MPA 630-001: Statistical Analysis

Statistical Analysis
MPA 630-001
Fall Semester 
M/W 9:30-10:45
TNRB W210
Professor Eva Witesman
TNRB 772
Office hours by appointment (or just knock!)
eva_witesman@byu.edu

Reading Materials

Required: Berman, Evan and Wang, Xiaohu. 2018. Essential Statistics for Public Managers and Policy Analysts, 4^rd edition. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Other readings will be assigned and posted on Canvas per the syllabus and course calendar.

Required software

R, RStudio, RCommander (see files for installation instructions)

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to provide students of public administration with statistical tools necessary to be better producers and consumers of various kinds of data and to enhance decision-making capabilities in a public management context. Students will learn, apply and critique statistical approaches to real-world situations through theoretical and practical application of statistical concepts.

The Specific quantitative tools and concepts introduced in this course include:

1. Elements of causal relationships
2. Descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency, dispersion, proportions, frequency)
3. Inferential statistics (confidence intervals)
4. Use of z-scores
5. Hypothesis testing
6. Testing difference of means and proportions
7. Regression analysis (including simple, multiple, logistic, and ordinal logistic analyses)
8. Basic data management
9. Use of statistical software

Community Partners

A significant component of this course is the completion of a statistics project on behalf of a community partner. Community partners and student teams will be assigned during the first month of class.  

Classroom Procedures

Review & questions:

Students are invited to bring questions from previous weeks’ material and/or the assigned readings for discussion during the first portion of class. Students are encouraged to make note of their questions as they are encountered from reading or application during the week prior to class. 

Lecture & discussion:
Students are invited to be actively engaged in the lecture and demonstrations that take place during the lecture and discussion portion of the class. This is when new material will be introduced, including some material not available in the textbook. Full attention is expected during lecture. The instructor will make every effort to make lecture notes available to students so that minimal note-taking is necessary.

Technology & practice problems:
Students are invited to work independently and/or collaboratively to practice material from lecture as directed by the instructor. This will help students to verify that they have the practical knowledge necessary for application to their own independent projects.Practice work is not due to the instructor. Answers will be provided for verification purposes, though students are also strongly encouraged to work together to find correct answers together before referring to any answer keys. Students who master the material before others are expected to actively engage as teachers during this time period to both solidify their own understanding of the concepts and to aid others in understanding. When students feel confident that they and their peers have mastered the material and are ready to apply it, they may move on to application.

Exams

There are three (3) midterm exams in this course and an optional final exam. The exam score for this course will be the *higher* of either the combined midterm exam scores *or* the final exam score. Midterms and the final exam are taken outside of regular class time. Due dates for these exams are noted on the course syllabus and calendar. Exams (midterms and final) must be taken in one session and without the aid of peers/colleagues/live help of any kind. Midterm exams will be made available one week prior to their due dates. Practice material is posted online under the files tab.

Draft Assignments
Draft assignments are essential to ensure proper progress, understanding of the material, and for early correction of problems with the project. Drafts will not be graded, but must be submitted on time. It is expected that some drafts will be incomplete. Late or missing drafts will result in a non-recoverable drop in the final grade of the group by one third (so if you earned an A in the course otherwise, the highest possible grade would be an A-).

Grades

Final grades are the result of normalized grading scales based on class performance and conform to Marriott School of Management GPA targets for graduate programs. Final projects will be graded based on a final project grading rubric.

Collaborative Study Guide: