OVERVIEW

The PPA Department is implementing a major change in the culminating experience requirement. Beginning in fall 2004 the Department will no longer require that graduate students complete the same type of thesis/project that has been called for in the past. Instead, students will be required to complete an analysis of a policy/administration problem in the course of a single semester, reconstituted PPA 500 course. The new master's project requirement is intended to (1) increase timely completion of the PPA program and (2) give students experience producing the kinds of reports commonly frequently called for in public sector careers.

GUIDELINES

• Students will now be required to address some public policy/administration or problem, with an eye toward developing a master's project of perhaps 30-50 pages.
  
  
• While past theses/projects have varied greatly, they most typically have consisted of a five chapter analysis of some question including an introduction, literature review, summary of methodology, review of data, and conclusions/recommendations. Under the new plan a completed PPA master's project will most typically include a summary of the problem, development of criteria for assessing solutions, consideration of possible alternatives, and conclusions/recommendations. The master's project also will generally consider a variety of perspectives on the issue, drawing on different disciplines incorporated within PPA (e.g., economics, political science, organizational behavior).
  
  
• Students will continue to draw on the variety of analytical tools that have been used in past theses, but these tools will be incorporated in the above framework and the discussion of such tools will be succinct. For example, in analyzing data a student might incorporate a regression analysis, analysis of cross-tabulated data, survey results, a comparative case study, and/or a cost-benefit assessment. Additionally, key course themes will continue to be applicable (for example, per PPA 205, it is impossible to develop meaningful conclusions from any type of data related to the causes of a social phenomenon absent significant variance in the dependent variable).
  
  
• Master's projects will continue to draw on academic literature as appropriate, but with less emphasis on showing "command of the field" and more emphasis on drawing on exactly what is useful for developing criteria, assessing alternatives, etc. In some cases the literature itself might be part of the data analysis (e.g., when the only evidence of effectiveness of alternatives comes from secondary literature about how such alternatives are working in other states).
  
  
• A wide variety of "problems" may be appropriate for consideration in the master's project, including many that have been the subject of more traditional theses in recent years. Drawing on examples form recent theses, a student might consider the following questions:
1. Is it possible to improve urban development by changing the definition of "urban blight?"
2. What is the best strategic plan for a police department in a small, diverse city?
3. Do vocational education programs need to be reformed, and if so, how?; and
4. What can be done to prevent an agency from being "captured" by the industries it aims to regulate?
   
   
• To assist people in completing their master's projects, PPA 500 will be run in the format of a regular class. Instead of meeting a few times a semester, the course will meet every week for three hours and attendance will be expected in all sessions. Clear expectations will be offered regarding products to be developed and submitted to the seminar leader every few weeks. For example, students will be required to submit a two to three page memo by about the third week of class outlining the problem statement they will be analyzing. Several weeks later students will submit a second memo outlining the analytical approach they will be taking, including possible alternatives to be considered, criteria for evaluating alternatives, and analytical tools or methods to be used.
  
  
• A large portion of PPA 500 class time will be devoted to working in groups or as a whole class to help students revise and improve their problem definitions and their analytical approaches. Readings for the course will be aimed at enhancing understanding of the structure, challenges, and value of the kind of report we want to see reflected in completed master's projects. To this end the course will drawing upon real world examples of policy and administrative reports. There will be a strong emphasis on visual presentation so as to develop skills in producing documents useful to decision makers.
  
  
• The strong expectation will be that students will complete their master's projects within a single semester and only enroll in PPA 500 once. Students will only need to take PPA 500 a second time if they fail to complete an acceptable master's project in one semester or within the break following the semester (i.e., the January interim following the fall semester or the first part of the summer following the spring semester).
  
  
• Students will have two readers for their master's projects, and will be expected to have identified the readers within the first two or three weeks of PPA 500 (if not prior to the seminar). The PPA 500 seminar leader may be one of the readers but this is not required.
  
  
• To make it possible to complete the master's project in a single semester, students will need to devote the bulk of their attention to this project and PPA 500. Accordingly, students will no longer be allowed to enroll in PPA 500 until their last semester of course work, and no longer be allowed to take more than one course (other than an internship course) in addition to PPA 500. (As is currently the case, it will also be necessary to have advanced to candidacy before enrolling in PPA 500.) The department chair will be authorized to modify these requirements in exceptional circumstances.


• Students must use APA style when writing the project/thesis.