New Harbor Port Authority
Assignment: Evaluation Design
This course focuses on applied learning and your ability to take the information from the system and use it for a real problem, program, or policy. There is no one best way to design a research assignment. The emphasis is on finding the most appropriate way. For example, choosing exercise overeating unhealthy foods is almost always the best choice. Unfortunately, things are not that clear in the research. An evaluation design is not always the best in every circumstance. For example, suppose you evaluate the effectiveness of an entitlement program that provides cash to low-income families. In that case, you should not use an experimental design in which some families are randomly excluded from receiving these benefits. You cannot deny the benefits that someone is legally entitled to receive. While an experimental design is usually seen as a good design, it would not be appropriate in this instance.
For this assignment, you will develop a compelling research question and select an appropriate evaluation design for your program, problem, or policy. Then, use the organization you chose as the topic of your Discussion post for this week.
In your assignment, you will include the following:
• Briefly describe the organization that you will use for your assignment.
(New Harbor Port Authority)
• Briefly describe the program, problem, or policy within that organization that might benefit from evaluation.
(The mayor wants to cut the port authority’s budget because of the complaints of racial and ethnic profiling from the public by the port authority officers.)
• Develop a research question(s) that defines the purpose of the evaluation.
(Will the racial and ethnic profiling by the port authority officers contribute to the decrease in the funds for the New Harbor Ports?)
• Describe the evaluation design that is most appropriate for this program, problem, or policy, and justify your selection. Include a discussion of validity and reliability.
(Program evaluation: Research in the public sector / Relationship questions)
Extra information:
• Papers should be four pages in length, not including the cover and reference pages. Also, have a conclusion at the end of the paper.
• Use at least three scholarly sources from the library published within the past five years to support your paper.
• Plus these two sources:
Johnson, G. (2014). Research methods for public administrators (3rd.ed.). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
Laureate Education (Producer) (2013c): Virtual community. [Multimedia file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
• Be sure to follow 7th edition APA guidelines when citing your sources.
