PUBL 610 -03 Special Topic:  Education Policy Analysis

To be offered spring 2018 or fall 2018

Instructor: Jane Arnold Lincove, Assoc. Prof. School of Public Policy

Course Description:

In the US and throughout the world, governments play a central role in education as a regulator, provider, and funder. This course focuses on applying policy analytic frameworks to questions of the role of government in education and the efficiency equity, and justice of education policies. Students will learn economic, sociological. ethical and political frameworks for policy analysis an apply these frameworks to current education policy debates. The course is appropriate for masters students with an interest in education and/or applied policy analysis and doctoral students planning dissertation work in the education policy field.

Pre-requisites:  The completion of Econ 600 or PUBL 604 is strongly recommended.

 Course requirements and grading:

Assignments including problems sets, policy memos, participation in a class simulation project, and a final paper. For the class project, students will research, discuss, and make recommendations to remedy a policy problem in education.

Credit/no credit grading is not permitted for this course.  Anyone registered credit/no credit will receive no credit.

For further details contact the instructor for the course: Jane Arnold Lincove

jlincove@umbc.edu

James P. Howard, II, PhD 2014, has announced that his new book, Computational Methods for Numerical Analysis with R, was published by Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, June 2017.

It's an introduction to solving mathematical programs with computers, specifically using the R statistical language.

James is the lead data scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.

A recently received grant of approximately $620 thousand dollars from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) will fund innovative work examining the role of law enforcement in schools by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from UMBC and the University of Louisville. The study examines the role of sworn law enforcement, also known as school resource officers (SROs), in two school districts in the South with a particular focus on their role in the elementary school setting. The work is funded as part of the NIJ’s Comprehensive School Safety Initiative.

“Law enforcement have become an increasingly common presence in school settings, particularly after high profile events like the tragedy at Sandy Hook”, notes principal investigator Chris Curran. “Our work seeks to understand the role of these officers in promoting safety, managing student behavior, and facilitating relationships with students. The support of the National Institute of Justice allows for an unprecedented look at the role and impacts of SROs in previously understudied settings.”

In addition to the principal investigator, Chris Curran, the project is also led by co-principal investigator Benjamin W. Fisher at the University of Louisville and project coordinator Samantha Viano of Vanderbilt University.  The study will be ongoing for a two year period and will involve extensive data collection through interviews, focus groups, large-scale surveys, and examination of administrative data.  The findings of the study will be useful for informing partnerships between school districts and law enforcement agencies as well as policy related to the use of school resource officers.To date there has been little research on the reasons why law enforcement personnel become involved with schools, what they do in schools, and the impacts they may have on schools. This research project will investigate school resource officers (SROs) within elementary schools within an affluent, high performing school district. This projected is guided by four research questions: 1) why and through what process were SROs implemented? 2) What roles and activities do SROs engage in within schools? 3) What impacts do SROs have on schools and students? And 4) how do the roles and impacts of SROs differ across school contexts? Data will come from interviews with the districts’ SROs, and a sample of teachers, school leaders, students and parents. Researchers will conduct full day observations of each of the SROs and have the SROs complete time logs that document their activities over a two week time period. Additionally, researchers will analyze official policy documents such as the memorandum of understanding between the law enforcement agency and the school district. Qualitative analyses will be conducted on all data collected, and results will be disseminated in the form of academic journals, conference presentations, interactive websites, and policy briefs.

We are pleased to announce that the 2016 Public Policy Alumni Fellow is Gregory Fitzgerald. A part-time MPP student in the education policy track, Greg is the Chief of Staff and Title IX Coordinator at Notre Dame of Maryland University. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, he worked at the Maryland Higher Education Commission and the Maryland General Assembly.

Greg is a Maryland native and graduate of University of Maryland, College Park, where he received a BA in Political Science and Government. When deciding where to pursue the MPP degree, Greg said: “the School of Public Policy’s outstanding reputation and faculty made it an easy decision.” He chose education policy because: “a quality education can be the single most important influence on an individual’s future. Providing supportive policies can really make all the difference. The MPP will allow me to continue to advance in the field and make a meaningful difference on behalf of students.”

The Public Policy Alumni Fellowship is supported by contributions from Public Policy alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the School.

The School of Public Policy is pleased to welcome two new members of our faculty.

Pamela R. Bennett is an associate professor in the Education Policy track. She investigates racial, ethnic, and nativity differences in post-secondary educational outcomes, the consequences of higher education policy on college outcomes, and the consequences of racial residential segregation. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the American Sociological Association, and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. Prior to joining the School of Public Policy, Dr. Bennett was an associate professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She spent 2012-2013 as a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, where she worked on an upcoming book about parenting and schooling in diverse families. This fall, she is teaching PUBL 610, Special Topics—Issues in Higher Education Policy.

Dr. Bennett received a B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan (pbennett@umbc.edu).

Jane Arnold Lincove joins the faculty in the UMBC School of Public Policy as an associate professor in the Education Policy track. Her research focuses on the implementation and effects of market-based policy in public education, including teacher compensation, and the equity effects on low-income families, minorities, and girls. She has received funding for her research from the Spencer Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Texas Education Agency. Prior to joining the School of Public Policy, Dr. Lincove was a research assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Tulane University, and associate director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans. Dr. Lincove is teaching PUBL 604, Statistical Analysis, in fall 2016. 

Dr. Lincove received a B.S. from Northwestern University, a Master of Public Policy from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Southern California (jlincove@umbc.edu).

New research published by Public Policy assistant professor F. Chris Curran examines the impact of state zero tolerance laws on suspension rates, racial gaps in discipline, and student behavior. The article, “Estimating the Effect of State Zero Tolerance Laws on Exclusionary Discipline, Racial Discipline Gaps, and Student Behavior,” is available in the Online First section of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. His work demonstrates that the presence of a state mandatory expulsion law, one that mandates expulsion for offenses such as weapons or assault, is predictive of increased use of exclusionary discipline. Furthermore, the increase is greater for Black and Hispanic students than for White students. For instance, Curran finds the presence of such a state law predicts a three time larger increase in suspensions for Black students as compared to White students.

The research was featured in the "Hit and Run" blog on Reason.com, and was mentioned in Politico's Morning Education Report under the heading “And on a related note, new school discipline research.”

Samford University in Birmingham Alabama has named Keith Elder (Ph.D., '02) the dean of the School of Public Health. The school was established in 2013 as part of Samford’s College of Health Sciences.

Elder is currently professor and chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy in the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University. He previously served as faculty in the Department of Health Services Policy and Management in Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, and the Department of Health Services Administration in the School of Health Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research interests include health policy, health-care delivery and health-care processes. News release 

Samuel L. Brown (Ph.D., '97), has been appointed director of the Wichita State Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs. As director, Brown will oversee the Master of Public Administration degree and the department’s applied research and community service centers.

Brown is a professor at the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs. Prior to his academic career, he served in positions with the private sector, as well as in state and federal government. News release