Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons^™

The Current State Of Access To Basic Education For Syrian Refugee Children Living In The Za’Atari Camp, Theresa L. Frey

Capstone Collection

Using Rodman’s (2006) International Education Analytical Inquiry Matrix as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this study is to examine the current state of access to basic primary education for Syrian Refugee Children Living in the Za’atari camp. Within the scope of this study, access is examined in three parts, including:

(1) Who is accessing education within Za’atari and who is not?

(2) How are certain groups accessing education?

(3) What is the learning environment of Za’atari?

In addition to addressing existing issues of access to basic education in Za’atari, this study examines efforts made towards increasing access. By examining …

The Unmaking Of An Embargo: How Policy Entrepreneurs At The Individual, State, And National Levels Are Creating New Paths For Policy Change In Modern United States-Cuba Relations, Kyle C. Griffith

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the Cold War antagonisms of the twentieth century, the United States (US) championed greater global economic cooperation and an embrace of free market principles to encourage economic growth. Post World War II, passage of the Bretton Woods Agreement institutionalized this political agenda effectively establishing the rules of global commerce. The result has been increased economic participation and trade liberalization. One of the last remaining vestiges of Cold War hostility and impediments to trade is the US economic embargo of Cuba, in place since 1960. Increasingly seen as a policy failure, the US has taken steps in the past two …

Impacts Of Environmental Quality On The Demographics Of Three Nations, Emily Hummel

Honors Projects

This study will examine how the correlation between air and water quality and the population demographics of India, South Africa, and the United States. India is a country with a growing population, increasing income inequality, and gender roles that reflect its status as a developing nation. South Africa is much smaller in area and the population is beginning to level off, but South Africa’s income inequality is growing much faster than India’s and gender inequality is less of an issue in South Africa. The population of the United States is decreasing and gender roles are fairly equal, despite income inequality …

Development Of A Decision Support System For Post Mining Land Use On Abandoned Surface Coal Mines In Appalachia, Matthew Zimmerman

Sustainability and Social Justice

Decision support systems are diverse and have been used to solve multiple problems ranging from the complex to the simple. With the complexity of environmental decisions today, these systems provide a logic based approach to evaluating and choosing environmental solutions. Abandoned mining lands (AML) are an issue for the environment in the Appalachian region. Given this a decision support system was designed using previously created frameworks and indices from other systems created. The system is comprised of two main sections, selecting the ideal post-mining land-use (PMLU), and maximizing the potential of land to be reclaimed under budgetary constraints. This system …

Including Men And Boys In Programming Of Violence Against Women And Girls: A Case Study Of The Safe Schools Program In Ghana And Stepping Stones Program In Uganda, Nana A. Ampofo

Sustainability and Social Justice

Violence against women and girls and its potential solutions increasingly garner international attention in the media and find themselves at the center of development agency portfolios. Program interventions aimed at eradicating violence against women and girls must create solutions that examine the socio-cultural values and normative expectations that boys and girls, men, and women place on one another. Many scholars argue that changing social norms or beliefs is an inter-generational process, as they are entrenched in and reproduced through social institutions such as the family, schools and religion (Enloe, 2013). Over the past decade, scholars and practitioners have noted violence …

It’S About Time: Costs And Coverage Of Paid Family And Medical Leave In Massachusetts, Randy Albelda, Alan Clayton-Matthews

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

In the United States, some, but far from all, employers offer certain forms of wage replacement when workers take a leave for medical or family reasons. In 2015, only 12% of all workers had access to paid family leave from their employers, 38% had access to short-term disability leave, and 65% had paid sick leave. Extending paid family and medical leave to all employees through a statewide program would share the costs and expand access, level the employment playing field, and reduce inequality among workers. One often-cited obstacle to providing paid family and medical leave in the United States is …

Implementation Of The Public Distribution System: An Empirical Analysis Of The Right To Food In An Urban Slum, Dipika Jain, Brian Tronic

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Malnutrition is one of the biggest problems facing India today. Thus, the functioning of the Public Distribution System (PDS) - which provides subsidized food to hundreds of millions of people is critically important. However, while numerous studies have evaluated the performance of the PDS in rural areas, there is a notable lack of research in urban slums, a rapidly growing population. Through interviews with PDS beneficiaries and other stakeholders, the present study examines the PDS in one slum in Delhi and finds numerous problems, including low quality grain, corruption, and the lack of an effective complaint mechanism. Although several states …

Implementing A Good Catch Program In Nursing Homes, Leigh Raposo

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Rationale and processes for reporting near misses and evidence-based tools were collected by a literature search, seminal works by Sidney Dekker and James Reason, and websites for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Tools, information, and strategies found in this research were evaluated for implementation in Maine nursing homes. The tools provide a communication vehicle for nursing home staff to safely report to management near misses, or mistakes that do not harm residents. To emphasize a positive approach, the project replaces the term …

Implementing Data Analytics And Data Integration At The City Of San José: An Ex-Post Comprehensive Evaluation Of The Data Analytics Team (Dat), Steve Guagliardo

Master's Projects

No abstract provided.

Compensation Strategies In The Public Sector: Benchmarking The City Of San José’S Compensation Methodologies Against Bay Area Cities And Counties, Ashley Lancaster

Master's Projects

The intention of this research is to benchmark the City of San José against other Bay Area cities and counties in their methods for determining base salaries (which excludes fringe benefits) for selected comparative non-exempt classifications. Areas of focus within this research include compensation models for the public sector, an analysis of current compensation policies, as well as the examination of methods the City of San José uses when developing compensation for classifications in comparison to local Bay Area cities and counties that are defined as its market. The result of this research will lead to recommendations to help improve …

Exchange Patterns And Relations In Collaborative Governance., Charles Wharton Kaye-Essien

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collaborative governance has received considerable attention in recent years. From environmental resource management to public safety, collaborative governance continues to play a vital role in regional problem solving. In spite of this increasing popularity previous attempts to model the political, economic, and demographic determinants of collaboration have in most cases produced inconsistent results, thereby undermining the ability to generalize from such findings. Additionally, our understanding of the relational patterns that emanate from collaborative agreements remains fairly rudimentary. The main objective of this research is to address some of the gaps in the literature and improve our understanding of collaborative governance …

Keep Your Head Above Water: Management And Water Literacy In Italy, Rachel E. Huxhold

Black & Gold

According to the 2015 World Economic Forum, water is identified as the top economic concern moving forward (World Economic Forum, 2015). Through climate change, population growth, increased overall demand, and pollution, the availability of potable water is drastically changing—more severely in some areas than others at this point in time. In Italy, such factors have called attention to the importance of good water governance, as the country faces multiple water issues at once. In the north, climate change has contributed to rising sea levels and increased flooding, while the south faces water scarcity due to climate change and increased demand. …

Does Research On Evaluation Matter? Findings From A Survey Of American Evaluation Association Members And Prominent Evaluation Theorists And Scholars, Satoshi Ozeki

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

• Evaluation is a relatively new, practice-based field
• Evaluation scholars lead the field by presenting their theories
• Evaluation theories are not based on empirical evidence
• Empirical investigation is required to establish the field of evaluation
• There were calls for more research on evaluation (RoE)
• The number of studies on RoE has increased in the past decade
• It is unknown whether RoE is important in the evaluation community

Leadership And Corruption In Governance: A Case Study Of Liberia, Theresa Okpokwu

Capstone Collection

Writers like Mutasa (2009) and Ebegbulem (2012) argues that Africa is both the poorest continent in the world and one of the richest in terms of natural resources. Consistent with this observation the history of Liberia indicates that corrupt leadership deprives the general population of its fair access to Africa’s rich resources while exacerbating ineffective government bureaucracy and underdevelopment. The bureaucratized central government in turn entrenches corrupt practices which give rise to more serious underdevelopment as well as insurgencies and a possible state failure.

Given this background, this study examines how leadership and corruption in governance affects socioeconomic development. To …

Throwing (Sh)Aid: Optimizing Aid Conditionality For The Developing World, Timothy F. O'Shea

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

Aid conditionality has emerged as a dominant tool by donor countries in nation building efforts in the developing world. Unfortunately, this strategy has encountered obstacles in achieving substantive change. The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible modifications and augmentations to aid conditionality regimes that could more easily induce political development in recipient countries. To provide a background against which to plan changes, the paper documents important determinants of political change, including public opinion, donor self-interest, and unconscious biases. The paper also evaluates possible malleable policy factors, including adoption speed, proportionality, outcome-based provision, and donor co-ordination. While much of …

Eating In East Harlem: An Assessment Of Changing Foodscapes In Community District 11, 2000-2015, Cuny Urban Food Policy Institute At The Cuny School Of Public Health And Health Policy, Nicholas Freudenberg, Melissa Fuster, Diana Johnson, Marissa Sheldon, Michele Silver, Apoorva Srivastava, Janet Poppendieck, Ashley Rafalow, Nevin Cohen

Publications and Research

The report analyzes changes in five domains -- food retail, food insecurity and food benefits, institutional food, food and nutrition education, and diet-related health conditions -- in East Harlem from before the election of Michael Bloomberg through the first two years of the de Blasio Administration. Its goal is to assess the ways in which food environments in East Harlem have improved, stayed the same, or worsened in this 15-year period in order to inform setting food policy goals for the next 5, 10 or 15 years.

Although East Harlem is blessed with a multitude of organizations and individuals dedicated …

How Endogeneity Matters In Framing Legalization: A Case Study Of Urban Self Help Groups In Ethiopia, Bisrat Kabeta

Sustainability and Social Justice

The future of an estimated 20,000 Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Ethiopia is uncertain because they lack legal status and, therefore, are unable to access funds and service for their members. The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) does not recognize the SHGs as unique development groups, but only offers to register them as Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) or cooperative societies, which are solely economic entities that serve more narrow functions than SHGs do. There has not been any coherent explanation for why the SHGs need a formal status, but should not register as anything but SHGs. From May to August …

Sustainable Development Goals Worth Sharing, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

The international community has agreed upon another set of goals for the next 15 years. On the table are no less than 169 objectives and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The new aspirations are summarized and the merits and demerits of further elaboration and measurement including country-specific deadlines and targets are discussed. The hefty budget to achieve all 17 goals is estimated at more than $4 trillion US a year. North American policy-makers need to be aware of humankind’s shared aspirations as they consider the new and expensive SDGs. Foreign aid is one of the instruments of North American foreign …

Reclaiming Futures And Organizing Justice For Drug-Using Youth, Jeffrey A. Butts, Kathleen A. Tomberg, Jennifer Peirce, Douglas N. Evans, Angela Irvine

Publications and Research

Reclaiming Futures is an organizational change initiative that supports coordinated and individualized responses for justice-involved youth with problematic substance use issues. The Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice compared people's perceptions currently working in Reclaiming Futures communities with similar colleagues from nearly ten years ago. The study suggested that communities with the strongest engagement in Reclaiming Futures tended to have more positive perceptions of their youth justice and substance abuse treatment systems, including key facets of administration, collaboration, and overall system quality.

The Case For Age-Friendly Communities, Margaret Neal, Alan Kenneth Delatorre

Institute on Aging Publications

The report was funded by Grantmakers In Aging, an organization dedicated to promoting and strengthening grantmaking for an aging society. The movement toward age-friendly communities is growing, with the key impetus being population aging. Beyond what individuals themselves can do to age optimally, the movement to create communities that are age friendly focuses on how the economic, physical, and social environments can be improved to address not only the needs but also maximize the assets of an aging population, for the benefit of all.