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Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
THE LAST WORD
Core workout Last summer, the Ford School wrapped up work on its first major MPP curriculum review since the mid-1990s. Here, Associate Dean Alan Deardorff reflects on the process and the outcomes. S&H:
What’s a big curriculum review process like for faculty?
AD: Of course it’s incredibly time-consuming. And it can be kind of painful in a way, because it involves questioning things we’ve been doing for years—opening ourselves up to critique and change. But we teach students to think critically about policies and programs! In this case we’re the subject of the policy in question, but we know it’s important to do. The process involved lots of research and committee work, lots of consensus-building.
The faculty led the review, but alumni played a key role as well. How?
S&H:
AD: Results from a number of faculty, student, and alumni surveys informed the review. Alumni are employers as well as former students, so we listened carefully. They noted specific courses in need of revision. And they recommended more emphasis on leadership and on applied opportunities. The expanded Applied Policy Seminar (APS) was supported by alumni input, so now many more students can do real consulting work for credit. Alumni feedback also helped marshal the decision to supplement the APS with modules on project management, presentation, and other professional skills. S&H:
Other changes?
AD: We added a second quantitative methods requirement to the core, which for most students will be fulfilled with “Quantitative Methods of Program Evaluation.” Also: a redesigned Integrated Policy Exercise that gives more students an active role; additional staffing for the Writing Center; collaboration between sections of the core politics and public management classes; and new international learning
Alan Deardorff
opportunities such as study trips to China and Toronto. There’s much more to say, but those are the highlights. S&H:
Why require “Program Evaluation”?
AD: We’ve taken pride in our reputation as one of the more quantitative policy schools. During the review, we realized that we had to some degree lost that distinction over time. We like to think that’s partly because the Ford School led other schools to add requirements…. But that was one of our hallmarks, and we wanted to keep it. We found that around two-thirds of the students were taking the course anyway. We saw just one downside: it’s an extra three credits in the core, leaving students with three fewer for electives.
We had lots of concern and discussion about whether this change would deter top students with non-quantitative career interests and alter the nature of our MPP cohorts. But the course, though certainly quantitative, is not actually as technical as the name might suggest. It involves STATA and regression analysis, but much less so than “Econometrics.” It’s about causal inference more than anything. The ability to sort out causality versus correlation is incredibly important and terribly misunderstood out there in the policy world. Also, we like that the course is very hands on: students actually put their quant skills to use on real-world policy questions and issues. S&H:
Who teaches the course?
AD: Kevin Stange and Justin Thomas. And of course Sue Dynarski, who, as I know from the teaching evaluations, is not an easy teacher but sure is loved. ■
Put the skills of
Ford School student consulting teams
to work solving your Organization’s public policy Challenges. The students did an absolutely fantastic job with some extremely challenging subject matter. The group went the extra distance to identify areas of inquiry and future research that were beyond the scope of the original project proposal.” David Lehrer, Assistant Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues; Government Accountability Office
We are currently accepting project proposals for our Fall 2012 Applied Policy Seminar (APS). The APS enables our MPP students to serve as consultants to real-world policy organizations, developing key professional skills as they tackle significant policy challenges in the public, private, or non-profit sectors. More at www.fordschool.umich.edu/applied-policy-seminar or Tom Phillips, Associate Director of Graduate Career Services, 734-615-6454 or tdphill@umich.edu.