The political context had changed dramatically by the time the Final Report had been published. The Jimmy Carter Democrats, who had supported PUSH/Excel vigorously at its inception, had been replaced in the 1980 election by Reagan Republicans. Reactions to the saga of PUSH/Excel among the principal characters in the drama varied widely. The national PUSH/Excel staff thought that the program had not been given a fair chance to prove its worth. Federal officials, by this time, thought the program had potential but had reservations about the methods that had been used to carry it out. Kathlyn Moses, the project officer for PUSH/Excel at the Department of Education, had been in contact with the program on a day-by-day basis from the beginning and through all of its ups and downs. The American Institutes for Research evaluators also had strong reactions to the events and their role in them.