To be successful, public administrators need to be able to analyze and evaluate policies and to understand analysis and evaluations done by others. This course is the first in a series designed to provide MPA students with the tools necessary to design analysis and evaluations, gather, analyze and interpret information, present results, and make recommendations. In this class, we focus on quantitative rather than qualitative tools. While we will work with data extensively, the emphasis of the class is to demonstrate how statistics can help public managers do their jobs better, rather than on statistical theory. The overall goal of the course is to make students educated consumers of statistical information.
Statistics is a language.
A secondary goal of this class to make you effective translators. That is, you need to be able to communicate information to the appropriate audience, be it the town manager, the city council, a public administration conference or the public. This will not be a typical lecture class. I will use examples of problems often in class and will encourage active participation by everyone. Questions are always welcome.