PAF 410.2: Practicum in Public Policy – Community Benchmarks

Course # 34766

Spring2011 Syllabus

Tuesdays and Thursdays: 2-3:20 p.m., Eggers 018

Access to MaxPal available

Instructor Carol Dwyer, Director, Community Benchmarks Program (CBP)

102 Maxwell Hall  x3934 

Office Hours: TuesdaysWednesdays: 10:30-11:30 a.m., and byappointment.

TEACHING ASSSISTANT Alexis Rae Lian 

Office Hours: Appointments by request

Web Page:

SharePoint: class materials and shared team data

Use your net ID when opening from a remote site. Remember to add ad\ before your user name.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Use concrete measures to determine benchmarks and to formulate and evaluate policies.
    Achieve through examples and work on the research project.
  • Learn about the 3 C Skills, which is the preparation of high school students for Careers, College and Citizenship
    Achieve through readings and class presentations
  • Identify variables that demonstrate the performance of the public and private high schools in Onondaga County todetermine which schools are most successful in incorporating the 3 C Skills.
    Achieve through contact with the respective schools combined with information found on their websites.
  • Meet the challenges of teamwork and presentations
    Achieve by providing team support and opportunities to practice presentation skills.

Goals of the Major

This course supports the Policy Studies Major. The intent is to help students develop skills in some, but not necessarily all, of the following eight goals of the Policy Studies Major.

  1. Apply problem solving to societal problems
  2. Understand the implementation of public policy
  3. Gather information in a variety of ways
  4. Use computer programs to analyze quantitative data and/or develop reports
  5. Communicate effectively in oral and written venues
  6. Work efficiently on individual projects
  7. Perform effectively on team projects
  8. Gain knowledge of societal problems, causes, and policy in at least one specific area

COURSE PROJECT

Purpose

Students in this class will collect information for the 3 C Skills, analyzing the data and presenting the data in a report that will be presented at the end of the semester to education leaders and interested parties. The data will be presented by individual variables and by the creation of a high school profile page displaying all the aggregated variables and the mean along with any relevant descriptors.

Structure

Students will work in teams to obtain information and prepare the final report. It is very important that students document all preparation and activities involved with data collection to produce a well-written and detailed explanation of the methodology, including problems that occur.

The class will consist of briefing sessions on both methods and the need to emphasize careers, college and citizen, group work to develop good measures, research to gain information on the measures and group work to generate a final report that will be of sufficient professional quality to publish.

The research teams will be assigned different high schools in Onondaga County from which they will obtain data under the following categories:

  1. Options available for students who want to pursue a specific career field

2.Career Advising through specific classes and/or programs

3.Effective programs to hold students accountable

4.Students have a sustained and effective voice in school governance

5.Participation in and quality of extra-curricular activities

6.Graduation and/or course requirements plus electivesfor experienced-based activities

7.Physical facilities to allow for individual computer work and group projects

8.Explicit emphasis contained in school information and in course descriptions on skills.

In combination with the class instructor and teaching assistant, students will make strong efforts to identify a high school junior to assist in the collection of the data. The student will be paid for up to 10 hours of work by PAF as an intern. The research teams will be responsible for managing the student and assuring that they are making a good effort and providing quality information.

Grading

Peer Evaluations

Important to the work that takes place in this class is having the necessary skill level, accurate recording and presenting of data, willingness to work hard,active participation in team meetings and follow-through on all responsibilities. This means being on time, meeting deadlines and sharing in the workload. The only accurate assessment of your abilities and work ethiccomes from your teammates. Each student will complete a peer evaluation of their teammates. The collective assessment will be given equal weight in determination of the individual grade for the final report.

Participation

The expectation is that you will be fully involved in all aspects of the team project. Students should contribute to class discussions and be interactive during presentations. Participation includes attending all classes and team meetings and arriving on time to both. Students must come to class prepared to discuss all assignments.

Assignments

Pay attention to the date/time due as well as the format. Students will lose a letter grade for each day late, starting with work turned in on the deadline date, but after the time requested.A hard copy of each paper is due at the start of class on the date indicated.

Assignment / Type / Due / Points
1) / Using your own high school website and your personal knowledge, conduct a search that will enable you to create a set of variables that can be used to measure the 3 C Skills at your school. If you like, you may also contact a school administrator to identify variables that may not be easily found online. / Individual / 01/25/11 / 10
Phase 1
2) / Conduct research to identify, define and determine the source of appropriate variables for each of the 3 C Skills. / Team / 02/01/11 / 20
Phase 2
3) / Review the websites of the high schools you have been assigned and develop a detailed list of relevant information, including summaries of district publications and information provided by hs students. / Team / 02/15/11 / 20
4) / Create profile pages for the high schools you have been assigned containing the variables / Team / 03/01/10 / 10
Phase 3
5) / Create graphs/profile pages for each variable / Team / 03/22/10 / 10
6) / Final Report / Team / 04/12/10 / 20
7) / Final Paper / Individual / 05/03/11 / 10
Total / 100

Some of the work in this class requires an oral presentation. In most cases, this does not mean a formal speech. While you must be prepared, most presentations can be informal. You can use Power Point, Word or Excel. Be sure to use a font that is large enough for everyone to see. The primary purpose of the presentations is to enable students to learn from one another by providing an interactive forum for sharing ideas and to practice presentation skills.

The block format for writing is required. Spacing for all papers is single-spaced; one space between paragraphs and do not indent. Use one inch margins. The font is 12 point Times New Roman in writing and graph creation (font size may be smaller). Number and staple all pages and be sure that your name is on every paper. Use APA style for citations. and are good sources to use.

If you use Wikipedia, go to the original sources cited for information and appropriate citations. If there are no—or few sources listed—this is an indication that the information may not be valid. Do not use Wikipedia as an original source.

SPRING 2010TIMELINE

Week / Date / Class Activities / Assignments Due
1 / 01/18/11
Tuesday /
  • Indicators ~ Data ~ Benchmark
  • Continuous improvement
  • Moving from 315 to 410
  • Syllabus
  • Checking E-mail
  • MaxPal
  • Skills Assessment/Team Leader
  • SharePoint/Blackboard/Googledocs
  • Review of past projects
  • Readings
  • Overview of Project
  • 3 C Skills Advisory Committee

01/20/11
Thursday /
  • 3 C Skills: KC Ahlberg
  • Assignment 1

2 / 01/25/11
Tuesday /
  • 3 C Skills: Mariel Stein
  • Teams Assigned
  • Team Meetings
/ 1) 1st assignment due
01/27/11
Thursday /
  • Review first assignment
  • Assignment 2

3 / 02/01/11
Tuesday /
  • Writing requirements/Writing Guide
/ 2) Presentation of 2nd assignment
02/03/11
Thursday /
  • Progress Reports

4 / 02/08/11
Tuesday /
  • Lafayette Big Picture School

02/10/11
Thursday /
  • Jen McKay: New Vision
  • Progress Reports

5 / 02/15/11
Tuesday /
  • Discussion of school website findings
/ 3) Presentation of 3rd assignment
02/17/11
Thursday /
  • Marcellus High School
  • Progress Reports

6 / 02/22/11
Tuesday /
  • Jeff Craig: 21st Century Skills and school politics

02/24/11
Thursday /
  • Progress Reports

7 / 03/01/11
Tuesday /
  • Profiles
  • Team reassignment
/ 4) Presentation of 4th assignment
03/03/11
Thursday / Team Meetings
8 / 03/08/11
Tuesday / Team Meetings
03/10/11
Thursday /
  • Progress Reports

03/15/11
Tuesday / Spring Break
03/17/11
Thursday / Spring Break
9 / 03/22/11
Tuesday / Team Meetings
03/24/11
Thursday / Team Meeting
10 / 03/29/11
Tuesday / Team Meeting
03/31/11
Thursday /
  • Progress Reports

11 / 04/05/11
Tuesday / Team Meeting
04/07/11
Thursday /
  • Progress Reports
  • Selection of Presentation Team

12 / 04/12/11
Tuesday / Team Meeting / 5) Final report due
04/14/11
Thursday /
  • Report review

13 / 04/19/111
Tuesday / TBD
04/21/11
Thursday /
  • Presentation Practice

14 / 04/26/11
Tuesday /
  • Presentation Practice

04/27/11
Thursday / Report presentation
15 / 05/03/11 /
  • Course wrap-up
  • Peer evaluation
  • Course evaluation
/ 6)Final paper due

Progress Reports

These are due approximately every two weeks. They will include:

  1. Breakdown of the number of hours each team member spent on the project.
  2. Description of all activities
  3. Results
  4. Problems
  5. Plans for next two weeks

Cheating/Plagiarism

Academic honesty is expected of all students. For individual assignments, students must hand in their own work. Similarities in wording between individual papers, including a consistent case of the use of the same sources, may result in a zero for both papers and a letter to the department chair and to the dean. Any evidence of failure to follow University guidelines for academic integrity will result in a zero for that assignment. Consult for more information. When it is determined to be necessary, authenticity of papers may be verified using the plagiarism prevention system, Turnitin. Students may also use Turnitin through Blackboard to confirm that information has been correctly cited. Students must not copy and paste Internet sources without proper attribution.

Disability Statement

Students who require academic accommodations due to a disability are encouraged to discuss their needs with the instructor at the beginning of the semester. To obtain authorized accommodations, students should be registered with the Office of Disability Services, 804 University Ave., Rm. 310; 443-4498; E-mail: . Students must provide the instructor with an updated accommodation letter. Services are not provided retroactively. They must be requested in advance.

Faith Observances

No classes are held during the fall and spring semesters in observance of Eid ul-Fitr, Yom Kippur and Good Friday. If there are other holy days that are part of your faith tradition, please advise the instructor in advance.

Syllabus is subject to Change

CBP Spring 2011 Syllabus Page 1 of 5