Public Policy

Define the Problem and the Scope of the Problem. PROBLEM: What is the issue that warrants government attention? Who is involved in the problem (e.g., those affected by COVID 19; seasonal farmworkers, people with chronic health conditions, the general public, etc)? How are their lives impacted by the problem? This section presents a cohesive summary description of a condition that is undesirable and requires change. SCOPE OF PROBLEM: How large is the problem? Is it national, local, or statewide? Does it affect only youth, adults, women, businesses, or other specific groups or neighborhoods, for example? Provide quantitative data and documentation of the problem’s scale and intensity.
Students will find data through government documents, a review of the academic literature, and many other sites such as think tanks. These secondary data are sufficient. Students should not collect their own data for purposes of this project. Quantitative examples may include lives lost, cost to the taxpayer, number affected; cost of addressing the problem, etc. This section requires a significant amount of research from a variety of sources.
Public Policy: How is the problem being addressed and could the current policy be improved?
Prepare a brief literature review/overview of best/evidence-based communication practices that are shown to reduce the severity or ameliorate the public policy problem. Students should describe at least two practices in this section. This section should also have at least four citations.
Citations/References: Very Minimal expectation: 12-15 solid sources (less than 12 QUALITY sources is failing). Note that “solid or quality sources” might require a review of 2-4 times that number of sources; “solid” means deeper than newspapers or news magazines–e.g. specialized youth, health; poverty social science, etc, and policy journals, and academic and quasi-academic literature.