Public Policy Portfolio Worksheet
Directions: Use this worksheet to record your answers to the six activities that make up the Public Policy Portfolio: Agenda Setting, Committee Hearings, Policy Change, Feedback Loop, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and Media Bias. When you are finished, save this worksheet with your answers and submit it for a portfolio grade.
Public Policy Portfolio
Select a policy and study its development through Agenda Setting, Committee Hearings, Policy Change, the Feedback Loop, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and Media Bias. You can use one policy to answer all of the questions, to create a complete individual case study, or you can select a few different policies to learn about more topics.
Question 1: Agenda Setting
Select a policy topic that you find interesting. It could be the death penalty, distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the Voting Rights Act, the Patriot Act, or another topic you want to learn about. Search online to read newspaper articles about the policy. Read at least five articles from different newspapers.
What event occurred to place this policy on the agenda?
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2: Committee Hearings
Consider the same public policy you used in Question 1. Using newspaper articles or official government websites only, determine which committees in the House and the Senate had jurisdiction over this policy. Which party had the majority on that committee?
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3: Policy Change
Select a policy topic that you find interesting. It could be the death penalty, distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the Voting Rights Act, the Patriot Act, or another topic you want to learn about. Search online to read newspaper articles about the policy. Read at least five articles from different newspapers. Did your policy have a sunset provision? Did Congress reevaluate the policy and make amendments? How did it change?
Question 4: Feedback Loop
Consider the feedback loop shown in this lesson. Using newspaper articles and official government websites or reports, fill in the details for each of the five stages of the policy process.
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5: Cost-Benefit Analysis
Search online for a public policy and study its projected costs and projected benefits. How were the numbers developed? Place the numbers in a table, like the one shown in this lesson. Was the policy economically beneficial? Whether it was or not, do you agree that it was the right choice? If you think an economically losing policy was a good choice, what do you base that view on?
Question 6: Media Bias
Select a policy topic that you find interesting. It could be the death penalty, distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the Voting Rights Act, the Patriot Act, or another topic you want to learn about. Next, look online for infographics that show which media outlets trend left or right. Find at least two different infographics, in case one of them is incorrect. Go back to your topic and look at media coverage from both sides of the political spectrum. Do they differ? How? Why?
