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Write a Capstone Project Proposal about a significant and real-world administrative or policy implementation problem that you have chosen to investigate

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• Write a Capstone Project Proposal about a significant and real-world administrative or policy implementation problem that you have chosen to investigate. Your proposal should be about one to two pages, not including the timeline, and should include:
  • Your research question and thesis or purpose statement. Note: It is understood that your thesis statement or purpose statement will be refined and clarified as you research and write your final paper. The final version of the thesis or purpose statement will be in the introduction of your paper.
  • Discussion of why your problem or project is broad or significant enough to be the basis for the capstone project. This must include discussion of the financial, human resources, and information or communication management aspects of your problem that will need to be addressed or considered in generating recommendations. It should also include discussion of the strategic importance of the problem for the organization or for society, and why the problem is or should be of concern to organizational and/or political leaders.
  • An explanation of the public service and ethical aspects of your project. This must include an explanation of how your project could benefit a government or nonprofit organization(s) and improve the community, country, or world. Also, you should identify key ethical challenges, dilemmas, or tradeoffs that are likely be faced in addressing this problem.
• Capstone Paper Requirements This document provides you with an overview of the major substantive requirements for the MPA Capstone Project and guidance about how to select a project topic and professional advisor. The purpose is to spur you to begin defining your capstone project topic. Ideally, you should have your project topic relatively well-defined by the first day the Capstone course. Ten days before the course starts, you can begin contacting the instructor for assistance. Also, you can contact the MPA Lead Faculty or Program Chair anytime to discuss your capstone project. Choosing a Capstone Topic In the capstone course you will work independently to investigate a significant, real world administrative or policy implementation problem. You will then write a professional paper (or report) that demonstrates that you have thoroughly researched and analyzed the problem and make feasible recommendations for addressing it. One of the most difficult challenges of this process is to identify and clearly define the topic and purpose of your research, analysis, and paper. The topic needs to be broad and significant enough to represent a worthwhile problem, yet narrow enough that it is feasible to address in about two months. An appropriate project will be: 1. Broad and significant enough to warrant two months of analysis that meets the paper requirements, yet narrow enough that it is feasible to complete in two months 2. Interesting enough to keep you motivated and engaged for 12 weeks 3. Valuable to the client and/or contribute important professional knowledge Some additional questions to consider in choosing a capstone project topic: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? “What do you want to accomplish with your project? What are your goals? Do you want to demonstrate your competence in an area? Do you want to strengthen your grasp of a body of knowledge? Do you want to contribute to the work of your own organization? What is the public purpose of your proposed topic? What public goal or value will be served? Who might use the results of your work?” (University of Nebraska Omaha, 2005, www.mpa.unomaha.edu/mpacapstone.php) Choosing a focus for your paper In developing your proposal, you will want to refine your topic until you can state what you are going to accomplish in your paper in one or two sentences - called a thesis or purpose statement. Your thesis or purpose statement will help you to maintain focus as you research and let the reader to know why you wrote the paper and what it will address. Depending on the focus of your paper, either a thesis or purpose statement will be most appropriate for defining the focus of your paper: ? Thesis: A thesis statement makes an assertion about the topic and often includes the particular perspective or position of the author. For example, if the paper addresses a controversial issue, the thesis statement would make an assertion that indicates the author’s conclusion or perspective about that issue. For instance, Head Start practices should be revised to better engage parents of the participants. ? Purpose: A purpose statement provides the reader with the purpose of the paper and what to expect in it. For example, the purpose of the paper could be to make recommendations for how to address a significant organizational problem. The University of Wisconsin provides additional information for comparing the thesis and purpose statement - Thesis and Purpose Statements. Here are two examples of initial, broad topic ideas and how to refine them into a research question with a thesis or purpose statement: Administrative Problem Example: ? Proposed Organizational Setting: IMPACT Community Action in Columbus, Ohio www.impactca.org ? General Problem of Concern: The organization has stated that it would like an analysis that makes recommendations for how it can improve services to clients and better advance its mission to reduce poverty ? Proposed Research Question: After interviewing the Chief Operating Officer, I discovered that an important area of interest for improvement was the intake and referral process. The scope of the problem was narrowed to the question, “How can IMPACT Community Action improve its central intake process to make it more efficient and effective for serving clients.” ? Thesis or Purpose Statement: Analyze the operations of and make recommendations for how IMPACT Community Action can improve its central intake process to make it more efficient and effective for serving clients. Policy Implementation Example: ? Policy or Program of Interest: I am concerned about education policy and particularly early childhood education. ? General Problem of Concern: I would like to see us do a better job preparing low income children to be successful in school. ? Proposed Research Question and Organizational Setting: After reviewing current programs designed to help low income students, I determined that Head Start would be a good program to examine. I also contacted the Director for Head Start programs in my county to learn more about how the program operates and what their needs and concerns are. Based upon that I determined that a good question would be, “How can the county Head Start program improve parental involvement and enhance support for parents to maximize student parent participation in the program and the benefits students obtain from participating in the program. Also, are the insights arising from my analysis, generally applicable in other Head Start programs?” ? Thesis or Purpose Statement: Analyze the implementation of the county Head Start Program and make recommendations for enhancing parental involvement and support for parents to maximize student parent participation in the program and the benefits students obtain from participating in the program. Also, discuss the relevance of the recommendations for other head start programs. Choosing a Capstone Advisor You should also begin trying to find a professional advisor for the capstone project. Your advisor will serve as a professional mentor during this course and should provide guidance, assistance, and support for completing the project successfully. Ideally this person would be someone who is affiliated with the organization on which your research is focused and serve as a liaison for you with the organization. Alternatively, it could be any professional with extensive knowledge about your topic. To ensure that you and your advisor understand your obligations and responsibilities we ask that you and your advisor sign and Advisor-Agreement. You will be required to communicate regularly with your capstone advisor and maintain a Communication Log that provides a record of your major interactions with your advisor. Overview of Capstone Paper1 Your paper should be no more than 25 pages, not counting the title page, table of contents, reference page(s), and appendices (However, the Appendix section should not be used to circumvent maximum page requirements with material that should be in the paper). The major sections of the paper are: A. Introduction: Indicate the purpose of the paper and describe the significant, real world administrative problem or policy issues with administrative elements that you investigated. Include your thesis statement or purpose statement. Include an explanation of your proposal and your success in accomplishing it. If your paper is written in response to a specific issue for a specific organization, the introduction should include background information about the organization. If you used specific key terms, the introduction should include these terms and their meanings. B. Review of the Literature: You may choose to either write a narrative literature review or you may create an annotated bibliography: ? ? If you choose to write a narrative, it precedes the body of the paper. If you choose to write an annotated bibliography, you are to place it in the Appendix. C. Analysis: This should be the largest portion of your paper. It should present your analysis of data, facts, and evidence you have completed to analyze the administrative or policy implementation problem you presented in the Introduction. The body of the paper should include a discussion of your findings or results and key assumptions and generalizations you are making. D. Recommendations and Conclusions: In some ways, this section is the most important part of the paper as you are presenting your conclusions about and suggestions for addressing or remedying the administrative or policy implementation problem you have analyzed. Key Conclusions sum up the main points of your analysis and recommendations are your suggestions for future action by the organization and or policy. Your recommendations must be justified from a political and ethical perspective. E. Implementation Analysis: The Implementation Analysis section is to identify key issues and challenges of implementing your recommendations and also important impacts that implementing the recommendations could have on the organization. This is where you demonstrate that you understand the practical, management challenges and implications for an organization that chooses to carry out your recommendations. Make the case for why it is feasible, beneficial, reasonable, and realistic to implement your recommendations. Be honest about the challenges and impact. Your analysis should addresses budget, human resource, technology considerations, resources needed, and any other notable considerations. If appropriate, provide a general implementation timeline. 1 This is an overview rather than an exhaustive listing of the requirements. The assignment information in the course will provide a full explanation the capstone paper requirements.