Investigates a selected issue in public policy or leadership.

This course will provide an overview of research methods and data analysis in public policy, integrating basic statistical modeling. The class will promote a critical understanding of what good research is, how people sometimes lie with statistics, and how flawed research can be identified, and an appreciation of the relationship between researchers and the rest of society, and how researchers can most suitably deal with the existence of skeptics

The first part of a two-semester sequence in research methods and tools used to evaluate public policies. This course reviews basic mathematics and statistics used by policy analysts, and introduces regression methods for empirical implementation and testing of relations among variables. The purpose of this course is to develop skills that can be used throughout your profession and civic life.

"This course offers an exploration into the evolution of constitutional rights, liberties, and justice from 1953 to the present day, focusing on the tenures of Chief Justices Warren, Burger, Rehnquist, and Roberts. Emphasis is placed on landmark Supreme Court cases and the distinct personalities and leadership styles of the aforementioned Chief Justices. Students will examine the means by which the Constitution can be ""changed,"" such as through interpretation, convention, or societal shifts. By the end of the course, students should be able to critically engage with constitutional debates, understand the evolving nature of rights and liberties in the U.S., and appreciate the significance and power of the Supreme Court in shaping American society."

An overview of the fields of social psychology and behavioral science. We will explore behavioral research in basic social psychology, leadership and organizational behavior, and the ways in which social science methods and research are currently being used in public policy and to solve major societal problems. The ultimate goal is to teach students how to think like behavioral scientists.

Will center on exposing students to contemporary pipelines for data analysis through a series of steadily escalating use cases. The course will begin with simple local database construction such as SQLite and foundation knowledge in terms of computational environments. The content will lay the groundwork for more advanced Systems Domain courses in the major.

Covers the fundamentals of probability theory & stochastic processes. Become conversant in the tools of probability. Clearly describe & implement concepts related to random variables, properties of probability, distributions, expectations, moments, transformations, model fit, basic inference, sampling distributions, discrete & continuous time Markov chains, & Brownian motion. Illustrate most topics with both analytic & computational solutions.

Experiential course where students work directly w/U.S. Dept. of Defense to address real-world nat'l security challenges, gaining problem-solving & prof. skills for any field. Through research, stakeholder interviews, & engagements w/outside experts, student teams develop policy recs for project sponsors' orgs. Recent project sponsors: US Strategic Command, Space Security & Defense Program, & Nat'l Ground Intelligence Center.

Discussion-based course w/a developmental examination of child poverty (multi-layer effects of history, culture,&geographic location). Examine: school reform efforts ("turnaround" schools,charter schools); implications of No Child Left Behind &2015 Every Student Succeeds Act; barriers (social isolation,violence,oppression,etc.) that contribute to failure of previous reform initiatives; education policies&proposals aiming to address these issues.

This course uses basic models from microeconomics to understand how these decision makers will respond to policies and when voluntary actions in private markets may be expected to lead to suboptimal outcomes and hence the circumstances under which a collective decision to control or influence behavior might produce better outcomes than private choices.