Outcome Expectations for Courses in the MPA Program
The following outcomes are considered the minimum expectations for each course. The purpose of these outcome statements is to enable assessment to be on-going. The important point here is that learning outcomes are the priority of the program.
PA 6003 – Public Administration & Public Policy
This is the foundational course for the MPA program. It is imperative that the student receive a comprehensive view of the field overall. The following elements are necessary for this to be accomplished:
1. History – the student should be familiar with the history of the field of public administration. This focuses on the beginning of the field in the U. S. with the Woodrow Wilson article “The Study of Administration” and the development of theories of public administration in the U. S. and internationally. The history should include the key figures of public administration and the evolution of theory as it develops up to and including the 21st Century.
2. Bureaucratic theory – students must be familiar with the definition of bureaucracy both in terms of the organizational form and the segment of the government at the federal, state, and local levels. This familiarity should include a clear understanding of the article by Max Weber, “Bureaucracy” and the analysis and discussion of this landmark piece. The student must be familiar with the impact of the bureaucratic ethos in public administration. The student must also be familiar with alternative models to bureaucracy.
3. Values in public administration – students must be familiar with the role played by competing values in public administration. The primary values with which the student must be familiar include efficiency, effectiveness and equity. The student must be familiar with the tension that exists between these values and must be able to describe how these values are exhibited in administrative behavior.
4. Decision theory – students must be familiar with decision theory in terms of how decisions are made in organizational settings. The student must be able to describe various models of decision making including but not limited to: rational, incremental, and symbolic-interpretive. The student should be able to identify the dynamics of decision making in a case setting.
5. The role of the public administrator – students must be able to demonstrate an understanding of the various roles of the public administrator in a democracy. This is demonstrated by an advanced personal statement of the proper role of government based upon political theory and philosophy.
PA 6013 – Statistics in Public Administration
This course is intended to ensure that all MPA graduates are familiar with statistics such that they are sufficiently conversant to understand and evaluate statistical reports. The intention is not that they become statisticians per se but that they are comfortable in reviewing statistical reports. The following items should be addressed in the course:
1. Sampling – Students should be familiar with various sampling methods. They should understand the strengths and weaknesses of the methods and appropriate applications. The MPA graduate should be able to determine when a sampling method is valid and recognize errors in sampling.
2. Significance – Students should understand the importance of significance in statistical analysis. This includes the proper appreciation for establishing significance and an accurate definition. Students should also recognize what significance does not mean.
3. Accuracy – Students should be competent in understanding the accuracy of statistical data. This includes an understanding of standard deviation, variance, and error rates. The student must demonstrate a comprehension of the proper interpretation of statistical data in terms of probability.
4. Testing – Students must be familiar with various forms of data tests for comparative and analytical purposes. This includes Chi-square, T-tests, anova, and groupings.
5. Software – Students must be familiar with the use of statistical software, including the setting up of data sets and conducting analysis. The preferred software for this purpose is SPSS.
6. Ethics – Students must be able to discuss the ethical dimensions of statistical studies and their application.
PA 6023 – Ethics
This course should present the principles of ethics as they are associated with public administration. The outcome of the course should be the ability of the student to describe and apply different ethical models to situations relative to public administration. The student should have learned the following:
1. Models of ethics – Students must be familiar with the various approaches to ethics including: deontological, consequential, intuitive, teleological, and virtue ethics. The MPA graduate should be able to describe each of these approaches and apply them to a decision circumstance.
2. Personal philosophy – The MPA graduate should have a clearly developed personal ethical philosophy. This means that the graduate understands their own preference for ethical decisions. To demonstrate this, the graduate should be able to describe how their model of ethical decision making differs from those not chosen.
3. Case studies – The MPA graduate should be able to develop a case study analysis of ethical situations. This means that they should be able to craft, without prompts, an analysis that includes a discussion of the key ethical issues, the values that are relevant, and how the different ethical approaches would likely decide the case.
4. Ethics in Public Administration – MPA graduates should be familiar with the ethical norms of public administration, which includes the Code of Ethics published by the American Society for Public Administration.
PA 6033 – Rural Politics
This course must familiarize the MPA student with the unique features of rural politics as they impact the public administrator. The student should be familiar with how being an administrator in a rural environment both differs from and is similar to being an administrator in urban settings. The course must include the following outcomes:
1. Government structure -- The MPA graduate must be familiar with the most common forms of rural governments including the various municipal forms, county governments and regional administration of state and federal offices. Students should be able to draw on multiple ways of knowing to gain an appreciation for the diverse people, landscapes, and cultural traditions that constitute rural America.
2. Social Construct -- Students must become familiar with various ways of defining, identifying, and understanding rural America, and explore the implications of alternative approaches.
3. Critical Issues -- The MPA student must develop a deeper understanding of selected issues currently confronting rural America. These include economic shifts, demographic changes, educational challenges, and cultural changes.
4. Sense of Community -- The student should be able to describe what it means to live in a “rural community” and examine the issues facing residents of these communities. The student should also be able to describe how these issues affect the public administrator and how policies may be designed to improve the lives of rural citizens.
5. Agri-culture -- The MPA student must be able to evaluate the economic, social, environmental, and governmental impacts of changes in the structure of agriculture on rural areas.
6. Ethics – The student will be conversant in the ethical challenges of rural communities, especially as they relate to issues of privacy and boundaries.
PA 6043 – Legal Issues in Public Administration
This course should prepare the MPA student to function in the legal environment of public administration. The primary interest is for the MPA student to be able to identify the resources for acquiring information related to legal matters in administration. This course involves the study of the organization, function and procedures of state and federal administrative agencies, including the investigatory, rule-making, adjudicatory, and enforcement functions of such agencies, and judicial review of administrative action.
1. Framework -- The student should be able to identify the Constitutional framework of administrative law and how administrative adjudication and rule-making by executive branch agencies fit into the Constitutional framework.
2. Principles -- The student will be able to identify how specific constitutional principles of structural, substantive, and procedural due process constrain quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial administrative action.
3. Administrative procedures -- The student should be able to describe the process of administrative adjudication. This will include an understanding of the basic elements of administrative hearings, their core procedural requirements, and the underlying reasons for their existence.
4. Administrative rule-making -- The student will be familiar with the process of administrative rule-making as a part of the legal process. The student will also be familiar with the federal Administrative Procedure Act as well as the Arkansas equivalent.
5. Judicial review -- The student will be familiar with the process of judicial review of administrative actions, including the process for obtaining judicial review, the scope of judicial review of administrative actions and the deference to agency interpretations of the law.
6. Ethics – The student will have developed an understanding of the relationship between law and ethics. This will include an association of the different ethical models to clarify the difference between the two.
PA 6053 – Public and Non-Profit Budgeting
This course is intended to familiarize the MPA student with the public and non-profit budgeting process. Particular attention is paid to the politics of public budgeting and the implications of a variety of budgeting strategies.
1. Budgeting process -- The student will be familiar with the general public budgeting process at the national, state and local levels. This will include the constitutional and legal requirements as well as the established procedures.
2. History -- The student will be familiar with the history of public budgeting in the U. S. with particular attention to the reforms and their purposes.
3. Budgeting strategies -- The student will be familiar with particular budgeting strategies, including line-item budgeting, performance budgeting, Planning, Programming Budgeting System (PPBS), Zero-based Budgeting (ZBB), Management by Objective budgeting (MBO), Target-based budgeting, and budgeting as political management. The student should be able to describe the strengths and weaknesses of each of the strategies as well as the historical outcomes.
4. Accounting -- The student should be familiar with the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), especially as they demonstrate the difference between public and non-profit standards.
5. Public Finance -- The student should be familiar with the various public financing options including general obligation bonds, municipal bonds, and short term loans. In this, the student should be familiar with the procedures associated with the financing options and the strengths and weaknesses of each option.
6. Contract management -- The student should be familiar with the processes associated with contract management as it relates to contracting out services, purchases, acquisitions, and inter-agency arrangements.
7. Applied skills -- The student will demonstrate the ability to develop a budget with a team at a basic level. The budget presentation will include the technique used for developing the figures, the justification for the amounts, and the reasons for selecting the particular strategy applied.
8. Ethics – The student will recognize the ethical challenges of public budgeting. Of particular interest is the nature of accountability with the public’s resources, transparency, and fairness.
PA 6063 – Policy Analysis & Program Evaluation
This course should provide the student with a working knowledge of policy analysis as a part of the field of public administration such that the student will be fully aware of the practice in terms of how it plays a role in the life of the public administrator. It also should expose the student to the more specific practice of program evaluation. Outcomes should include the following:
1. Role of policy analysis -- The student will be able to describe the contribution of policy analysis to the policy process. This includes the influence of policy analysis as well as the impact of the analyst on the field in legal, political, and organization practice.
2. Policy intent -- The student will be able to identify the manner in which the intent of a given policy is determined. This includes the enabling legislation, the administrative rules, and the mission statement of the relevant agency(ies).
3. Problem identity -- The student should be able to identify the problem being addressed in a given policy. The definition of the problem will either be stated in terms of the excess/deficiency or the identified policy options.
4. Methodology -- The student will be able to identify the method of analysis chosen in addressing the evaluative question. This includes a clear statement of why the particular method was chosen as well as other possible methods that could have been used.
5. Policy Analysis process – The student will be able to describe the policy analysis process and the steps that are generally applied in the process.
6. Quantitative methods -- The student will be familiar with quantitative methods of analysis. Specifically, the student will be able to demonstrate an ability to choose a quantitative method, describe the steps, identify the unit(s) of analysis, and the relationship of the results to the desired policy outcome. The student will also be able to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the quantitative model chosen. During the course, the student should be exposed to specific quantitative models including cost-benefit analysis, decision trees, and survey methods.
7. Qualitative methods -- The student will be familiar with qualitative methods of analysis. In so doing, the student must be able to differentiate qualitative analysis from quantitative analysis and to describe the advantages and disadvantages of each. The student should be able to identify the desired outcomes from a qualitative analysis as it relates to the policy analysis question.
8. Program evaluation -- The student will be familiar with program evaluation in the public context. This includes identification of the actual desired outcomes of programs, methods or strategies for their measurement/observation, and the establishment of standards of success.
PA 6073 Research Methods
This course is intended to prepare the MPA student to undertake research using appropriate methods, recognizing the need for clear research strategies and the role played by research in the profession. The primary learning outcome is the ability to develop a research design. The field of public policy and administration is multidisciplinary. Thus, in public policy research we see a variety of approaches used and often times two or more approaches used in the same research project. The competencies gained through the course include: