56:834:501
Foundations of Policy Analysis (3)
The logic of action, decision-making, and belief; epistemological issues underlying scientific and policy research; causality, probability, statistics, and public policy; the role of problem definition, description, theory, model-building, explanation, and prediction in policy research and decision-making. Reviews major substantive theories of public choice and public policymaking and critically examines them from a logical and theoretical perspective.
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56:834:503
Law and Public Policy (3)
The place of law in the formulation, articulation, and enforcement of public policy; legal sources, such as constitutions, statutes, cases, administrative rulings, and agency practices; federal, state, and local sources and materials examined for policy inconsistencies, contradictions, and overlap; the effectiveness of fees, taxes, licenses, labeling, injunctions, and other legal sanctions.
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56:834:505
Organizational Behavior (3)
Examines organizational behavior of individuals and groups/teams and the organizational context in which that behavior takes place. Organizational theories and behavioral theories and approaches are discussed, including seminal historical works and more current treatments.
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56:834:515
Introduction to Public Budgeting and Finance (3)
Combines readings with the development of a budget for a hypothetical city to demonstrate budget formats, the politics of budgeting, and methods of projecting expenditures and revenues. Administration and criteria for selecting taxes.
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56:834:522
Educational Supervision of Instruction (3)
This course is intended to provide a foundation upon which aspiring school
administrators can evaluate the effectiveness of teacher instruction at
all grade levels and support the growth and development of teachers. The course examines models of effective instruction, the
theoretical underpinnings of supervision, and best instructional practices that
would inform effective instruction.
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56:834:525
Public and Nonprofit Management (3)
This course examines contemporary management approaches, techniques, and skills for managing various kinds of public organizations. Decision-making, administrative leadership, planning, implementation, evaluation, and ethics are key topics.
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56:834:535
Research Methods (3)
Examines research and methodology as a practical skill for public administrators. Topics include research design, descriptive and differential statistics, regression, and qualitative research. Students will learn and use a computer statistical package.
Prerequisites: 56:834:501, 503, 505, 515, 525.
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56:834:536
Public Management Information Systems (3)
Management-oriented computer methods including personal productivity systems and office automation; database management; and the analysis, supervision, and coordination of the management information systems department within the larger organizational culture.
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56:834:541,542
Internship I,II (3,3)
Direct experience with public agencies; individual internships, under faculty supervision, in policymaking agencies.
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56:834:543
Educational Policy and Leadership Internship I (3)
For students in the educational leadership specialization. Students must log 150 hours, develop a portfolio, and prepare a professional development plan.
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56:834:544
Education Leadership Internship II (6)
For students in the education leadership specialization who are required to perform a 300-hour internship to qualify for principal certification. Students will intern with school principals and work under their supervision. Students will be expected to participate in all administrative functions including curriculum leadership, professional development, supervision of instruction, pupil personnel services, personnel management, policy development, scheduling, school finance and law, student supervision, and technical administrative skills. Students must log 300 hours, develop a portfolio, and prepare a professional development plan.
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56:834:545
Models for Planning and Policy in Education (3)
This course addresses the theoretical and practical aspects of policy embedded in school reform. Students will be exposed to the significant issues of policy, practice, and implementation, including the improvement of teaching and learning; teacher training; leadership, finance, equity, and excellence; community engagement; partnerships; parental involvement; and restructuring schools and school time. Through discussion and group projects, students will critically examine the implications of current federal, state, and local policies relevant to a number of aspects of education, including early care and education, school performance and standards-based accountability, school choice, and school finance.
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56:834:546
Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Education (3)
Given the many changes in public education and the "choice" movement in recent years, this course provides students with an overview of the different opportunities for new ventures in public education. Students will explore ideas for innovation in education and learn new competencies in critical areas such as fundraising, development, leadership, and best practices. Students will be exposed to important business practices, such as writing a business plan, structuring a capital development plan, and engaging in creative financing for large-scale projects. The course features guest speakers who have been successful in launching entrepreneurial ventures--in and out of schools. Emphasis will be placed on areas of supervision of teachers and innovation in instructional practice.
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56:834:547
Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement (3)
Highlights the key elements that have proven successful in the delivery of high-quality teaching and learning. Students will explore and discuss a variety of strategies for initiating and sustaining improvements in teaching and learning--including content-focused professional development, content and performance standards, market models, strategic planning, parental engagement, and accountability systems. The course will expose students to current research and practice related to school improvement and organizational culture-building, as well as to the key competencies necessary to sustain improvement in schools and school systems. Special focus on the areas of curriculum and instruction, specifically as they relate to curriculum development. Course requirements include observation and analysis of classroom practice, development of case studies based on actual practice, and a final project addressing schoolwide improvement.
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56:834:548
Developing Curriculum for Deep Learning (3)
Students analyze and apply principles for designing curricula that focus on developing deep, flexible, and creative understanding. This course aims to construct a useful bridge between theory and practice. Students apply their emerging understanding to a project addressing course learning.
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56:834:549
Curriculum Leadership (3)
This course focuses on a historical overview of the major curriculum approaches; introduces students to key theories about leadership of organizational change as they apply to schools; and introduces students to key principles in standards-driven reform.
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56:834:552
Health Care Management (3)
Introduces theory, history, and organization of the health care delivery system. Key ethical, legal, technological, financial, and organizational issues that confront health care organizations are addressed. Introduction to key managerial functions of health care administrators: planning and strategy making, organizing, quality and administrative control, financial management, and human resources management. Emphasis on external trends and forces affecting health care organizations.
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56:834:553
Financial Management of Public Programs (3)
Examines budgetary processes, municipal bonds, cash management, and intergovernmental fiscal relations as they apply to financial management of public programs. Topics include cost-benefit, cost-revenue, and cost-effectiveness analyses, as well as contemporary issues such as privatization and liability insurance.
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56:834:556
International Negotiations (3)
Examines both the substance and the process of international negotiations--principally negotiations between or among governments. In the initial phase of the course, students will study the analysis of negotiations. They will identify issues, interests, and positions of the parties; analyze the environment and structure of negotiations and the trade-offs among issues; the concepts of principled negotiations; and the use of power in bilateral and multilateral negotiations.
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56:834:557
Human Resource Management (3)
Examines the relationship between employers, employees, and their labor relations organizations in government and the nonprofit sector. Focuses on the roles of leadership and direction of employees and the impact of collective negotiations on critical issues of public policy and civil service organizations.
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56:834:558
Executive Leadership and Communication Skills (3)
Strengths and limitations of various leadership theories. Awareness of personal learning, leadership, influence, and communication styles. Develops leadership skills through interpersonal exercises and through course projects involving current managerial and political issues. Communication skills involving writing, speaking, meetings, media relations, and strategic planning emphasized.
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56:834:559
Ethics in the Public Sector (3)
Study of the federal, state, and local laws governing the conduct of public officials and of ethical standards beyond the boundaries of law. Relates professional standards of public administration to ethical problems in government.
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56:834:561
Ethical Issues in Health Care Delivery (3)
Exploration of ethical perspectives that can be applied to leading ethical issues in health, such as allocation of scarce and expensive medical resources, patient rights and organizational responsibilities, implications of health technology, and issues surrounding death.
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56:834:570
Labor-Management Relations in the Private and Public Sectors (3)
Analysis of the structure and development of labor-management relationships in the United States and abroad, focusing on both private industry and governmental organizations. Explores history and the surrounding law while focusing on the negotiation and administration of collective bargaining agreements, related micro- and macroeconomic problems, and issues that accompany the growth of the nonunion sector in both private and public sectors.
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56:834:600
Education Law and Finance (3)
Focuses on the legal and school finance issues concerning K-12 education and schools. Provides aspiring school leaders with the knowledge and skills that are necessary to adequately address legal and finance issues in schools.
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56:834:601
Writing for Public Policy and Administration (3)
The writing course will familiarize students with common public policy writing expectations. It will also expound upon the traditional academic writing experience through the public policy issue brief.
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56:834:602,611
Colloquium in Public Policy and Administration (3,3)
Intensive examination of a specific area of public policy concern or of specific trends in public policy analysis; individual research. Specific seminar topics include health administration, transportation, housing policy, productivity, energy policy, judicial management, international management, international financial management, administrative communication, environmental policy, community leadership, and comparative public policy.
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56:834:603
Theory and History of Community Development (3)
Overview designed to acquaint students with the history, theory, and practices of community development. Topics include economic development, education, housing, public policy, urban redevelopment, community organizing, capacity building, and community engagement.
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56:834:604
Alternative Development Strategies for Distressed Cities (3)
A critical examination of alternative community and economic development strategies for distressed cities. Special attention will be paid to the following: the conflict between older strategies that emerged from deindustrialization and more democratic forms of community development; the problem of scale; market-conforming "pragmatic" approaches to solving problems of poverty versus efforts aimed at a broader political transformation in values; and cooperation versus competition in structuring incentives.
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56:834:606
Poverty Alleviation Strategies (3)
Evaluation of
various strategies for poverty alleviation at the community level in
the United States and developing countries. Assesses the
fundamental causes of poverty and the tools the poor possess for
survival, as well as a number of income-generating strategies
ranging from encouraging entrepreneurship (microfinance, skills training) to
participation in the global economy through manufacturing work.
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56:834:607
Planning Markets and Community Development (3)
Examines the key theories and frameworks in the areas of strategic management and entrepreneurship, and the major theoretical trends in the areas where business and public affairs intersect.
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56:834:608
Geographic Information Systems in the Public Sector (3)
A introductory geographic information systems (GIS) course, with an emphasis on application; training primarily uses open-source GIS software. Students will be able to produce maps and conduct basic research using geographical data in any discipline that uses such data, e.g., public policy and administration, sociology, criminology, and public health/epidemiology.
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56:834:609
Politics of Community Development (3)
This course will help students integrate a critical perspective on the theoretical and empirical literature on community
development; as a field of practice, community development is critiqued from a power perspective. The course uses historical and contemporary case studies of community conflict and collective struggles for a "right to the city" to analyze the political drivers of local economic disinvestment and development.
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56:834:610
Regional Economic Development (3)
Weekly seminar designed to expose students to the academic literature on urban and regional economic development policy and politics in the United States. The goal of the class is to help students understand the complexity of economic development, including the many problems governments face in pursuing economic growth, the diversity of actors involved, variation in approaches to development and the theoretical underpinnings of those approaches, consequences for vulnerable populations, and the hope that well-planned economic development offers communities.
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56:834:612
Local Knowledge: City Policy (3)
Critically analyzes questions of local participation in the policy process through the use of case studies and primary sources representing the local perspective.
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56:834:613
Immigration and Community Development (3)
Investigates the unique needs of immigrant communities and
focuses on the community development efforts that have been developed to
address those needs in the United States. We will work from the understanding
that immigration politics and policy greatly influence both immigrants'
needs and the resources that are made available to meet those needs. As
such, we will treat politics and policy as an integral part of the
community development story and spend significant portions of the class
studying these topics.
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56:834:615
Housing Policy (3)
Explores housing policy in the United States. Provides an overview of the complexities of federal housing policy in the United States, with special attention to how it has been implemented in urban areas, to situate existing housing issues and problems in a historical context.
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56:834:616
International Economic Development (3)
This course will investigate what is meant by development. How is it attained? Who is responsible to make sure it happens? What should the international donor community do? What shouldn't it do? We will look at competing ideas about how to understand, measure, and address international poverty.
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56:834:621
Educational Leadership (3)
Guides students in formulating, researching, and writing a capstone research paper. Integrates the skills and concepts from the core
courses as students use quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze a
selected policy or administrative problem.
Students must have completed 21 M.P.A. credits. Prerequisites: 56:834:501, 515, 525, 535, 536, 600.
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56:834:650,651
Special Problems in Public Policy and Administration (3,3)
Available in lieu of internships and conducted by arrangement with a specific instructor.
Prerequisites: Completion of core courses and approval of M.P.A. graduate director.
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56:834:670
International Conflict and Conflict Resolution (3)
In this course, students analyze emerging trends and patterns in
global conflict, and consider the prospects for peace in an evolving
world order. Explores the causes and prevention of war, ethnic conflict, and terrorism, and issues of security, identity, and equity to better understand the critical dimensions of conflict.
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56:834:675
Research Workshop (3)
Guides students in formulating, researching, and writing a capstone research paper. Integrates the skills and concepts from the core courses as students use quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze a selected policy or administrative problem.
Students must have completed 21 M.P.A. credits. Prerequisites: 56:834:501, 503, 515, 525, 535, 557.
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56:834:676
International Placement and Capstone (9)
Guides, integrates, and assesses the lessons of the overseas field placement through a system of advising, discussions, and written reports, which require students to document and assess their international experiences. This web-based course enhances proficiency through the analysis of a specific project, program, or policy relevant to the international placement. It offers the opportunity to apply program management tools in real-life situations.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
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56:834:800
Matriculation Continued (0)
Continuous registration may be accomplished by enrolling for at least 3 and preferably 6 credits in standard course offerings, including research courses, or by enrolling in this course for 0 credits. Students actively engaged in study toward their degree who are using university facilities and faculty time are expected to enroll for the appropriate credits.
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