The emphasis on practical skills and knowledge maintained by the MPA program means that all students graduate with a wide array of tools which may be useful in a professional setting. Assignments, whether they are policy briefs or budget proposals, often take the form of documents one would find and create in a professional setting.
The examples found below include a budget proposal, written as if I were a budget analyst within an organization presenting next year’s budget to the board of directors; a program evaluation report, in actuality produced and completed for a local non-profit organization; and a criteria/alternatives matrix, a decision-making tool which is often used in policy analysis. Developing the budget proposal required the ability to do trend analysis and projections in excel and create charts and graphs. The program evaluation encompassed a full-range of skills including developing a research design, writing surveys, analyzing survey response data in SPSS including running descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests, and collating the results into a coherent and professional report. Finally, the criteria/alternatives matrix required knowledge of proper methods for choosing criteria of evaluation, quantifying and analyzing the relative strengths of each policy alternative against each criteria of evaluation, and weighting criteria- skills which would be useful in the field of public policy/policy analysis.
All materials addressed to public or non-profit agencies utilizing publicly accessible organizational data are for school assignments only and are not associated with the organization nor meant as usable advice except where specified.