Masters in Public Administration (MPA) 504 Quantitative Methods

Dr. Sandra M. Emerson

Office Bldg 94; Room 309
Telephone (909) 869-3879
E-mail: smemerson@csupomona.edu
Fax: 909 869-6995.

Office Hours: Thurs 3:00-5:00 and Sat. 9-11:00

Goal and Objectives:

The primary goal of this course is to take the fear and mystery out of quantitative analysis for students and practitioners. Students will be introduced to the logic of the social scientific method and the rationale for using systematic, measurable, and verifiable means for describing, explaining, and predicting consequences in public policy.

The discussion will center on how data is analyzed and how conclusions are drawn from the data. Students will focus on describing and graphing data to make analysis and findings understandable to themselves and members of the general public.

Quantitative data is used to explain cause-effect relationships between variables that may enable one to predict future events. The ability to understand relationships and predict probable outcomes aids in developing reasoned recommendations and suggestions for policy alternatives.

Texts and Related Materials

Meier, Kenneth, Jeffrey Brudney and John Bohte. 2006. Applied Statistics for Public and Non Profit Administration, 6th edition. Belmont, CA.: Thomson.

Pollock, Phillip. 2003 An SPSS Companion to Political Analysis . Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly. ( P-SPSS) ANSWERS will be distributed in Week 1.

American Evaluation Association 2004. " Guiding Principles for Evaluators

Levernier, William 2003. "An Analysis of Poverty in the American South", Contemporary Economic Policy 21 (3), 372-382.

Rice, Tom 2001. “Social Capital and Government Performance in Iowa Communities” Journal of Urban Affairs (23) 375-89

Valenty, Linda O. and Ronald D. Sylvia. 2004. " Thresholds for tolerance: the impact of racial and ethnic population composition on the vote for California propositions 187 and 209", Social Science Journal41, 433-446.

Wang, Xiaohu. 2001. "Assessing Public Participation in U.S. Cities". Public Performance and Management Review, 24:4, 322-336.

Writing Clearly - See web site for how to write in the public sector. For academic writing see the Political Science research tool web page.

SPSS
Software is available to you at the Computer Lab and on Saturday morning in 1-317.

Course Requirements

Students will be evaluated on the basis of two examinations and a final research project/ presentation .

• Mid-term 30 percent of the grade: Please bring assigned article for Part 1 and a 100 item Scranton for Part 2 of the examination. There are about 25 questions in Part 2.
  
  Part 2 is not open book. Students may bring one page (81/2 X 11 inches -both sides) of notes for Part 2 and may prepare for the test by running the data based on a page of instructions found in Week 5 below. The output from the instructions provided may be in hard copy.
  
• Final exam 30 percent of the grade. Please bring a blue book for part 1 of the examination copies of the assigned articles. You will need a 15 item Scantron for the computer part of the exam. You may bring a one page (81/2 X 11 inches -both sides) of notes for the computer section of the exam.
  
• Public Service Project (0 to -10) will require the joint effort of all MPA 504 students to develop a data set based on questionnaires designed in MPA 600 and implemented at the end of 2007. Students will be provided with 20-25 questionnaires and code book for entering the data into an EXCEL spreadsheet. The combined file will be used to exam the impact of an ethics training program. Students may elect to use this file of data in lieu of the Pollack files for their project. (See Project below).
  
  • LAWA REPORT (instrument development)
  • LAWA DATA FILE UPDATED 3/1/08
  • DRAFT LAWA REPORT OF MARCH 13th
  • LAWA PRESENTATION OF MARCH 13th

Project 40 percent of the grade. This includes an 8-10 page paper with citations and relevant appendices. Appendices need not be counted in 8-10 page written portion of paper which is due in week 10. See last pages of syllabus for details.

Presentation – the presentation is 10 of the 40 points for the paper. Prepare a brief 8-12 minute presentation of you hypothesis, and your analysis and conclusions. Also part of "presentation" is your feedback to another presenter.

• Topics for Winter 2008
• Examples of Course Projects : Sorensen ; Kennedy and SPSS output.

Grades :

**Plagiarism, the presenting of other's work as your own, is an automatic F in this course. There are no exceptions to this rule. See MPA Student Handbook for details. Students will be held to the professional standards of behavior as described in Appendix F of the handbook.

Student Participation and Course Protocol

Students are expected to read all materials prior to class and do all exercises in Pollack. Exam questions and project papers are taken directly from these readings and exercises. Students are to attend each class session, come with all relevant materials and participate as a professional with colleagues.

Paper to Demonstrate Student's Competence in Analyzing Quantitative Data

The objective of this paper is to provide the student with an opportunity to demonstrate a competency with manipulation and interpretation of data. Therefore each paper will be judged based on the following criteria:

• The student has developed a viable hypothesis from existing theory and has cited references. The hypothesis has been adequately stated.

• The student has tested the main hypothesis. Alternative variables have been taken into account and employed to enhance the analysis or dismissed as not statistically significant. Student has demonstrated an understanding of PRE tests and/or coefficients in the analysis of data .
  
• The student has utilized appropriate statistical tests and appropriate displays of data have been integrated into the paper and presentation.
  
• Appropriate conclusions been drawn from the data.
  
• Reference lists and works cited conform to academic standards.
  
• The student can present their analysis to others in a clear, well thought out and coherent manner.

1. Statement of the hypothesis. **

1. State what is in the popular literature or-- is the conventional wisdom --about the causes/factors influencing the dependent variable you are interested in analyzing.
   
2. This section provides a brief history of what is known, when it became an issue, who champions the issue and how the issue is generally viewed. This discussion must be cited using a standard academic citation system.
   
3. Statement of the hypothesis. Typically this is an IF—THEN statement.

2. Scholarly Literature

1. State author/s in the scholarly literature who share your view and identify what is the basis of their support
   
2. Identify author/s in the scholarly literature who don't share this view and identify what is the basis of their opposition.

3. Students will use data bases in Pollack, Dr. Korey's web page, or the shared data base files provided by Dr. Emerson. State which database was utilized, from was the source/s of the data and in what time frame the data was collected.

4. Analysis [This is the core of the assignment ]

1. There should be a section that describes the data, makes inferences from the data and if possible models the interaction between the independent, intervening and dependent variables. Each section should include the following:

• What is to be analyzed? [description, inferences, and models]

•  Describe what was anticipated and provide a picture that summarizes the data regarding what is actually observed. –Show SPSS output pages

•  Indicate the statistical test used – Show SPSS output.

•  Explain the test, why it is appropriate and what does it mean.

•  Repeat this 4-step review for each part of your analysis.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

• What can be concluded from this analysis? Should the null hypothesis be accepted or rejected, in full or in part?
  
• What might this mean to the discipline?
  
• What consequences might this have for policy and/or public administration?

List all references and cite these references using standard reference page list format.

PRESENTATION

• Provide a clear, thoughtful, and coherent presentation of your research question/s, analysis and conclusions.

Fuzzy Questions January 17, Fuzzy Questions January 24, Fuzzy Questions February 7th and March 1

STATE.SAV DATA BASE

THE PLEDGE