(1981) asserted that case studies are appropriate forms for reporting information. “It is
holistic, grounded, lifelike and simplifies data to be considered by the reader. This
illuminates meanings and communicates tacit knowledge” (p. 375). According to Yin,
(1984) the case study approach is used for evaluative purposes in most situations in
which the intervention being evaluated has no clear single set of outcomes. Provus
(1971), the creator of the discrepancy model of educational evaluation emphasized that
evaluation is a “detailed analysis of program inputs and processes and the verification
that programs are in fact operating as people believe them to be operating” (p. 22).
Specifically, a discrepancy evaluation determines whether discrepancy exists between
actual performance and the standards and intentions governing that aspect of the
program. Evaluative case studies emphasize implementation concerns in a change
process. They also shed light on problem solving solutions for program performance
alteration. Lastly, a broadened evaluation procedure includes the possibility of altering
the standards to confirm with reality. McDonald and Walker (1977) believed that this
investigation of peoples’ perceptions in regards to program implementation is crucial in
capturing a true assessment of the program’s worthiness.
“At all levels of the system, what people think they’re doing, what
they say they’re doing, what they appear to others to be doing, and
what in fact they are doing, may be sources of considerable discrepancy.
Any research which threatens to reveal these discrepancies threatens
to create dissonance (p. 186).
The research design for this study was a qualitative evaluative nested case study.
Its intent was to examine the articulation of administrative vision to the instructional