Mark Lipsey, director of the Peabody Research Institute at Vanderbilt University, will give a lecture titled "Are the Expectations for State-Funded Pre-K Realistic? The Tennessee Pre-K Study and Reflections about its Implications" at noon Friday, Nov. 18 on the University of Arkansas campus.

The lecture is part of the Department of Education Reform lecture series. RSVP online for lunch on the lecture website. Deadline to RSVP is 1 p.m. the Wednesday before the lecture.

Lipsey is also a research professor in the Department of Human & Organizational Development at Vanderbilt. His professional interests are in the areas of public policy, program evaluation research, social intervention, field research methodology, and research synthesis (meta-analysis). The topics of his recent research have been risk and intervention for juvenile delinquency and substance use, early childhood education programs, issues of methodological quality in program evaluation research, and ways to help practitioners and policymakers make better use of research to improve the outcomes of programs for children and youth.

Lipsey's published works include textbooks on program evaluation (Evaluation: A Systematic Approach, with Peter Rossi), meta-analysis (Practical Meta-Analysis, with David Wilson), and statistical power (Design Sensitivity), as well as articles on applied methods and the effectiveness of school and community programs for youth.