation of policy, and
in implementation. Developing knowledge
about school improvement and
the capacity to help schools improve
are vital to implementing ambitious
school reform.”
Researching the book convinced
her that she needed a PhD. “I wanted
to get a little more theoretical grounding,
a little more quantitative training,
and I also wanted to be able to teach
and have my own research agenda in
public policy,” she says. “I always
want to make sure my work has realworld
implications or is connected
with salient public policy problems.”
That, and the fact that her husband is
an aerospace engineer in not-so-distant
Dayton, Ohio, helped her choose
Michigan. “It’s a fabulous department,
especially for someone whose interests
are applied as well as theoretical,”
she says. “In American government,
Michigan just trumps everybody.”
Her dissertation examines public
participation in federal agency
policymaking, clearly wedding her
theoretical and practical concerns.
“I’m looking at how expertise is a
political resource for agencies, and
how they use their public advisory
committees’ expertise to help them
manage their political environment,”
says Moffitt. “When I have my policy
hat on, I think about how this matters
to drug approval, how this bears on
student financial aid or on the collection
of education statistics. The political
science part makes me think of
what this means for democracy, how
can it speak to our democratic institutions.
And that’s useful. Public policy
means more than ‘How do we solve
this particular problem’ ”
In a sense, public policy also
includes working with youth groups,
volunteering for public radio and local
election boards, and participating in
the Vice President’s Performance
Review Task Force, all of which
Moffitt has done. “I found when I was
a graduate student instructor that students
appreciated it when I could
bring our discussion back to personal
stories, whether it was about working
on the National Performance Review
Task Force or showing them what
campaign propaganda actually looks
like,” she says. “Getting my hands
into applied politics a little bit helped
make me a better teacher.”
Pedagogy – her own – is a key tile
in Moffitt’s life mosaic. “Given the
range of paths I could pursue, I find
academia compelling because it
allows me both to conduct rigorous
research that bears on important social
and political issues, and to equip others
with knowledge and tools to participate
in policymaking,” she says.
“Neither teaching nor research alone
would fulfill what I see as a twofold
responsibility.” ■