SOWK 665 - Policy Analysis and Advocacy (3)

This advanced graduate policy analysis and advocacy course prepare students to be competent professionals who can utilize advanced policy analytic tools such as cost-benefit analysis (CBA), cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), archival analysis, program evaluation methods, theoretical frameworks, macroeconomics tools, and data analytics for policy formulation, analysis, evaluation and advocacy. This course builds on previous introductory graduate-level courses that provided a historic and panoramic view of social welfare and public (health) policy issues. The course also introduces students to the ethics of policy making, policy analysis software (e.g., Policy Maker 4 TM ), advocacy software/applications (such as Muster), types of policy decisions (technical, value and mixed), paradigm or typologies of public policy, and basic vs. researched analysis. Other skillsets to be developed include policy analysis principles, perspectives in public policy analysis (rationalist, technician, incrementalist, and reformist), and the policy analysis process to address an array of social or public health problems in a matrix of policy settings.