DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

Area(s) of Interest

Social Science Methodology, Evaluation Research, Social Science of Human Development

Relevant Link

Institute for Policy Research

Biography

Cook is interested in social science methods for inferring causation, and through this interest he examines issues in evaluation research, primarily in the areas of education and community health. He has authored or edited several books on these topics, including Quasi-Experimentation Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings, Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Evaluation Research, and The Foundations of Evaluation Theory. Cook was a member of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Successful Adolescence in High Risk Settings, and chairs the current MacArthur Foundation Network on Housing and Families with Children. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been a Trustee and Board Chairman of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York and of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC. Cook has been awarded the Gunnar Myrdal Prize for Science by the American Evaluation Association, the Donald T. Campbell Prize for Innovative Methodology by the Policy Science Organization, and a Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association. Cook has also been named the John Evans Professor of Sociology, and is cross-listed in the Psychology Department and in the Program in Human Development and Social Policy at the School of Education and Social Policy.

Courses Taught

Graduate: Designs for Descriptive Casual Research; Research methods