journal of public affairs education - NASPAA *The Global Standard ...

How Do We Know What They Know?Evaluating Student-Learning Outcomes in an MPA ProgramThe fall 2007 ordinal rankings reveal that students felt they possessed thestrongest skill sets in teamwork, oral and written communication, problemsolving,and ethics. The mean for each of these exceeded three, on a five-pointscale. Problematic skill areas for many students included budgeting,organization theory, policy analysis, personnel, and research methods. Therewas remarkable congruence between the responses of students in both classsections (Course A and Course B).The narrative responses from students supported the ordinal results.Students indicated that they had the least amount of practical experience inbudgeting, organization theory, and research methods. Their experience inthese core content areas also was cursory, and involved reading research,receiving budgetary documents, and being aware of the organizationalstructures in their agencies.The identification of problematic skill areas by students should help toshape curriculum modifications in the program. For instance, the low meanranking in research methods indicates that additional focus should be placedon developing these skills. As a result of this feedback, as well as morenarrative evaluations of research-methods training in the program, the facultyrecently revised prerequisites for the research methods course, so that theyinclude a statistics course. This essentially will create a two-course sequencefor some students who lack the prerequisite skills in statistical analysis. In theareas of personnel management and budgeting, the assessment results suggesta need to incorporate more practical exercises because so many students reporthaving little-to-no experience or skills related to budgeting and finance, andpersonnel management.IN-PROGRAM ASSESSMENTS AND CORE COURSE ASSESSMENTSCore and elective courses in the MPA program have been designed to providestudents with the opportunity to develop many of the skills necessary asindicated by the Initial Skills Self-Assessment. The basic core curriculumconsists of the following courses:PPA 500 Foundations of Public AdministrationPPA 555 Public Budgeting and FinancePPA 577 Human Resource ManagementPPA 660 Organization Behavior and TheoryPPA 670 Policy AnalysisPPA 696 Research MethodsEach core course requires completion of a Pre-Instructional and Post-Instructional Assignment. The Pre-Instructional Assignment must be completedwithin the first three weeks of the semester. A similar Post-InstructionalAssignment is required during the final three weeks of the semester. The two274 Journal of Public Affairs Education